Kung Fu Masters and Entrepreneurs

I'm a big fan of Kung Fu movies. Both the more realistic ones (Ip Man, Fearless) and those with supernatural powers like Storm Riders. (only the first!) Kung Fu Masters are basically the Asian version of superheroes. Like how we learned from Spiderman that with great power comes great responsibility, there's plenty of values and lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Kung Fu Masters.

1. Motivation and Drive - It takes a lot to get up every morning and go through the same process over and over again. At some point, you are going to get bored hitting a wooden dummy but Kung Fu Masters never give up. They know that the path to success takes a lot of commitment and focus.
2. Practice, practice, practice - Even after they master a technique, formed their own school and defeated the villain, Kung Fu Masters never stopped practicing. Practice is the only way to maintain your skill and focus. Life is a constant learning process and practicing is one way to learn.
3. Many paths up the mountain - Kung Fu Masters understand that there aren't just one way to reach the summit of awesomeness. There are multiple routes you can take. Similarly, the journey to success for an entrepreneur isn't predefined in anyway. Part of entrepreneurship is to discover a whole new way to success.
4. Experiment - It's always extremely cool when a Kung Fu Master reveals his new technique that will blow his enemies away. But how did he come up with it? He experimented! What do you think he was doing hiding inside a cave? Entrepreneurs should never stop trying and testing things to see what works. Eventually, you'll come up with your own special home-brewed technique to defeat your competitors.
5. Calm & Wise - A Kung Fu Master is always calm and wise. They don't rush into things and always seem to have the wisdom to get everyone out of trouble. An entrepreneur is a leader for his/her employees. Similarly, an entrepreneur have to be a calm and collected figure for the employees and use his/her wisdom to guide the company. You don't have to be smarter than your employees but at least be smart enough to realize that.
6. Everyone has a weakness - No matter how powerful a Kung Fu master is, there's always a weakness to exploit. An entrepreneur must realize that no matter how big or well-established a competitor is, there will be a weakness somewhere to take advantage of. Just remember that you too have a weakness.
7. Marketing - A Kung Fu Master knows the importance of marketing. This is why they are so eager to show-off their strengths to others. You must however maintain a good reputation and standing among your peers. Make business not enemies.
8. Disciples - When you are passionate about something, you'll want to share it with others. This is why Kung Fu Masters start schools/guilds and recruit disciples. Similarly, an entrepreneur must have the passion and willingness to share. You have to inspire others to follow your lead.
9. Competition - This is a fact of life. There's always someone better out there but Kung Fu Masters use it as the drive to push the limits. Let the competition be your fuel for your journey.
10. Lonely at the top - There are always sacrifices to be made in order to reach greater heights. Kung Fu Masters know that as you move up the ladder, things around you will change and people will start treating you differently. But no worries, there are 6 billion of us, so surely there will be a few great ones up there to welcome you.

This is by no means all that you can learn from Kung Fu Masters. I'm sure there are many more insights and teachings that can help you in your journey. Now where did I put my Ip Man DVD...

RPG and Entrepreneurism

My dad used to complain that I spend too much time gaming. But I always argue there's plenty of things to be learned from playing games. It turns out that if you play any RPG games like Diablo or D&D, you are learning important values and lessons to be an entrepreneur.

How you ask? Well let see what we can learn from the generic classes found in RPG games.

• Tank: Take everything head-on and always be the first to get into action. As an entrepreneur you must be ever ready to lead the charge into the unknown. It's your job to protect those who decide to follow you on your adventure.
• Rogue: Precision strikes. Execute with pin-point accuracy. Ideas are useless without execution and good execution can make a huge difference.
• Wizard/Magician: Resourceful and knowledgable. To be an entrepreneur, you need to know more than just business or finance. You have to know a little of everything. You got to be able to do things that no one thought possible. You need to surprise people.
• Healer: Realize that you can always recover from whatever that hurts you. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. The game doesn't end when you fail. Just resurrect and fight another day.
• Bard: Ability to affect other people around you is crucial for an entrepreneur. Charisma is important if you want to inspire and recruit others to your cause. A bonus, if you can strike fear into the heart of your competitors.

So next time, if anyone complains about your gaming sessions, tell them you are preparing for your future business ventures.

After all, it pays to be well prepared and casting spells or slashing monsters are just too fun to resist. Just remember to actually do something after all that practice and preparation.

Pricing ahead

This is an excerpt from the book Free by Chris Anderson. He's the one who coined the term Long Tail and wrote a book about it.

In the early 1960s, Fairchild Semiconductor was selling a specialized early transistor, called the 1211, to the military. Each transistor cost $100 to make. Fairchild wanted to sell the transistor to RCA for use in their new UHF television tuner. At the time RCA was using traditional vacuum tubes, which cost only $1.05

What they did was the unthinkable. They lowered their price to $1.05 from the start, banking on the fact that once production volume increases, the cost of each transistor will fall dramatically. Two years later they were able to sell the transistors at 50 cents a piece and still make a profit.

We were going to make the chips in a factory we hadn't built, using a process we hadn't yet developed, but the bottom line was: We were out there the next week quoting $1.05, we were selling into the future - Jerry Sanders

As stated by Moore's law, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. This also applies to hard disk capacity and network bandwidth which both gets cheaper and cheaper in a faster rate than transistors.

Knowing this, it is not hard to see why Google paid 1.6 billion dollars for Youtube a few years ago. Even though, at that time the service was burning milions a month for bandwidth and lacks a proper business model. Google banked on the fact that eventually the cost of storage and bandwidth will get cheaper and cheaper.

The ability to price your product way ahead of the price decline curve can be extremely disruptive. This is the very nature of the web and software. After all, they are just bits of information and eventually the only factor that determines the price of your product is not its cost but the value it creates.

Teamwork

As someone who prefer to do something by myself, I tend to avoid working in teams. The reasoning is that if it's something that matters, you can only rely on yourself to get it done. Obviously, I need to embrace teamwork and understand the value it brings. It's good to be independent but there are times that you have to realize that you are going to need help from others. The most obvious reason is the scale of the task at hand. Hosting a party at your house can be a solo effort but organizing a fund raiser event is entirely different. Whenever you feel like you want clones of yourself to get things done, that's when you need a team.

Some environments have a preference for teamwork. If you played any multi-player game, you will realize that some stuff simply can't be done alone. Players plan and organize to meet up in game (sometimes skipping sleep/work) to raid dungeons. A well planned and executed raid can be very fulfilling and addictive. Teamwork is fun when done right.

Teamwork is also critical when everyone have something at stake. Each member is accountable for the performance of the team. The most common issue here is that in real world situation, it's virtually impossible for everyone to have the same stake. This lead to situation where only those who care about the result doing the bulk of the work.

Although sometimes working in a team can seem to slow down progress with unnecessary procedures, meetings and conflicts, teamwork is invaluable for tackling tasks thats too big for us to handle alone. If you think you can do everything by yourself, maybe the things you do are too small to matter. And if it matters, others will volunteer to join your team.