Social Traffic | Social Media Marketing

A little on Start-ups:

A friend of mine here on Facebook is the founder of a new start up. To his credit, he and his partners have raised 35 million dollars for them to realize their vision. A 35 million dollar commitment will most probably be made available in multiple rounds when certain milestones are achieved. None the less, a 35 million dollar investment leaves a substantial amount of seed capital at risk, and although this money will land in the company account, the investors are backing my friend and his partners because they believe they will realize their vision. Being able to articulate your vision and story well is the most important skill every startup should have, followed closely by having a strong core team.

All new business opportunities require capital to get started. An idea without capital is just idea, and ideas are worth nothing without implementation. Yet, ideas and capital alone wont be enough either – a start-up corporation needs drive; its founder (or founding partners) must have the tenacity, passion and resolve to turn a vision into a successful business reality. The key ingredient (that some people often overlook) is an unshakable, irrefutable commitment to see the entire process through.

Raising capital is a vital component of a start-up’s success. No matter what the size of the vision, business start-ups usually need a surplus of capital to have any chance of building out from the idea to a cash-flow positive enterprise. Even for small start-ups, the founder(s) must invest enough human capital (time) into an idea before the story can be pitched to others. Their story must be unique, exciting, measured and realistic if it is to attract investors. Here, by investors I mean other individuals or entities willing to invest human capital (time), resources (advisors, office space, advertising and any other good or service), and cash into the idea.

It’s the founder’s job to convince one person at a time that their vision is worth investing into, and that it will return a good gain for anyone who invests into their story over time. With every new person they convince, the idea will slowly (one new believer at a time) transform into an organization committed to making the founder’s initial vision a reality. Slowly but surely, if the founder is adamant enough; investors, lawyers, accountants, contractors, employees and partners will be attracted to the story as it gathers momentum. The faster a story grows, the more people there are who want to become a part of it – the better a story is, the better quality of people it will attract.

I guess the point I am making here is that human beings are motivated by great stories, not money. I mean for my friend to have attracted 35 million dollars in funding, someone initially told a damned good story and this story ultimately lead to this money (probably over a much longer period than what people who hear of the result will ever know). Throughout the ages the human race has evolved through story telling. From generation to generation, friend to friend, mentor to mentor, we learn through story telling. How my grandparents lived is etched into my brain from childhood. Without having heard stories of my parents sitting around as a family listening to radio shows I would have no depth of understanding or appreciation of the technology I enjoy today.

Human beings want to be part of a great story line and let’s face it, which of us are not in the business of building our own life story. A business start-up’s founder is a storyteller. At some stage, if he is good at what he does, he will convince other people (who have the collective knowledge and expertise required for the vision’s success) to invest themselves into the same storyline. The objective is not to entice others to come and work for them. A founder’s role is to inspire individuals to invest themselves into a great storyline that represents opportunities that will enhance the course of their own life story, should they do so.

If a founder’s vision is big enough, their role in their own start-up will eventually become redundant. A founder’s involvement in any start-up should always be maintained and valued beyond the start-up phase, however there will come a point in the story where those telling the tale must belong to a board of directors who are independent and collectively, much wiser than one individual can ever be. These directors become trustees of a story started by the founder.

It’s the board’s job to appoint a team of executives who take responsibility for the execution of the storyline laid out by decisions they make. In no particular order, this network of people grows in experience, talent and community until the collective wisdom of the group earns itself the right mix of energy to attract the type of customers the story deserves.

After a start-up matures it’s the directors who are ultimately charged with the role of shaping the corporations ongoing storyline. With success comes exposure, with exposure comes larger audiences, and with larger audiences comes responsibility as more and more lives are affected by the corporation. The more lives directly or indirectly effected by a corporation, the higher calibre of wisdom required to make the decisions that preserve its integrity through its ongoing storyline.

Who is writing your life script?

Before committing to a business opportunity these days I ask myself three questions that will determine the outcome of my life storyline over the ensuing 3 years.

1. Who am I?
2. Who am I not?
3. Who do I want to be in 3 years from now?

If who I want to become within 3 years is someone who will represent a lot of value to the opportunity I am considering, I will commit the next three years to building my life story around this decision and I wont look back until I succeed.

Food for thought: Who do you want to be 3 years from now? How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone? Are you effectively building your own life story? Is starting your own business or committing to a role within another business an extension of your life story?

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

Visit my “event line blogs”

Social Traffic – The book

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.