GB Ep 38: What to do When You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

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Hello and welcome to another edition of Growth Bites. Today we’re going to talk about how we all feel sometimes when we’re running a business: there are certain times when you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing.

• It’s important to admit that you don’t know what you’re doing—one of the worst things you can do is tell yourself you know everything, because then you won’t feel any need for improvement. [01:39]
• When I first took over SingleGrain, there were a lot of things I didn’t understand: making tough decisions, creating processes from scratch, and even changing the business model. [02:03]
• Joining and entrepreneurial group or starting a mastermind group to talk to people facing some of the same challenges can help you learn and create your own action plan. [03:10]
• I recommend a list of books for situations like these. [03:55]
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Ben Horowtiz shares the different things he had to go through and his entrepreneurial struggles on his journey from being part of the early stages of Netscape to running a popular venture capital firm. [04:00]
• The Goal: This is a good book to share with your management team. It teaches how to run a company and get everyone working towards one goal and overcoming the problems that are preventing you from getting there. [05:00]
• The Great Game of Business: Jack Stack took over a failing company and was in over his head. His book teaches you how to get your company to buy in and how to treat running your business like a game to make it more exciting. [05:41]
• The Personal MBA: This is a crash course in learning financials. [06:44]
• A course called 10,000 Small Businesses by Goldman Sachs: It’s an 11-day course with mandatory attendance. You’ll learn everything you need to know to strengthen your business literacy. [07:03]

Resources from this Episode:

• Entrepreneurs’ Organization
• Young Presidents’ Organization
• Young Entrepreneur Council
• The Benefits of Joining a Mastermind Group
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• The Goal
• The Great Game of Business
• The Personal MBA
• 10,000 Small Businesses

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Connect with Eric Siu:

• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @ericosiu