As a young CEO of a growing company, I find that the most valuable insight I’m gaining these days has been from other CEOs. Certainly this realization isn’t revolutionary – YPO, EO, Mindshare and a host of other organizations are set up just for this kind of knowledge exchange.
But who has time for that? This is a social media world. We’re live in 140-character sound bites. So I decided to ping my favorite CEOs via Twitter to see what kind of wisdom they could drop on me. Here’s the great advice they shared.
Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify
Figure out what the top five most important stuff is, focus relentlessly on that and keep iterating. Less is more.
Dennis Crowley, CEO, FourSquare
Don’t let people tell you your ideas won’t work. If you have a hunch that something will work, go build it. Ignore the haters.
Sarah Prevette, Founder, Sprouter
Just do it. Get it out there, absorb the feedback, adjust accordingly, hustle like hell, persevere and never lose your swagger.
Sarah Lacy, CEO, PandoDaily
Follow your gut. it may be wrong, but you won’t regret it if you fail. You’ll regret it if you ignore your gut and fail.
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
Treat people like you want to be treated. Apply to customer service.
Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia
Do work for your customers, not for press or VCs. The end user is what matters long term.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO, Automattic
Only reinvent the wheels you need to get rolling.
Jason Goldberg, CEO, Fab.com
Pick one thing and do that one thing — and only that one thing — better than anyone else ever could.
Alexis Ohanian, CEO, Reddit
Make something people want. Then give more damns than anyone else about it and you’ll make something they love.
Chris Brogan, President, Human Business Works
Buy @ericries’s book. Beyond that? Build a platform. This is the big year.
Matt Howard, CEO, ZoomSafer
Startup wisdom: The number one job of a CEO is to not run out of money.
Brian Wong, CEO, Kiip
Always be learning from others. Whenever you meet someone, you don’t want something from them, you want to learn from them.
Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja, SCVNGR and LevelUp
Something my dad taught me: Ask forgiveness, not permission!
Hooman Radfar, Founder, Clearspring
Give away the wins, own the loses. Your job is to curate greatness.
Alexa Hirschfeld, CEO, Paperless Post
Users and employees are key predictive indicators of a company’s success; press and investors generally months behind.
Got some other great wisdom for your fellow CEOs? Leave me a comment!
Peter Corbett (@corbett3000) is the CEO of the creative agency iStrategyLabs, and is the founding organizer of DC Tech Meetup.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Search Engine People Blog.
Profound pearls of wisdom from these great CEO’s who has weathered more ecommerce storms than myself. I believe I will be utilizing these tips while coducting business. Thank you!
I’m glad you found it helpful!
Many defenders of Twitter’s recent announcement have jumped on board without the facts, just as quickly accusing naysayers of being ‘misguided’, even citing the move as being ‘good for activists’. Most arguments rely too heavily on trusting the company to share censorship requests on Chilling Effects, and fail to discuss its lack of complete transparency on the details of their new (?) practices, or the slippery slope it presents.
Questioning censorship practices is important and necessary, as has been echoed across the world. The news is troubling to say the least.
@mich I’m not sure how this relates to the post above :)
Great post, concise and impactful. One advice from my line manager, who is both a great leader and a great engineer: effort and dedication are key, you can always be better prepared than the rest of people around you. Greetings from Spain!
Great article! Agree totally. Add: find mentors & connect with others who succeed. Avoid mediocrity at all levels. Don’t settle for just being average on the job or plan to be replaced.
Mr. Corbett,
And, the hardest part: take these nuggets of wisdom and go to the lowest level in your organization, the person sweeping the floor, or answering the phone, or counting beans, and expect the same from them.
Great tips! Innovation and Focus.
Agree with @eAfricaTours and @Michelle Christie, Love this post!
Thank you. Brilliant. I took some liberties here, http://madamebellefeuille.blogspot.com/2012/01/15-things-successful-ceos-want-teachers.html. Shannon
Nice work Shannon. Love that!
Brilliant in their simplicity. Although I’m not a CEO, I believe one major key to success is the ability, courage, and conviction to think situationally. Following a play book is one thing, but the ability to anticipate, and implement proactive solutions to unexpected problems is quite another. It’s amazing how many leaders are afraid to even question the norm, much less ignore it.
Here is another one, used to be on the sugnature of Uri Levine (Founder and president of Waze): “Focus is not what you are doing, it’s what you are not doing”
Great Tips, Peter. I
Great tips! As a young entrepreneur, I learned the hard way … “Cashflow is far more important than profits” … your business can be profitable but if the profit is all in your accounts receivable, your business will not thrive!
I made a typo in the previous comment. Treating people like you want to be treated does NOT work if those people are from another culture. Treat people like they want to be treated.
My wife tells me that’s the platinum rule vs the golden rule
Treating people like you want to be treated does work if those people are from another culture. Treat people like they want to be treated. Adapt to their culture and welcome their ideas. Examine those ideas and adopt the parts of those ideas that work. Research more information about those ideas and learn from them. DeRoy Taylor
Run with the best idea you have and keep changing it until it feels like a glove. Then keep changing it to make it a better glove.
Love this, and you don’t need to be a CEO to think like one.
At my previous job, I had a full production photo studio and a room full of gear. Co-workers would often ask me “How on earth did you get management to approve for all this stuff”
My answer? “Never convince someone why it’s needed. Instead, let them know what they are losing by not having it.”
-Pete
@Pete that’s a smart strategy. I’m going to share that with my COO who’s often convincing me of what’s needed – and I can see that when he tells me what we’re losing out on I’m much more responsive.
I concur on that first statement, alas, not many would want to quote something from a lesser person, right?.
My favorite so far “you treat a disease, you win you loose, you treat a person, I guarantee you that you will win, no matter what the outcome.”
Awesome post! I like “Pick one thing and do that one thing – and only that one thing – better than anyone else could”. it’s similar to the advice Steve Jobs (peace be unto him) gave to Sergey Brin & Larry Page.
I might not be a CEO, but at least I know how to spell.
Spelling is way overrated.
My favorite quote is from Brian’s:
“Always be learning from others. Whenever you meet someone, you don’t want something from them, you want to learn from them.”
and Seth:
“Something my dad taught me: Ask forgiveness, not permission!”
Thank you for this inspiring post, some new classic quotes here. What works for me? Love what you do, believe in it more than you believe in anything, and be willing to flex and readjust the path when you realize there’s a better or different way.
I absolutely love these pearls of wisdom. Would love to read more of them. Thank you!
If employees know you will walk through fire, will take a stand for them towards others and take all responsibility, they will walk through fire for you and your goals to achieve!
It is all about trust, understanding and confidence!
Matt Mullenweg is right (so are the rest), but if you spend time fixing what isn’t broke or coming up with new policies/procedures/ideas for something that is still smooth, you lose focus and drive but mostly time.
What book is this? “Buy @ericries’s book?
He was referring to “The Lean Startup” > http://amzn.to/w4kBJw
Remember that every employee is an important asset to your company, and treat them as such. No matter how tall a building, without a strong foundation, it can crumble.
Remember that every employee is an important asset to the company, and treat them as such. Regardless of how tall a building is, without a strong foundation and bricks that help hold it together, it will crumble.
Excellent post Peter. I will add a little thought. Staring every day with a positive visualization about the most difficult people and projects helps a lot
Great pearls of wisdom. I would add that successful people and successful organizations do what unsuccessful people and organizations can’t, will not or even conceive as possible.
How about these?
- Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry
- kisses of an enemy are less valuable than wounds from a friend (i.e., a friend tells you the truth)
- a wife of noble character, who can find, she is worth far more than rubies
- above all else guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life
- as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another
- a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh answer stirs up anger
google them for the author – best CEO ever
“Just do it. Get it out there, absorb the feedback, adjust accordingly, hustle like hell, persevere and never lose your swagger.” I love this!
Team work is very important for any company,so every employee is very important,we have to treat them as customers, so they feel every project is important, so company can satisfy more client.
Thanks Peter, for sharing with us! Luis Fernando Vasquez Montoya
Jason Goldberg is on #POINT!
My Big Ma’s mantra was, “stay ready then you ain’t gotta get ready.” I live that.
Reblogged this on The log in the Blog! and commented:
Great advice for gaining great words of wisdom. Sometimes in order to be a great leader, it’s best to be great follower. Take what you can get for free these days. Here’s one way of doing it.
Very insightful. What would Bill Belichick say? Maybe: “Have a plan. Do your job”.
I’m a bit of naysayer. So 15 CEOs that are doing fairly well want use to know their little pearls of wisdom. I have seen this way to many times. For most these little one liners don’t really work.
I would rather know how many CEOs fail and I think it is a fairly large number. Not in the sense that they kill a company but they really don’t add anything in the end.
Open for discussion.
Ohhhh Stephen you’ve just given me a great idea for another blog post :)
IMHO, the number one job of a CEO is to hire and retain amazing talent for your team
..which means your product or service will rock, which means you will not run out of money.
Simple, common sense. How about “never hire anyone who can’t take your job.”
I see a common thread that runs through almost all the advice. ‘Choose how you spend your time’. I research piece I read recently explored why only 5% of CEOs were any good. It cited only 1 in 20 were effective leaders of their organization.
The difference came down to the decisions on how a CEO spent their time. Depending on the industry, and the organization, the effective CEOs know how much time to spend in the business, and how much time to spend in the field.
They know what to do next. They have an instinct for making time management decisions. One hour misplaced of a middle manager’s time every day, will probably never impact the business. One hour misplaced every day of a CEOs time can be catastrophic to the business.