↑ In the early days of entrepreneurship, I wrote a business plan to architect my future vision (Photo / Karen / It's all idealistic)

By / Karen

Do you know why having a good team still leads to failure?

Because you don't understand what entrepreneurship really is. Entrepreneurship means expanding your team when you lack manpower, not assembling the team upfront and then expanding your empire.

Regarding startup teams, there's a lot of entrepreneurial information online now. Many articles tell you to find people who fit well with you, rather than just professionals. I agree with this—partners who get along can work together and solve problems when difficulties arise. But the premise is: "Do you actually need this?"

When I first started thinking about having my own small business, I looked at successful examples. Behind every success story was a supporting team. I also read an article: "A Leader's Important Task: Assemble 9 Roles to Build a Super-Strong Team!" The article was well-written, but my point isn't to criticize it. Rather, I want to explain how foolish it is to rush into expanding your team without understanding the entrepreneurship process or actually being in the thick of it—just like I did. (I can't help but sigh at how silly I was XD)

The article describes a concept developed by a European business school professor who tracked managers worldwide for nine years and derived a management theory about team organization and composition. They discovered that every team consists of nine roles, which can be divided into three major categories based on members' personalities and behaviors: "Action-oriented," "People-oriented" (coordinating relationships within and outside the team), and "Strategy-oriented" (responsible for ideas and expert knowledge).

↑ Many things emphasize SOPs, structures, and processes, but without execution, they're just formalities.

After reading that article, I "decided" to match these excellent teams and become a leader, taking on this important task! (Full of enthusiasm), so I naively started looking for friends with specific skills to join the team for every possible task. I seriously organized gatherings and dinners to discuss plans. Everyone was happy and willing to help at first, but here's the key point: these friends were "volunteers."

We had five members total, and here's our division of labor:

  • Myself: event planning, traveling to Dongdaemun in Korea to source products (I speak some Korean), creating internal forms, social media management (writing posts, editing beauty videos, managing FB and YouTube), photography and retouching, website layout
  • My older sister: with online shopping experience, responsible for uploading products, pricing, and retouching photos
  • Partner Raila: excellent at writing and very strong in Korean, so responsible for writing Korean beauty articles and translating subtitles
  • A junior who helped with advertising and taught me some marketing strategies
  • My second older sister: financial management.

↑ One week's beauty content unit taught Korean beauty terminology, so I handled layout while Raila did translation. (Photo / Karen / We were really serious about entrepreneurship)

↑ Each product had its own code and designated name. (Photo / Karen / Scheduling needed careful documentation too)

So the team's division of labor seemed sufficient. But here's the critical point: the sales volume and workload didn't actually require this many people to share, meaning this manpower was completely wasted. On top of that, we all had our own full-time jobs. I wasn't paying anyone, so I had no right to ask them to do more. I didn't know how to distribute work, and they didn't know where to help because hardly anyone was placing orders. Everything required me to give direction and make decisions before anything could move forward—but I didn't. It was all self-inflicted, a result of my naivety.

↑ Two months after launching, we had 9,000 total page views, which is good! But I couldn't see it at the time… (Photo / Karen / Growth comes through experience.)

Let me summarize what this experience taught me:

First: Cultivating Self-Judgment

Because entrepreneurship is trending, there's an abundance of business articles encouraging people to start ventures. Combined with the internet's information abundance, success stories and experienced advice are everywhere. For those just entering society or those not fully committing (full-time entrepreneurship, large capital investment), it's difficult to evaluate whether an article matches your own situation. Looking back three years later, this mistake wasn't all bad. Because now I can see that no matter how busy or tired I am, I can still assess my own time, abilities, and efficiency to complete what needs to be done. Or when I truly need help, I hire people to handle specific design and editing work.

Second: Increased Patience and Tolerance for Failure

I've mentioned in this series that for years I couldn't acknowledge my entrepreneurial failure. After all, I spent on airfare and capital to go to Korea on a major sourcing trip, making it a big production. So at first, facing poor results, I really didn't want to face reality and made excuses about having a full-time job. But honestly, I was too concerned with others' opinions and couldn't persevere through initial lack of progress. Now my tolerance for setbacks has increased. If method A doesn't work, try B. If B doesn't work, try C. Regarding "impossible," I just want to make it possible. This has given me more initiative, competitiveness, and a more complete and objective way of assessing feasibility—this is not easy.

↑ Back then I even had weekly inspirational quotes. I used every social media marketing tactic I knew, all planned by myself. (Photo / Karen / I really had a lot of time back then)

Third: Don't Focus on Difficulties First; Learn to Express Your Needs

As mentioned earlier, the marketing person who helped with advertising once told me: "Being a boss means giving employees a goal and a budget, and letting us achieve it." This is simple logic, but I lacked confidence and didn't dare demand anything. I just hoped he'd do well and could experiment however he wanted. But boundlessness doesn't mean freedom; it means being at a loss. Through this, I clearly understood that as a leader or in team collaboration, don't focus on difficulties first—clearly express your needs and adjust your steps or change direction during execution. It's somewhat like fighting while advancing: once you have a goal, you have a clear direction to move forward. Without an endpoint, you're just confused, which is a cardinal sin for entrepreneurs.

I'm grateful to everyone who helped me then, grateful for their tolerance of my immaturity and inexperience, which allows me now to record every detail from that time.

Below I recommend A-Dip and Taiwanese Dude's creator chat video—it will definitely help you think!

【Startup Failure Lessons - Series / Ongoing】

Jack Ma, whom I admire, once said: "There are thousands of factors for success, but failure factors are mostly similar. Combine the experiences of all failed entrepreneurs and seriously study these mistakes. I hope everyone spends more time understanding why failure happens." Failure is the greatest wealth in anyone's life—it represents you took initiative and acted, rather than just fantasizing. Through time and effort, you discover what suits you and what doesn't. Even if you ultimately fail, the results are still yours.

Startup Failure Lessons! Lesson 1: The "Initial Heart" That's Too Simple to Easily Persist With

Startup Failure Lessons! Lesson 2: No In-Depth Market Research — Just "Feeling" Your Way Forward