First of all, if you are a young person starting a business for the first time and want to rely on investment from VCs for your first pot of gold, you should give up this idea and go back to work instead of reading. The investors I know are not stupid. No one would invest in someone who has no entrepreneurial experience and cannot even make the first pot of gold. If you are a young person with entrepreneurial experience and want to gain the favor of VCs quickly, the best way is: you have a good enough project, a good enough team, as well as your personal execution ability and charisma. Then boldly take your project to negotiate with VCs, and try again if you fail.

For first-time entrepreneurs, it is best to earn the first pot of gold by yourself.

Because this is a complete experience of what "entrepreneurship" means. I understand how difficult it is to earn the first pot of gold and appreciate the warmth and warmth of human relationships in the process of starting a business. Only in the process of starting a business can you learn to solve problems when you encounter them instead of avoiding them. I’m not making excuses for myself. I don’t have entrepreneurial capital, so I can’t start a business. Someone should invest in me and give me a small amount of capital to start a business. As a young man who has been trying to start a business since high school, I won’t talk too much about my entrepreneurship here. I don’t want to be misunderstood by some people and think I am boasting. Let’s take the entrepreneurs around me as an example. In order to protect the privacy of the parties involved, the characters in the article have used pseudonyms and no keywords about them appear.

To start a business, you must be able to endure loneliness, persist, and find solutions to problems when encountering them.

Too many people have heard that young so-and-so has received Series B and Series C investment, and so-and-so’s company is valued at tens of millions. So I wanted to follow suit and become such an awesome person.

Little C is a friend of mine from out of town. He started to start a business when he was in high school. Yes, he is a person who is not good at studying in the eyes of everyone. He was not good at studying but he had ideas and creativity. He found the needs of students and started marketing. At that time, it was popular to play games to recharge point cards, so he worked as an agent to earn the difference in price, and then sold the game point cards to his classmates and friends at school. It was a little cheaper than the market, and because of his good popularity, he soon made money. The first pot of gold.

Although the first pot of gold was only a few thousand yuan, it was already considered very good in the small circle of students at that time. Later, he tried to open a Taobao store to sell clothing. At that time, Taobao had just emerged and the competition was not big. After slowly reaching 5 diamonds, he started to have his own small team.

Everyone envies him for being able to earn money to support himself and his life is getting better and better. But what he didn't expect was that just when his Taobao store was about to reach 1 crown, he lost most of the money he had earned in an investment. He fell from high to low, probably because he was too young and did not have systematic knowledge of finance. In short, he lived a miserable life during that period. There was still a batch of goods sold on Taobao that were not sold out. Clothing is a very seasonal product. It is difficult to make money when it is out of season. Later, he set up a street stall to clear out the inventory of the goods previously sold on Taobao.

Later he found a job and worked as an e-commerce supervisor in the company for a period of time. He borrowed some money from his friends and prepared to start a business again. After going through many hardships, he became a small boss who is currently doing well.

Probably only people with similar experiences will understand the pain he has gone through in the past few years.

In today's society, the comprehensive requirements for entrepreneurs are getting higher and higher. It is not like in the past that you can make a lot of money just by borrowing some money to open a store with passion. At 24 years old this year, I am still considered a young person among entrepreneurs. As a young entrepreneur, I would like to give some advice to those who are about to embark on this path. Don’t choose to start a business easily.

1. Evaluate yourself before starting a business

Not everyone is suitable for starting a business. Sorry to throw cold water on this at the beginning, but it's true. As an entrepreneur in today's society, you need to have strong comprehensive abilities: self-learning ability, willpower, self-control, psychological quality, almost all-rounder (you don't need to be proficient in everything, but at least have a few skills), and sense of responsibility. …

After comprehensive evaluation, prepare for the worst and see if you can bear the risk of failure.

Many people only stay at the level of "thinking" and never take action. But when you take action, you will find that starting a business is many times more difficult than you imagined. The initial stage of starting a business is a very difficult process, and many people do not survive the first three months. No matter what industry you are in or what kind of project you are, there are so many things that you need to worry about and prepare for in the early stage, and everything is difficult at the beginning. In the early days of starting a business, you don’t have many resources and you don’t know what kind of difficulties you will encounter. It is difficult to persevere with just passion.

2. The purpose of starting a business

Some people told me that they want to quit their jobs and start a business just because "I am not happy working in the company." For such people, I would advise them. Stay in the company, don't start a business. Why? Entrepreneurship is more about the realization of self-worth. Instead of choosing to escape when encountering difficulties in the company, thinking that starting a business can avoid some of the problems faced. In fact, after you start a business, you will find that the problems you face are much more complex than those you face when working in a company.

Whether it is work or starting a business, it is a siege. You can only think clearly about what you want and what you can do, and then think about whether you can achieve it through starting a business.

Most entrepreneurs initially embarked on the road of entrepreneurship in order to realize their own self-worth (which can also be called feelings), such as: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who foresaw the future. Trends and things they want to do can also realize self-worth, and they are all areas of interest to them.

If you always think that the purpose of starting a business is to make money, it is better to master a skill and become proficient in it, and money will naturally come to you. After all, making money is only part of entrepreneurship.

3. The charm (magic) power (sex) of entrepreneurship

Why do many people still insist on starting another business after experiencing one, two or even multiple entrepreneurial failures? Anyone who has started a business knows that the realization of self-worth and sense of accomplishment brought by starting a business, as well as the relatively small freedom, are the most valuable. I think this is the charm of entrepreneurship, and it is also the reason why many people still do not give up despite repeated failures. Moreover, in the process of starting a business, the continuous maturity of mind and attitude brought by experience will be precious wealth in our life.

By the way, if you decide to start a business, do it quietly. Don’t make any noise and don’t let everyone know. Just work hard quietly until you achieve some results. Why? You said that when you start a business, there will always be people around you who are sarcastic, and there will also be many people who are looking forward to seeing you fail. I think you don’t want to hear more similar words. The best way to shut them up is when you deliver results.

4. Entrepreneurship does not distinguish between men and women, only strengths and weaknesses

There is no gender advantage in entrepreneurship. In the business field, you must be fully equipped to face all emergencies. As a woman, you should not blame yourself for why you are living such a difficult life like this. No one has smooth sailing in starting a business. Since you choose to start a business, you should endure a series of pressures. You shouldn't choose to avoid or not face it just because you are a woman. Everyone will be so stressed that they cry uncomfortably, but after crying, you still have to pick yourself up and move on.

Entrepreneurs will not sympathize with you because you are a woman, but they will appreciate you because of your strong work ability. I recommend a female entrepreneur who I think is an excellent entrepreneur: Wang Xiao.

5. The essence of entrepreneurship

The essence of entrepreneurship is to maximize results under the premise of limited resources. Entrepreneurship is not a career choice, but a lifestyle choice. Of course, not all entrepreneurship requires financing, so there is no need to look for angel investors as soon as you start your business.

Do you want to choose a 9-to-5 lifestyle, or a free and challenging lifestyle? There is nothing wrong with any of this. Only when everyone makes different choices will there be such a rich variety of industries and groups of people, and the world will be wonderful because of it.

6. Pattern and vision

Some people think that these are too imaginary and cannot be seen or touched. But the structure and vision of the founder of a startup company determine what the company will become and what direction it will develop in the future. Only by broadening your horizons can you grasp the current situation.

Look at the problem from a wider perspective, accept different opinions but also maintain your own opinion. I am also working hard on this road, please try my best.

I started working on Taobao when I was 16 years old in high school. Without any financial help from my family, I successively worked on many interesting small entrepreneurial projects and many part-time jobs. I know very well that women are Although I face difficulties and challenges as an entrepreneur, I will still live my life according to my own wishes.

Of course, I have also met such girls. When they heard that I was an entrepreneur, they immediately said: "Oh, you are a strong woman." "You must have made a lot of money." How dare you start a business?" Wait, just get used to these doubts.

There is no age limit for starting a business. It is never too late to start a business at any time and at any age. Don’t be fooled by articles such as “Don’t start a business before the age of 30” and “Five essential skills for entrepreneurs”.

When you think clearly about the above issues and feel that you still want to start a business, then bravely choose to start a business.