Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Form a great team, embrace changes, and enjoy the process that turns your vision into reality Don’t let anyone fool you– Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of hard work and tireless dedication, but when you are passionate about what you are doing, the work is also exciting and fun. Creating a company and a product that ultimately has great benefits to users is gratifying, and it’s even more enjoyable when you have selected a great team to work with and share the triumphs in addition to the challenges. I have started two companies, and just as most companies, I was faced with the decision to re-focus and re-align based on market trends and needs. During the early years running my first company, we needed to go through three drastically different products and business plans before we found true market success, which led to a fruitful acquisition shortly thereafter. The next venture was focused around an immediate market need– an instant-on browser OS for PCs because it took too long for Windows to boot up, and with hard work and a lot of optimism it was only a few years later that HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Asus, Sony, and other major OEMs were bundling our products. However, no market stays static, and in 2010 the huge shift in mobile device adoption forced us to pivot from PCs to consumer smart phones and tablets. We created a product that became tremendously popular on iTunes and Google Play. Then, yet again, in 2012, we saw the steep rise of BYOD in all types of business and work environments, and broadened our focus to target the need for mobility within SMBs to larger enterprises. These were challenging, yet exhilarating times. We were working day in and day out to find the best opportunities to gain new market share, often questioning and re-calibrating our focus based upon market feedback and validation, and with the right team and support and creativity, we found success. Realigning a company’s trajectory can take a tremendous amount of work, but the rewards can be great, especially when you look for ways to have fun in the process. Launching and running a start up can be stressful, but surrounding yourself with skilled, fun, trustworthy people — co-founders, employees, investors, and advisors – is a key to success. You must be able to trust your colleagues so you can move fast, as nimbleness and speed to execution is an advantage against more established players. There will be ups and downs, but having the right team members makes the whole process much more enjoyable. Here are a few insights I have learned along my journey: To energize and excite the team around you, craft an exciting, tangible vision. Good people are attracted to a clear vision and a well-articulated opportunity to make people’s lives easier. It’s okay to make mistakes, but make them quickly, recognize them, and move on. Fail fast and learn fast. Take breaks and step away from your hectic daily tasks and meetings. I find myself coming up with my most breakthrough ideas while sitting on long cross-country or international flights without distractions. Embrace and roll with unpredictability. There will be lots of trial and error. Enjoy the learning process, and surround yourself with others who have the same sense of curiosity and drive to learn and innovate along the way. Acknowledge a job well done. Gratitude, particularly shared with a group of peers, is a tremendous investment that delivers remarkable ROI. It costs you only a few minutes but it pays off in fueling team members’ motivation, pride, and productivity. Choose work you are passionate about, and you will be successful. Remember, enthusiasm is contagious! Looking back on these experiences, I see clearly that the key to success is the ability to change, be flexible and re-strategize to align with the market’s needs. I can’t stress enough that for any startup, or any company really, survival is identifying how you can uniquely alleviate customer pain points and effectively shift gears to steer towards new opportunities that still leverage your core competencies and expertise. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Mark Lee.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Mark Lee Follow @SplashtopChief Mark Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Splashtop, the leader in remote access and collaboration, bridging mobile devices with PCs, TVs, and the cloud. As a desktop and app delivery platform for over 15 million users, Splashtop helps individuals, SMBs, and enterprises to instantly bring any existing or new… View full profile ›