Entrepreneurship & Strategy

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Robin believes Taiwan has plenty of smart people, but the world has even more. Founders cannot win over the long run on clever little tricks and small openings alone. They should think more deeply and see more clearly before others have grasped what is happening.

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Many founders understand entrepreneurship as spotting an obvious opportunity and quickly copying it—and end up failing. This suggests that obvious opportunities and paths that are easy to enter may be traps. The question is how to escape the pull of conventional thinking and fantasy and discover real opportunities that others dismiss, fail to see, or do not understand.

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Robin suggests that startup founders listen to Chairperson He speak several times to learn how to explain an industry and its development trends. Although e-commerce has developed for more than 20 years and many regard it as mature or largely settled, He can still make it sound full of potential, with substantial room for further development.

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The post says that before this year, tech giants and startups favored an all-out sprint to capture the largest share as quickly as possible. This year—2022—the emphasis is on steady progress for the long run. To go farther, first move steadily, prepare well, and stay alert to changes in the external environment.

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Robin believes entrepreneurs should make as much use of government resources as possible. He points to an important ability of Elon Musk: working effectively with governments in different countries and leveraging national resources, including through SolarCity, Tesla, and SpaceX.

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Following the previous post on the clarity of US strategy in World War II, this post turns to the space shuttle. It argues that US space missions spent heavily but stalled because they tried to meet too many conflicting goals at once. According to the text, NASA originally wanted the cost of placing a pound of payload in orbit below $100. Five shuttles were ultimately built; two were lost, killing 14 astronauts, and the average cost was $28,000 per pound. Everyone made demands: Congress wanted low-cost solid-fuel rockets, the Air Force wanted wings, and legislators wanted contractors in their own states to get a share. The result was an incoherent hybrid. The conclusion: there are not 100 things to do; only one matters most.

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The CEO recounts reading many biographies of successful people at 21 and finding two common techniques: set a goal, then write it down and say it aloud. He put his dreams into words and carried them in a notebook, turning them into a powerful source of support. He says that over the following 15 years he founded GMO Internet and achieved his goal of taking the company public at 35 years and one month. Although one month later than planned, he realized a dream everyone thought impossible. (The timing is approximate as stated in the original and has not been independently verified.)

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Reprinted from Wan Weigang’s Elite Daily Lessons 2: entrepreneurs do not need an accurate assessment of their prospects, because someone who accurately understood the chances of startup success might never start a business. Entrepreneurs are often fearless through ignorance, overconfident, and ready to pick a direction and act first. Explorers like these are needed to find the right direction. The text says the opposite of success is mediocrity, not failure, and that those who fail deserve as much honor as those who succeed. It compares many of Musk’s ventures to gambling: without betting, you never lose, but you never win either. What entrepreneurs need, however, is a way of seeing things that mobilizes different forces.

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The world is complicated, but we can choose simplicity. Entrepreneurs can think about problems simply. Simplification contains many insights: it helps you grasp a problem’s essence, gives you the courage to face it, and offers the wisdom to solve it.

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Founders need to broaden their perspective and think at a higher level. Rather than always asking what their company could become, they can start from the industry: what should the company do, and in what direction could it help move the industry?

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The post quotes Wang Xing: major waves create many opportunities, each with enough room for a company to grow. At this stage, there is no need to combine everything at once. Choose one thing, specialize in it, do it exceptionally well, and satisfy all the parties served in that industry; the prospects will be very good. The conclusion is that early-stage founders must learn to make trade-offs among many opportunities.

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The post quotes Mao Daqing: “Entrepreneurship is an endless journey.” Like travel, it has no end. For someone who loves travel, curiosity never runs out. Setting out is the beginning; returning does not mean the end, only a rest before the next departure. The first step on the entrepreneurial journey is to treat every rejection as an opportunity. Robin adds that when facing setbacks, it is better to spend time doing something more valuable than complaining or blaming the external environment.

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Robin opens by suggesting another approach to competition: rather than always trying to eliminate rivals, find ways to tame them or align their interests with yours. A fable reprinted from Luo Pang’s 60 Seconds describes God facing two demons with only two arrows. One demon can be killed with one arrow, the other with two. God shoots the latter once, then tells both that whoever disobeys will receive the remaining arrow—and gains two slaves. The text says that when facing something hostile, we tend to want to eliminate it with every tool available and always feel underpowered. Another approach is to tame it, rise above it, and make it part of ourselves.

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Robin notes that Taiwan now has a dedicated agency for startups: the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration has been reorganized as the Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration, and a chapter dedicated to startups is to be added to the Act for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises. The post sees this as a shift from policy packages such as “Asia Silicon Valley” to an ongoing, routine statutory responsibility. It expects a crucial impact on Taiwan’s startup development, particularly new growth momentum and jobs. (This is policy news from September 2023; the current situation has not been verified.)

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Robin lists the time from founding to reaching the Global 500 as stated in the post: 18 years for JD.com, 18 for Alibaba, 14 for Tencent, and 23 for Huawei. Xiaomi took only nine years. He says Lei Jun deserves credit for that, and that Xiaomi’s recent move into cars is worth watching. He adds a reminder: if you have spent ten years or more building a business without clear progress, examine where something has gone wrong.

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Robin offers a personal impression: US$1 million is the starting point for a SaaS company, and tripling to US$3 million seems broadly achievable within a few years. Taiwanese SaaS startups stall at the next tripling, to US$9 million; exceeding NT$300 million in revenue is quite difficult. Non-SaaS businesses may reach more than NT$1 billion in revenue, but growing another two- or threefold also faces a hurdle. Do not stay confined to local or regional markets: software and the internet have no borders. (The reference chart mentioned in the post is not available.)

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Robin identifies a blind spot common among technical founders: carrying a hammer and looking everywhere for nails. Blockchain startups a few years ago, and AI startups in more recent years, are the clearest examples. Both can be seen as taking a technology and looking everywhere for possible use cases.

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The post lists four signs of inner strength among successful people: knowing clearly what they want; knowing how to get it; having the execution skills to achieve it; and being good at adjusting their mindset to handle the bumps along the way. It is tagged “創業36條軍規” (36 Rules of Entrepreneurship).

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Robin argues that founders should quantify their products and services as much as possible, rather than offering only empty narratives. Follow industry measurement standards where they exist. Where the industry has no such standards, there is a tremendous opportunity.

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The post quotes He Fan: once the economy grows, many problems resolve; without growth, even things that were not problems become thorny challenges. Robin adds that you can replace “economy” with “company.”

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The excerpt says that less brings gains, while more brings confusion. Good strategy means subtraction: doing fewer, but right, things. A company that spreads its efforts across many goals has few resources left for what truly matters. Resources are limited; trying to do too much means doing nothing well. Simplifying and concentrating resources makes success more likely.

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The excerpt says strategy means choosing what to do and what not to do. Do not consume company resources on nonstrategic opportunities. Only by continually focusing on the core business can a company strengthen its core competitiveness. What is that core business? Something others find hard to replace and you can replicate quickly. Strategy requires knowing what to leave out to achieve focus and competitiveness.

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Robin asks whose fault it is when a company has not taken off. You can, of course, blame the environment, shareholders, and other outside factors; external attribution is easy. But rather than shifting responsibility for failure outward, he personally believes you should examine yourself first. The biggest problem is probably not an external factor.

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The post quotes an unidentified author: if your business cannot operate without you, you do not really own it—you merely work for it. Such a business is chaotic, making it the worst job in the world. Robin adds that at a certain stage, founders must choose to let go of and hand over their current tasks, then move up a level so the company can keep advancing rather than stagnate.

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Robin recommends Paul Graham’s Hackers & Painters and describes a Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit that disregards rules and wants to break them quickly. Entrepreneurs look for gaps between the ideal and the actual system, then use those gaps to build new businesses. The accompanying excerpt—by another author whose source is not identified—describes Buchheit’s hacker mindset: challenge the received idea that success has no shortcuts and believe that shortcuts and loopholes exist. Starting a business is itself an act of hacking. The greatest hacking discovers the nature of the world through persistent exploration. The excerpt ends by suggesting that readers identify inconvenient parts of the industries and daily routines around them and create shortcuts.

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The article argues that entrepreneurship needs passion, but enthusiasm inevitably cools. To get things done, learn to become deliberately cool-headed, beginning with a calm assessment of genuine opportunities. It quotes Kevin Kelly through Chinese renderings whose exact wording has not been verified: real opportunities do not announce themselves with a “great opportunity” headline; do not waste a crisis; every breakthrough initially looks laughable and absurd; and success can trap us, so say no to tasks you are unlikely to fail at and yes to those you might fail at.

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The post recounts four basic suggestions from Chris Anderson, whom it describes as TED’s founder: focus on one idea; give listeners a reason to care; explain your idea through concepts familiar to them; and make the idea worth sharing. Robin’s advice is to draft an outline, decisively cut half of it, and then cut half again. A good talk develops one central theme rather than branching out excessively.

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The post quotes advice from a book it calls Yongbao Ni de Kehu (擁抱你的客戶, meaning “Embrace Your Customers”): remember all the information about your first 100 or 1,000 customers and study it as thoroughly as possible. It says the secret to success is captured in four Chinese characters: know your customers.

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The book excerpt says to focus first on users’ problems and then on solutions. Today’s challenge is not developing more features, but discovering which features need to be developed. Starting with a solution is like making a key before there is a door: even a beautiful key may leave you searching for a suitable door for a long time. Starting instead with the door—a problem worth solving—makes the key much easier to create. Robin asks whether your startup is making an exquisite key before there is a door and then searching for one. Usually, he says, you will not find it.

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The book excerpt says that tactics address the present and focus on what already exists, while strategy creates the future and focuses on new growth. It quotes Bezos: when you think about what to do within a year, many competitors immediately come to mind; when you think three years ahead, there are far fewer; and when you think about what to do five, seven, or ten years ahead, you can no longer think of who your competitors are. An obsession with tactical effort traps you in a vicious cycle. Do not use tactical diligence to conceal strategic laziness.

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The reposted material says that real progress in science and mathematics often occurs in the gray area between black and white. Major discoveries begin when someone senses that something is not quite right, keeps probing a small gap, and eventually opens up a whole new world—as with relativity and quantum mechanics. Robin compares entrepreneurship to scientific exploration: in a gray area where demand seems to exist but is uncertain, you keep exploring and experimenting with passion. Along the way, you may unexpectedly disrupt established giants and ways of living, bringing new possibilities to the world.

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Speaking with Yicai, He Fan says that this generation of young people is highly educated, broad-minded, and creative. What he struggles to understand is that they often speak of self-realization without putting much effort into knowing themselves. He advises being honest with yourself and listening more closely to your inner voice, invoking Thoreau’s drumbeat metaphor: find your own beat and follow that path. Robin adds that this applies not only to young people but to every founder: take time to know yourself, be honest with yourself, and find your own rhythm rather than following someone else’s footsteps.

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The post retells the stonecutter metaphor displayed in the Spurs’ locker room: after a hundred blows, the rock has no crack, but the hundred-and-first splits it in two—not because of that final blow alone, but because of the consistent effort. The text says that only founders who have endured countless setbacks and life-or-death trials, then finally seen a glimmer of success, truly understand perseverance. Robin adds that the great differences between people ultimately lie in persevering when perseverance is needed, but also decisively choosing to quit or change course at the right moment.

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Entrepreneurship requires experience, but experience must also be acquired through entrepreneurship. Starting a business can be seen as venturing out into the wider world: leaving the ivory tower and your comfort zone, then stepping into society to experience conditions firsthand. That is the first step. Avoid putting early-stage entrepreneurship on too high a pedestal. In the beginning, it is about getting your hands dirty in the real world, learning more, and pushing yourself to grow faster.

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How do you win in an increasingly competitive industry? The article uses a line from The Godfather: the old Godfather says he will give the other person a reason they cannot refuse. Its argument is that with a strong enough reason, you can always find a way to secure cooperation. In retail, that ultimate reason is a low price. The same applies in other industries: victory depends not on piecemeal packaging but on finding the reason people cannot refuse to work with you. Robin concludes that finding this ultimate, irresistible reason is the key to winning.

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After listening to an episode, Robin feels that DJI is a highly competitive Chinese company and that its global success is no accident. He recommends it to product managers as well. The key is to position the product clearly and understand consumer needs precisely. He adds that listening made him want to buy a POCKET 3.

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Robin says that a startup’s revenue naturally needs to keep growing, and its headcount will inevitably increase too. But revenue growth should, as far as possible, avoid a linear relationship with headcount growth. If more revenue simply comes from adding more people, the startup becomes labor-intensive. Allowing the two to become somewhat decoupled should show up in operating results as a continuing increase in contribution per employee.

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The reposted text recommends that founders develop a habit of writing a journal every day as a way to keep talking with themselves. Your greatest enemy is yourself, so keep examining and working through your inner life, remain mindful and respectful, and treat yourself and others sincerely. Journaling is an outward action that deepens self-reflection. Most reflection, the text argues, is merely an illusion with which we deceive ourselves; genuine, deep reflection requires wholehearted engagement. Robin adds that journaling is a conversation with yourself that enables deeper reflection and the pursuit of continual improvement.

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The post observes that in entrepreneurship, we often attribute success to internal factors such as talent, ability, and effort, but failure to external factors such as luck—a sudden pandemic—or timing—changes in the economic climate. It recommends a more rigorous review, preferably with help from an objective, experienced person rather than doing it alone, so that you can move beyond your blind spots and limitations. Even mistakes may reveal new opportunities.

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Wu Jun’s article argues that focusing on picking up sesame seeds means forever losing the chance to pick watermelons. It uses Yahoo as an example: the article says it took only ten years to go from the world’s leading internet company to being sold. Besides encountering Google and Facebook, Yahoo hurt itself by collecting countless small product lines without a world-leading one. By contrast, Apple’s product lines could be counted on one hand, yet it was the world’s most profitable company. After returning to Apple, Jobs crossed out many small projects, kept only a single-digit number of products, and made each a watermelon. The article concludes that those pursuing watermelons must be able to tolerate solitude.