Lessons from "Facebook" #2

written by Mastin Kipp, Huffington Post 01/11
summarized & enhanced by Peter/CXO, Wiz4biz

5. Content & Community 1st, Revenue 2nd.
I was totally inspired by Mark’s decision to not go for ads in the beginning. One of the best lessons in the movie is, that if you have some-thing cool, don’t sell out too quickly. Yes, we are all entrepreneurs and we want to make a buck. Keep your product cool. Put out the best content, build a large community of trusted consumers & users. If you focus on that, the numbers will naturally grow. “When traffic grows, revenues will flow.”

6. Visualize success as your final result.
One of the great things about “The Social Network” is that from the beginning, you know that success is on the other end of Mark’s efforts. That gives a wonderful perspective for the viewer, because we know that no matter what struggles he went through, the end result was success. This is a great view to take on your life. No matter what struggles you have in your life, see it all working out and that success will be your end result. It might work on idea one or idea 10,000 (ie, Thomas Edison), but the important thing is to keep success in mind and know that is how your story will end – if you choose it to be.

7. When you have a great product, money finds you. When you’ve created a great product that gives great value and is of service to your consumers, they will tell their friends. If you keep delivering the same high level of value and also constantly improve the value you are giving, money will find you. Money will find you from your consumers as well as your investors. Investors want to invest in companies with momentum and a story. Because of the Internet and relatively low costs and barriers to enter into many businesses these days, investors want more than an idea. Consumers can’t buy an idea; they can only buy hard goods and services. Focus on making the product as amazing as possible and it will begin to sell itself. Let money chase you; don’t chase the money.

8. Not getting what you want can be a blessing. Sometimes we are meant for greater things. Many times, creativity is born in the anger of rejection. See the events of your life as playing out perfectly, and if you aren’t getting what you want, try to detach and see the bigger picture.

From now on, see not getting what you want as a gift from the universe, that leaves room for something much greater to enter. Don’t sit around and mope; get creative! Make something happen. Instead of thinking “poor me”, figure out how you can create what you want. Who knows, that one person rejecting you could be the start to your own multi-billion-dollar, world-revolution-izing venture.

(Continued on “Lessons from Facebook #3)