The 3 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Ever Made As a Founder | Dan Martell

In this video, I'm sharing my biggest mistakes while building my startups. Watch it now and learn these lessons so you can avoid the mistakes in your business. + Join me on FB: http://FB.com/DanMartell + Connect w/ me live: http://periscope.tv/danmartell + Tweet me: http://twitter.com/danmartell + Instagram awesomeness: http://instagram.com/danmartell Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here: http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter So here's the deal... Some entrepreneurs wear their battle scars proudly. I don’t. Not ashamed by any means. It’s just not a topic I’ve been racing to the studio to record. Until now. Because as a mentor, there’s a responsibility I carry to be transparent about my biggest f*uck ups in the hope that someone smart will heed my warnings and save themselves the months of frustration (or millions of dollars) that I lost because of my own strategic blindspots. Entrepreneurial alchemy is all about turning costly mistakes into profitable lessons. And today, I want to give you the raw material for the former, in hopes that you’ll ONLY have to experience the fun part (the sound of your digital cash register going off). From aggressively defending my vision to customers to sacrificing long-term stability for short-term growth, I’ve made some pretty epic mistakes… … and whether you want to laugh at my failures or learn from them (probably the better bet), I invite you to do so in his video. https://youtu.be/wdMLHikZ_J4 Here’s your takeaway: Despite making these 3 super costly mistakes, I DID RECOVER. Mistakes in of themselves are rarely deadly to your company. The only thing fatal is a flawed mindset that blocks you from recognizing the error and creating systems and processes in your day-to-day that prevent them from happening again. And while I’m sure these 3 costly errors have given you plenty to reflect upon... LET’S MAKE THIS POST EVEN RICHER What about you? Have you made some costly mistakes in your own journey as an entrepreneur? Whether big or small, I’d love it if you could share it with me in the comments below so that as a community of ambitious, growth-oriented entrepreneurs we can continue to learn, win and profit. To our costly f*uck ups (and the fortunes they help build), Dan P.S. Mistake #3 (4:05 of the video) may seem like the most obvious… yet it’s probably the most difficult to avoid. Don't forget to share this amazing entrepreneurial advice with your friends, so they can be inspired too: https://youtu.be/wdMLHikZ_J4 ===================== ABOUT DAN MARTELL ===================== “You can only keep what you give away.” That’s the mantra that’s shaped Dan Martell from a struggling 20-something business owner in the Canadian Maritimes (which is waaay out east) to a successful startup founder who’s raised more than $3 million in venture funding and exited not one... not two... but three tech businesses: Clarity.fm, Spheric and Flowtown. You can only keep what you give away. That philosophy has led Dan to invest in 33+ early stage startups such as Udemy, Intercom, Unbounce and Foodspotting. It’s also helped him shape the future of Hootsuite as an advisor to the social media tour de force. An activator, a tech geek, an adrenaline junkie and, yes, a romantic (ask his wife Renee), Dan has recently turned his attention to teaching startups a fundamental, little-discussed lesson that directly impacts their growth: how to scale. You’ll find not only incredible insights in every moment of every talk Dan gives - but also highly actionable takeaways that will propel your business forward. Because Dan gives freely of all that he knows. After all, you can only keep what you give away. Get free training videos, invites to private events, and cutting edge business strategies: http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

Comments

1. Hey Dan,
   
   You have to know that you are one of my actual Mentors that enjoys listening to your short pieces of advice videos.
   
   You are great. Keep on rockin' it
   
   Just another fintech enterpreneur.
   This time from Barcelona. Spain
2. Enjoying getting caught up on your vids, Dan. Must say they have come a long way on the production side since the earlier ones - makes consuming them much easier!
   
   Back on topic though, biggest mistake I always share is not thinking enough about the other person's agenda or motivations. That could mean customer, partner, employee, whoever, but not consciously considering someone's motivations can lead to bad outcomes.
   
   So obvious in hindsight!
3. Love this video Dan! Biggest mistake that i have made was not ensuring that we had the people and talent in place before we committed to an extensive expansion plan.
   
   In 2013, our sales were around $30 million, and we put in place an aggressive 5 year plan to get to $100 million by 2018 . Without taking into account that we would have to massively ramp up both the people that we needed to expand, and the infrastructure to suppport it.
   
   Even worse, is that when you sometimes commit to something like this, it is really difficult to pull back, and say you know what, i dont think that this is right for the business right now - It has taken me two years and tons of stress, and expensive fixes to realise that we are better off not growing for the sake of growing.
   
   The amount of money that we have put in store expansion and infrastructure development, could have been passed on to customers and employees!
4. Thanks for being super candid Dan, like you I'm a big fan of J.Max and one of the things he says that with success comes responsibility and I think you and him share that same philosophy. It is motivating that in the light of someone who has achieved some pretty remarkable things such as yourself, openly reveals a few of your kryptonite moments, it makes the doubtful startup-er feel that the silly mistakes we make are actually part of the journey and that they should be expected and embraced, not shunned!
5. Ok, now I know that I'm not alone, and somewhat feel a little better! LOL! This year has been a year of learning for me = made a lot of mistakes. I felt like our price was never low enough which resulted in having my staff work crazy hours and never having enough time to be able to assess well. Job was well done, but they had to do two projects even three at the same time to make up for me not charging enough. Projects keep rolling in... Nobody was complaining, until I realized that they didn't have to pay for the fact that I didn't value myself and therefore undervalued the cost of most projects of my company. Today, I stand tall, and respect myself and my awesome team!
6. Thanks Dan. Your Monday morning advice always helps me see / think about the bigger picture, much appreciated.