Kevin Systrom co-founded the fastest growing app in history with 800 million monthly users – yet entrepreneurs rarely take his entrepreneur advice.
Systrom laid out his advice on the Tim Ferriss Show and talked in-depth about Instagram’s founding. This advice is mainly for entrepreneurs but is also applicable to careers. Especially since there are countless benefits from learning to treat your career like a start-up!
Learn to treat your career like a start-up here with this in-depth post!
The skills in the above post expand upon the benefits of the below tips from the Instagram Co-Founder!
Entrepreneur Advice from Kevin Systrom
1. Make a Company to Solve a Problem
At the end of the day, whether it is a physical product like a garlic peeler or a service like CEO coaching, the business has to solve a problem. There has to be a clear value proposition to the customer.
A value proposition is a simple statement that tells potential customers why they should do business with you rather than your competitors, while also making the benefits of your products or services crystal clear from the very beginning.
For example, Tortuga Backpacks, “bring everything you need without checking a bag.” For their audience of backpackers, the value they offer is clear and right up front. Tortuga backpacks will let you travel comfortably without ever needed to waste time checking bags. If the company isn’t solving, a real tangible problem, then there isn’t a company.
Check out some more inspiration here from Wordstream!
For your Career: What is your value proposition statement? Why should your company promote and train you over others? Think about the problems you are currently solving at work, and can you tackle more ambitious ones?
2. You Need an Incredible Team. You Can’t Do it Alone
Many novice entrepreneurs keep their ideas close to their chests and look to go in alone. However, most successful companies have been built with at least two co-founders: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (Instagram), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple), Tobias Lutke, and Daniel Weinand (Shopify). It takes finding incredible teammates to build companies that solve the tough challenges.
For your Career: how can you build a team around you to tackle the toughest challenges your company is facing?
3. Love the Outcome for Which you are Shooting. Most Days will Not be Good, so Focus on the Outcomes that Excite You.
Come entrpreneur advice trys to focus on the day to day realities of being a founder. Most days are fraught with self-doubt, anxiety, and fear that the company will collapse. It isn’t until the very end, when the company “makes it” that people from the outside will look and say it was easy and glamourous to get there.
Since you can’t count on any single day to be amazing, focus on the goal that you are working towards. See the problem you are solving and how solving it will make thousands of people’s lives better.
That is why learning to use the compound effect to work towards your goals daily can help you so much!
For your Career: What challenge excites you? What role do you want? Keep these in mind as you tackle each day.
The above three pieces of entrepreneur advice where mainly focused on founding a company. In addition to those, Kevin Systrom also recommends following the below general career advice.
Additional Career Advice
1. Take and Seek Feedback
Feedback can be hard to stomach, but when given earnestly, feedback can help point out blind-spots and et you work on fixing them. Instead of being caught off-guard or hurt by feedback, let the information work to your advantage so you can round-out your skills. Instead of being passed over for a great opportunity because you lacked the skill, some candid feedback can help you address your weaknesses ahead of time so the opportunity goes to you.
2. Hire People Better than You
When in a manager position, or when offered the opportunity to hire people, hire good people who are better than you. Hiring people better than you can seem scary, but then you have access to someone better than you at a particular skill for 40+ hours a week.
You can see what they do, learn from them, and vice-versa as they learn from you in your skill areas. Working together with talented people makes a much stronger team. Hiring up builds the individuals to be better and makes the team more than the sum of its parts.
3. Know your Personality
Take personality tests and reflect on yourself. When are you at your best? What areas are your strengths? Weaknesses? Learn to see what makes you tick and use this knowledge to your advantage.
Also knowing your personality lets you learn how to find your dream job, and pursue the goals you want to pursue.
Main Take-Aways
- The main pieces of entrepreneur advice that are often ignored relate to that your business needs to solve a problem, you need a great team, and that most days won’t be very good.
- With those insights in mind, you can better tackle your start-up dreams or pursue the career you want!
Action Item
What is the problem you are trying to solve, and why does it excite you? If you are currently not working on something that excites you, what is one thing you can do today to work on a more promising problem? Either at your day job or in your time away from work.
