Now at the fourth installment, let me first review [Startup Failure Studies! Lesson Three: Thinking Piecing Together a "Complete Team" Makes You Unstoppable](https://ladykaren.org/1908/startup-3/ "Startup Failure Studies! Lesson Three: Thinking Piecing Together a "Complete Team" Makes You Unstoppable")
Recently, I've had the opportunity to interview quite a few experts in innovation and entrepreneurship—including AppWorks Jamie, Meitu General Manager, DCard Kytu, Western Expansion Professor Guo Tingkui, and Blockchain's Minson. Actually connecting with these friends provided me considerable inspiration throughout writing this series. Leaders and entrepreneurs fundamentally don't start with making money as their initial goal, but rather want to "help others become better."
Starting a business with the passion to help others
For instance, AppWorks doesn't directly invest large sums in startup teams, but instead provides mentoring resources. As Jamie puts it, "We build an ecosystem, not try to make money." As a result, AppWorks' newly released numbers are truly impressive—after seven years of effort, the alumni ecosystem has 328 active startups with 925 entrepreneurs, having accumulated $806 million in fundraising with a total valuation exceeding $3.6 billion.
(Image／AppWorks Official Website)
My senior is coincidentally the founder of JiaYao Medical Shi Wenfei from #15. She said the AppWorks team influenced her entrepreneurial values. In the two weeks before Demo Day, Jamie would spend time every morning adjusting the Demo content and timing with the team, because they only have three minutes on stage! This also gave me some pointers—if you want to start a business, discuss it more with others, and you'll become increasingly certain of your direction.
Basically, I feel that now entrepreneurship has become a "trend." Of course, for friends who care about this, it feels like not keeping up means falling behind. But with so many people wanting to start businesses, is it really that easy?
Whether to start a business is like sports—you can run, exercise, and learn about sports, but not everyone needs to become an athlete!—Guo Tingkui
This perspective comes from Professor Guo, who currently teaches at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo. He said this because I brought up the phenomenon of everyone wanting to start a business and be their own boss. But is it really suitable for everyone to start a business? Have you really thought it through?
Entrepreneur-oriented thinking is where failure begins
Looking back at my failed beauty venture #Inpaco from three years ago, without sufficient incubation and planning periods, it started from a simple shallow thought: "Korean beauty products are too expensive in Taiwan." Breaking down this origin, it was basically launched "for myself"—wanting to get cheaper products—rather than for users. This trapped me in entrepreneur thinking rather than consumer-oriented thinking.
I not only didn't understand market needs, but apart from media resources and integrated social media marketing, I wasn't very skilled at much else. I even lacked extensive research in beauty, so with neither inherent nor acquired advantages, it was easy to get stuck when facing "setbacks."
For instance, DCard founder Kytu once said in a public speech: "Being able to create work that users love even more than you do is a wonderful thing." This thought really moved me when I heard it. Today, DCard's platform positioning is "helping everyone find resonance here," and whenever users have issues, they work to solve them quickly.
(Image／DCard Website)
Every enterprise should have lofty goals! First, figure out why
From a management perspective, "only enterprises that set lofty goals and strive for them can prosper long-term." When setting corporate goals, you can't be too ambitious—for example, in the first year when basic infrastructure isn't even built, saying you want to earn 100 million; employees would feel this is unattainable. But goals also can't be too easily achieved—like establishing 30 customer lists daily, such mechanical operations don't require thinking and just make people exhausted. More importantly, goals should be sufficiently challenging so that when employees put in effort, they can achieve better results than their original expectations.
So how do you set lofty goals that aren't too ethereal yet not entirely absent? Here are some goals from major companies:
Motorola: Motorola's goal is to provide good service for society's needs, supplying customers with quality products and services at fair and reasonable prices. For the overall development of the company, we must do this and earn appropriate profits to provide opportunities for our employees and shareholders to achieve their reasonable personal goals.
American Petroleum Company: American Petroleum is an integrated company worldwide from refining to chemical products. Finding and developing petroleum resources, and providing customers with quality products and services. Our responsibility is to achieve excellent financial returns, balance our long-term growth plans, benefit shareholders, and fulfill obligations to society and environment.
Intel: Intel provides chips, motherboards, systems, and software for the computer industry. Intel's products have always been seen as "building blocks" used to build advanced computer systems for personal computer users. Intel's vision is to become the most important supplier in the global new computer industry.
What these three have in common is "providing quality service for others"—an ideal and vision. So when enterprises execute each task, they're moving toward this direction.
Entrepreneurship is a path to self-understanding through various choices
Looking back at my own startup venture, did I have a lofty ideal and goal? Honestly, I didn't. Mentally, I wasn't prepared either—I can truly say it was following a trend. For friends still preparing to start a business, you can also reflect on yourselves through these cases and ideas above.
While "startup failure" is an outcome, the feelings, vision, and expansion of thinking gained through this process are far greater than staying in one company. Because through each difficult problem and different choices, you understand why you've gotten to this point, how to move forward next, what you lack, and what abilities you need to develop.
For example, I later understood that entrepreneurship requires the ability to provide differentiated products and services, which necessarily requires output—whether self-produced works, products, or content. Over the past two years, I've figured out that I'm better suited to writing, becoming a content creator. After continuously writing articles, several columns have approached me for collaboration.
I was also fortunate that the Korean blogger PONY's beauty channel, which friends and I translated together, surpassed 30,000 subscribers and continues to create substantial value for me—such as signing with Taobao Live, with future opportunities to livestream products on Taobao, something Taiwanese content creators haven't yet crossed into. Regardless, everything happens for a reason. Maintaining flexibility, accepting challenges—these are always valuable life processes.
