Top 4 lessons from CEO Gurus

Top 4 lessons from CEO Gurus on how to lead a billion dollar company

Some of the worlds most successful CEOs and young entrepreneurs shared their views on what it takes to lead a multi billion- dollar company. The CEOs we spoke to were:

1.     Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group
2.     Nate Blecharcyzk, Co-founder AirBnB
3.     Peter Arvai, Prezi
4.     Frederic Mazzella Bla Bla Car

1. You need to put some skin in the game early

Founding CEOs that put skin in the game early always take care of their cost base and are reminded of their sacrifice which helps create a culture of ‘spending the company’s money as if it were your own’

2. It’s not about the money, it’s about being proud of what you do

     “I never imagined creating a billion dollar company yet alone 12.  I just wanted to create something I could be proud of” Sir Richard Branson 

Early CEOs that are driven by the money get enticed by a deal or an early exit, but ultimately if you want to build a sustainable billion dollar business it needs to be something which gives you a higher purpose and is something you are proud of.

3.  Come up with bolder and better solutions to problems and don’t be afraid of controversy

In almost every case of a successful unicorn there always seemed to be a negative reaction from the industry for example AirBnB, Uber, and the CEOs have to find a way of holding their ground and overcoming it. CEOs must not be afraid to be big, bold and deal with controversy.

     “I’m naturally inquisitive.  If I see something is not being done well, I’ll dive in and see if we can do it better” Sir Richard Branson 

4. Do both growth and profitability simultaneously

The best CEOs keep an eye on both the path to profitability and the next big breakthrough evolution in their business.

    “We are investing with a growth mindset and a growth vision, making sure the model is on the path to profitability but always making sure we make big bets on the side” Nate Blecharczyk, Co-founder AirBnB 

Steve Tappin

CEO Xinfu, CEO Coach & host of BBC CEO Guru

Laughter is The Best Medicine

Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as “terminally ill”. He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was 1 in 500.

He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause, his disease. He wondered, “If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?”

He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find – Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny.

His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.

He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. (His journey is detailed in his book, Anatomy of an Illness.) He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery.

Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we’re not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.

Since Cousins’ ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions.

So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don’t like laughter, then take your medicine – laugh anyway.

Use whatever makes you laugh – movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.

Give yourself permission to laugh – long and loud and out loud – whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you’re strange, but sooner or later they’ll join in even if they don’t know what you’re laughing about.

Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . . laughter.

By Peter McWilliams

From “Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul”

Sharks In Life

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. It’s essential to good Sushi. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went very far in the sea. Greater the distance they traveled for fishing, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste of Sushi.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.
They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go very far and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. So, frozen fish fetched low prices and problem remained.

To go one step further, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

 To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are fresh because they have been challenged.

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull. We stop questioning our abilities and purpose of our life. We end up like a bad taste Sushi. 

 If we want to taste good then we need Sharks in life.Challenges in our life are like Sharks. They keep us fresh, active and lively.