Not About the Money, Not About the Success, It's About the Attitude

Today I will side track a bit and share my insights regarding the "Guest Speaker Day" at appWorks. Alex Chen, the CEO of EZTable, came to appWorks Incubator Center, sharing with us his experiences as an entrepreneur and the hardship he and his team of 4 had endured till today.

The main lessons I thought were key points are the following:

1. Learning to become an entrepreneur is not about aiming to earn the big bucks, not about climbing to success, but about handling entrepreneurship with the right attitude.

2. Don't be full of yourself, it is okay to copy but make sure you can execute it. Be willing to share, do not fear that other people will copy you, because in the end it is all about the execution.

3. Entrepreneurship is about sacrifice, if you are not ready to sacrifice, don't become an entrepreneur.

Point 1 - 90% of all noobie entrepreneurs will fall into one of the category, no profit, quit, can't successfully penetrate the market. However, the most important lesson to learn from being an entrepreneur is the right attitude. Alex used Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan as an example of bringing the right attitude. They are people who make things happen; in a game where a winning shot is required to be executed, they will step-up and take the shot. Whether or not they make the shot or not doesn't matter, it is the fact they are willing to do things others are not. Being an entrepreneur is learning NOT to be a bystander and be an executor.

Point 2 - In the past I thought it was weak to just copy someone's innovative product/business model and just offer it in a different country. Yet, on the surface it may seem easy to just copy, but the back-end could be a totally different gameplay. Why is that? Due to the huge cultural differences between North America and Asia, clients' perception of value are greatly different. For example, OpenTable's clients in N.America could be willing to pay for their reservation service; however, Taiwan restaurants are not so willing to pay EZTable for the same service. Alex's team had to be innovative and offer vouchers to end-consumers in order to earn commissions from the vendors, which allowed EZTable to drive up their revenue.

Be willing to share, do not fear that other people will copy you, because most likely there is someone else in this multi-billion population world that someone has the same idea as you. In the end, it is all about the execution. (Google isn't the first search engine...Facebook isn't the first social network...Walmart isn't the first discounted department store)

Point 3 - EZTable's team really defines "sacrificial entrepreneurs." Alex previously worked at a hedgefund company in LA, earning the big bucks, driving a BMW, but he gave up all that to return to Taiwan to chase his entrepreneur dream. When the CTO got drafted into the military, he would call the tech-team to discuss work progress before calling his girlfriend during every recess break. During holidays, he would code with the team until he was dragged back to base. A team of 台大,成功, UCLA Graduates, willing to give up high paying jobs to work on their beloved EZTable 24/7 for the past 3 years, now these are true entrepreneurs.

Image via Vu Bui

The path of entrepreneurship can be lonely, stressful, and rewarding. Therefore, it is important to have supporters cheering all entrepreneurs on, and in return, they will share their rewards and success stories with you.

Good luck appWorks team!

Keep Fighting!

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