Statistically, it’s been reported that 9 out of 10 companies fail in the first 2 years of business.
Many of these are amazing companies with stellar products. Some of these startups are brilliantly disruptive breakthroughs.
Then why would they fail?
The Mindset for a “Broke” Startup.
Too many businesses fail to estimate their survival rate well enough to be victorious and blow away any of their opposition to success.
For example, when Jewish immigrant Reuben Mattus was ready to launch his high-butterfat ice cream he made in the Bronx, he applied the power of broke to his new brand calling his ice cream Häagen-Dazs (which incidentally means nothing).
Why did Mattus take this path? Because Denmark befriended the Jews in World War II -- and also naming it something foreign gave it an exotic quality.
It originally sold for 75 cents a pint (over the standard 52 cents other brands were charging).
It is brilliant that an American ice cream would have this mystique of being from Denmark when it was literally invented and made just a few miles away from Manhattan, where it took off. (In 1983, Häagen-Dazs was sold to The Pillsbury Company for $70 million.)
Using The Power of Broke to Rise Above
Daymond John, a friend and an investor on Shark Tank, wrote his New York Times best-selling book, The Power of Broke.
Let’s look at an all-too-common problem:
We all know too many business owners who operate on this assumption: if we don't make it today, there's always tomorrow.
How Many Are In Your Army?
To operate as though there is no tomorrow and believe that you have an army of a thousand and can spare some casualties -- even friendly fire -- is a huge fallacy in your thinking process.
I Only Have Five In My Army
What if you only have five in your army?
This makes each member of your team that much more valuable to you and your company's success. In other words, you're not in a position to lose a single member of your army in the battle.
Yet most startups come out swinging like they have an amazing amount of resources, including reserves of time, money and opportunity -- whether they do or not -- and usually the answer is, "NOT."
Answer These Questions:
1. What if you don't have that much to spare?
2. What if you operated like you only had two in your army?
3. What if you place much more importance and demand on every aspect of yourself?
4. What if you demand not only from yourself but also from your other teammates?
5. What if you insist that you utilize and execute on every single action and aspect of your brand?
In other words, you would be injecting a sense of Urgency and Demand to make every gesture, and every element, work.
That is the Power of Broke and the mindset needed to be the leader you're capable of being.
Entitlement is a Myth
To do less than apply the Power of Broke with every opportunity in business is to adopt the mentality of "entitlement."
Fact:
Entitlement isn't something you're born with. It's something we each earn. Earn it (and properly estimate how important each and every detail is in your brand) and you win.
Do less than that and you employ: "The Power of Broken," NOT the Power of Broke.
That power resides in you and is unleashed when you have an unswerving demand that you place on every detail, every opportunity, and every available resource.
Your power will not come from a view of desperation but from a view of ownership.
The concept described here is the sole the reason why I could give two people $100,000 each and one would build an empire and the other would use it with an "entitled" mindset and end up a pauper "who nobody appreciated."
Only by applying The Power of Broke can you make your army of five feel like, and have the effect of, a thousand.