Startup Advice From 14 of the Most Popular Brand Owners - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Startup Advice From 14 of the Most Popular Brand Owners - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Who is your favorite startup  celebrity and whats the number one lesson theyve taught you about entrepreneurship? The following answers are provided by members of  Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s  most  promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched  StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. 1. Tony Hsieh of Zappos Tony is definitely my culture hero.  I had the opportunity to tour Zappos in Downtown Las Vegas and was blown away by the positive energy coursing through the hallways. Tony preaches causing collisions.  Get your people to mesh well  and enjoy spending time together. Millennials are changing the way we need to attract and retain the best talent, and all of them want a good culture fit. Vinny Antonio,  Victory Marketing Agency 2. Howard Schultz of Starbucks Here is a man who grew up in Brooklyn, brought up in the NYC housing authority, attended Northern Michigan on a scholarship, was the first family member to go to college, graduated and fell in love with a small Seattle-based coffee company called Starbucks. He decided that he wanted to sell coffee. He essentially turns a $400,000 investment (from friends and family) into a $55 billion market cap company. Joseph DiTomaso,  AllTheRooms 3. Richard Branson of Virgin Group Branson teaches us all to follow our passions, even in spite of our lack of experience or expertise. He has built a conglomerate made up of unrelated businesses, simply because he wanted to. Impressively, he has  turned a number of them into wild success stories. At One Mall Group, we hope to do the same, while marrying happiness and success. Firas Kittaneh,  Amerisleep 4. Marc Andreessen of Mosaic Probably better categorized as a trend rather than a lesson, but for me its Software is eating the world.  When thinking about entrepreneurship and startups,  the winners are usually the ones who are able to  skate to where the puck is going to be. Marcs prophetic words  provide a  framework for me to evaluate the quality of ideas I see both as an investor and a founder. Amit Kumar,  CardSpring 5. Elon Musk of Tesla Motors Elon Musk  consistently  inspires me to think bigger and faster, and then to  advance  that exponentially. He comes up with concepts that change our lives on a global level, and brings  them much farther into the future ways that have improved and democratized  payment systems, space travel, environmental friendly luxury, solar power, technology sharing and high-speed transportation. Hes not afraid. Steven Le Vine,  grapevine pr 6. Jason Fried of Basecamp Im a big  fan of Basecamp co-founder and author Jason Fried. Basecamp is vital in the day-to-day operations of ZinePak, and Frieds books, Rework and Remote are staples for new employees of our company. My favorite lesson from Jason is to not be afraid to rethink a problem to find a new solution. If something has been done the same way for a long time, chances are it needs to be redesigned. Brittany Hodak,  ZinePak 7. Kevin OLeary of Shark Tank While Kevin OLeary of Shark Tank may appear to be ruthless at times, from watching him on Shark Tank Ive learned that theres a potential opportunity in every deal at the right price. Josh Weiss,  Bluegala 8. Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban is a sharp entrepreneur and investor, and one of his top pieces of  advice  is about not being afraid to work hard! He is always sharing insight about  how putting in effort can be one of the biggest determinants of success, and that his only regrets are the times when he was outworked by someone else. The big takeaway is that each of us  controls our own effort to achieve our goals. Doreen Bloch,  Poshly Inc. 9. Alexis Ohanian of Reddit Alexis Ohanian taught us the power of embracing and creating communities through the web. While you may never be able to meet your fans face-to-face, creating a platform for your users to engage, laugh and educate each other is a great way to create meaning in their lives. Were currently working on ways to connect our audiences to one another to help build a presentation community ourselves. Kenny Nguyen,  Big Fish Presentations 10. Marcus Lemonis of Camping World I dont know that this is necessarily a  startup  celebrity, but Marcus Lemonis has always been a favorite of mine. Im addicted to his TV shows. He takes startups and other small businesses from struggling to successful with a proven and stellar strategy. He taught me that making tough business decisions are a part of life for an entrepreneur. Andrew Schrage,  Money Crashers Personal Finance 11. Steve Wozniak of Apple My startup  celebrity is Steve Wozniak. He taught me that you should create things for the love of creating them. People will always desire things created by passion, and thats what I experience with our presentation folders. People love our products because were passionate about creating them. Vladimir Gendelman,  Company Folders, Inc 12. Derek Sivers of CD Baby I admire Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, so much. Not only does he have a model entrepreneurial  startup  story of see problem/fix problem, but all his  work on the venture stemmed from his passion. His hard work eventually led to a very financially rewarding acquisition for him. Instead of taking the money and retiring, he set up a trust and donated  most  of it to charity. What a guy! Logan Lenz,  Endagon 13. Peter Thiel of PayPal I just finished reading Peter Theils book Zero to One, and it has changed my life. His premise is that there are two different types of progress: horizontal (globalization) and vertical (technology). Ive realized that Ive been focusing a bunch of time on the horizontal, but not investing in things that can make the world better by leaps and bounds. Lawrence Watkins,  Great Black Speakers 14. Amy Jo Martin of Digital Royalty Im privileged to call Ajo a friend, client and mentor. Not only is she a female founder who has built a seven-figure business, she has committed herself to using her power and privilege to facilitate positive social change. Whether its helping build wells in Africa or investing in her employees leadership development, she has taught me to see my legacy as what I do in the world with my influence. Alexia Vernon,  Alexia Vernon Empowerment, LLC Featured Photo