Today, I was at INSEAD, Europes top business school, for most of the day to teach MBA students how to launch a successful startup and build it into a global brand. I always start my talk by saying that true entrepreneurship is driven by a passion to change the world for the better. If you try to start a company just to make money, you will likely fail. If you try to start a company to make the world a better place, you will likely succeed. I started my first company during my 2nd year at Harvard Business School with one of my best friends and classmates, Soon Loo. At that time, I was flat broke, lived on one meal a day, and my parents were mired in poverty. Fortunately, I was naive enough to chase a dream even though I had no money and no experience. We wrote our business plan on a piece of paper, shared it with everyone we knew, eventually raised US$38 million in venture capital, and hired 150 employees. 24 months later, we entertained a US$200 million acquisition discussion from AOL that we turned down for IPO dreams. It proved to be the wrong decision. The stock market crashed soon after and the US economy went into a nosedive. Luckily, we still ended up selling our company, but it was at a much lower valuation. My buddy Soon and I often get together in Singapore to reminisce those days. We shared some of the craziest and most fun days of our lives with that company. For me, entrepreneurship is the ultimate adventure in business. At its core, it is simply an expression of what is inside of your soul and how you want to change the world. If your dream is to start your own company one day, my advice is to go for it. If you can make the world a better place, then do not deny the world of your greatness. As Helen Keller said, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:46:52 +0000
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