Steps to Building a Billion-Dollar Startup

Billionaires aren’t a monolithic group. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are wildly dissimilar. Yet, a few traits bring them together that helped build their billion-dollar enterprises.

Embrace change

Markets evolve, and consumer behaviours change. Often entrepreneurs are scared to transform their ideas. Much of the products and services we use today will be discarded in the future, and that’s okay. It’s about embracing the change and changing along with it. Don’t wait for the weather to be just right, it rarely is.

Understand your customer; the best customers become your salespeople

Your best customers help spread the word for you. Would your customers miss your product if it were gone? It’s the micro-market you need to win first. A thousand true fans are enough for an artist to be able to keep showing up, and to help spread the word.

Serve a real problem, impact a better change

An effective business relies on empathy and service. Serve a real problem — amidst the constant yelling and hustling, be of genuine service. Find out your customer’s real problems before you offer them solutions. Identify the feeling you want to deliver, then craft your product or service around it. People don’t buy your products because they need them, they generally don’t. They buy it because they want it. And they want it because of how it makes them feel.

Play the bigger game

Always be testing, and always be wrong. Call it a test if you want to, but it’s life. The people you would really want to serve are the ones who are constantly curious and often dissatisfied. Resist average, keep creating, testing, engaging, and connecting. Keep finding out what’s possible. In other words, keep going wrong. You’ll get it right eventually. All great things take time.

Invest in yourself

Find new ways to constantly better yourself and learn new ways to enhance your service. You are your biggest asset, so invest in yourself. Find someone to work on you; a coach or a mentor, so you can be your better self, every day. Ultimately, patience is key. It takes only a handful of years of constantly showing up before you become an overnight success.