Think ahead of the times
In order to stay one step ahead of the competition, you need to predict the future and prepare for it in advance. Succes of Bill Gates partially depends upon his futuristic vision. Due to this, Microsoft was always one step ahead of the competition. In an interview with PC magazine, he predicted that mobile devices, internet, TV's, and natural user interface would gain popularity in the years that were to come and history proved him right.
2. Your time is valuable
He advises entrepreneurs to pick their battles carefully. Even when the richest men in the world cannot buy time as one of his quotes suggests, "No matter how much money you have, you can't buy more time". This reflects how valuable time is.
The hours you waste today can never come back even if you spend millions of dollars for them. Identify the biggest time-wasting activities in your schedule and cut them down. Conduct fruitful meetings instead of wasting a big chunk of your monthly time on meetings that end without any useful outcome. Avoid distractions to stay as productive as possible to achieve better results.
3. Persistence and Perseverance
Entrepreneurs looking to achieve overnight success should read this quote from Bill Gates. Bill Gates himself said, "There is nothing that was overnight". The initial versions of the windows operating system were not that succesful but his persistence made Windows, the most popular operating system in the world.
4. Move fast and keep innovating
To stay competitive in a saturated world, you should move at a faster speed and focus on continous innovation. This is what Bill Gates did and succeeded, and wants young entrepreneurs to follow his example. Bill Gates thinks that "The most important speed issue is often not technical but cultural. It's convincing everyone that the company's survival depends on moving as fast as possible".
5. Learn from your mistakes
"It's fine to celebrate succes but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure" reflects his approach regarding dealing with failures in his life. According to Bill, failure is just as important as success, because it takes you back to the drawing board and helps you analyze the loopholes and causes of failure. You can fix these issues and avoid making the same mistakes again but this is not possible when you succeed. Consider failure as a learning opportunity instead of a demoralize factor that forces you to quit.
6. Take Risks
Young entrepreneurs should not shy away from thinking out of the box and choosing an unexplore path. According to him, success lies in uncharted territories so entrepreneurs should always be willing to explore untapped areas. His conviction and risk-taking propensity made Microsoft such a hit even when no one knew much about computer software. "If you want to win big, you sometimes have to take risks". The words of Bill Gates are a great source of inspiration for entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks to achieve better rewards.
7. Focus on unhappy customer
Most entrepreneurs treat their disgruntled customers rudely. They think that they are right in doing so but the greates visionay of our time has a different opinion. He considers dissatisfied customers as a huge asset since they can help you improve some of your flaws. He said, "Your must unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning". If you want to be succesful in business, you should listen and value what your dissappointed customers are saying. Take action and improve in the light of their feedback.
8. Never Give Up
No matter how difficult the circumstances seen, you should have a "never say die" attitude if you want to succeed. Failure is part of entrepreneurial life and it even affected the greatest entrepreneur in the world. Before the inception of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Traf-O-Data, a company responsible for analyzing traffic data. Unfortunately, it failed miserably and left Gates under a lot of debt.
He learned important lessons from this failure and moved on to launch Microsoft. Even with Microsoft, he faced initial failure but his unflinching attitude helped him dredge on. Finally, success knocked at his door and he got the reward for not giving up on his dreams.
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