Learning lessons from four fellow founders.

Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing 4 very different entrepreneurs for the podcast series I’m recording with my friend Rich Martell; Nick Jenkins from Moonpig.com, Michael Acton Smith from Calm.com, Steve Bartlett from Social Chain and Simon Cook, the CEO of Draper Esprit, a VC with an entrepreneur’s attitude.

Amongst the many lessons we learned from listening to them, that soon you will too, these were their top tips.

Nick Jenkins: 

1. “You need to be decisive. Because what I learned whilst doing my MBA was there were many people far brighter than me who could do a bunch of presentations much better than I could, and yet they couldn’t pick one thing to go with and they never got anything properly off the ground - so being decisive is a key skill. 

2. The other thing to advise is simply to never do any work yourself you can pay someone a simple wage to do. You should always focus on the big picture key drivers”.

3. “work smart not hard”

Michael Acton Smith: 

1. “It doesn’t cost anything to be nice, so even if you do get rich and famous, just don’t be a dick”.

2. What my grandmother always said to me - “You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that ratio - listen to people. 

3. Hang out with people you like. It sounds obvious but it’s not. Many people are drains instead of radiators - they drag you down rather than help you glow. Actively choose who you spend your time with here.

4. Glass half full. Be positive - enjoy the journey, don’t just be in it for the outcome; the destination only comes if you enjoy the ride.

Simon Cook:

“We are entering a realm where a startup entrepreneur + risk capital can achieve - and using the example of SpaceX taking people into Space, says it all. So there’s never been a better time to be ambitious, be brave, find similarly minded investors - but there’s nothing to stop anyone achieving anything in today’s society”.

Steve Bartlett:

“The best piece of advice, or things I really remember for people starting out - is the importance of not believing your own bullshit. Listen to what the numbers are telling you, what people are saying, look at the data, and feel free to be delusional - just never believe your own crap.”

Wise words indeed from a remarkably successful and yet delightfully humble group of people. I hope it's useful for those of you in my network that love to learn.