10 Lessons from Dr. Seuss on being an Entrepreneur

10 Lessons from Dr. Seuss on being an Entrepreneur

Remco Marcelis

I recently decided to start my own business as a

virtual CFO. I’m a voracious reader and as part of

launching my business I was researching what it meant

to be an Entrepreneur. Funnily, despite all my formal

business education, and after reading lots about Lean

Startups, it was while reading Dr Seuss books to my 3

year old daughter one night that some lightbulbs came

on.

With some further serious research (aka reading more

Dr Seuss to my daughter), here are 10 lessons we can

learn from Dr Seuss about being an Entrepreneur …

Preface

Dr. Seuss on Entrepreneurship 2

Preface

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Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

Be the Fix-it-Up Chappie

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose

A most useless place, the Waiting Place.

There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!


Contents

Everything stinks until it’s finished

Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?

Bang ups and hang-ups can happen to you.

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Entrepreneurs are different People that are different and buck the trend will cop a

lot of crap along the way. Entrepreneurs need to be

relentless in their self-belief for themselves, their vision

and their business. They need to have enough ego to

believe in what they’re doing but not so much that they

believe they know it all. They hire people that are

smarter than them, and reach out to mentors to learn

from. Sure they’ll make mistakes along the way but

mistakes don’t equal failure unless they choose to

make it so.

1. Why Fit In When You Were Born to Stand Out?


“If you start using a specific line style, title color, or image frame,

stick with it.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc tortor dolor,

tempu pellentesque ligula sed, dictum accumsan felis. Aliquam rutrum enim

ut velit sagittis, accumsan mattis sem dignissim.

2. Be the Fix-‐it-‐Up Chappie


- The Sneetches, and Other Stories

… Be the Fix-‐it-‐Up Chappie


In the book The Sneetches, a "fix-it-up

chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey

McBean offers the Sneetches without stars

the chance to use his Star-On machine, for

just $3. The original star-bellied Sneetches,

however, weren’t very happy about this as

they lost their special status. Luckily,

McBean had a solution for them too with his

Star-Off machine that removed stars ... for

only $10! The Sneetches eventually grew to

accept each other which is great , and along

the way McBean made a whole pile of

money.

Entrepreneurs are good at spotting opportunities They recognise where people have problems

and turn them into delighted customers that are

willing to pay for simple solutions. Truly great

ideas are those that people go … but that’s so

simple, why didn’t I think of that. Entrepreneurs

See. Think. Do.

Some&mes the ques&ons are complicated and the

answers are simple – Dr Seuss

“

- The Sneetches, and Other Stories


Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. – The Lorax

3. Someone like you cares a whole awful lot


Entrepreneurs are passionate While the saying “follow your passion” has become a

cliché it nevertheless remains true. Passion for the

vision is what starts most entrepreneurial businesses.

It’s the charismatic quality that lets entrepreneurs

attract the first people to the team, the first customers to

try the product from an unknown business, and money

from investors. This sometimes obsessive passion is

what drives entrepreneurs 24/7 and continues to be the

fuel that fills the business engine. And it’s the extra

caffeine kick entrepreneurs draw on when times get

tough.

- The Lorax

4. The More You Learn, the More places You’ll Go


Entrepreneurs keep learning All entrepreneurs, and I count myself amongst them,

are voracious readers and learners. They consume

knowledge like other people consume food. Unlike

those with a more academic bent though,

entrepreneurs know when they’ve read enough. They

avoid analysis paralysis by knowing that having 80% of

the information, and acting on it is better than striving to

artificially seek full information. They Read enough.

Internalise. And then Get Out Of The Building to test it

in the real world. Remember the best form of market

research is to actually try and sell something.

- I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

5. Oh, The Places You’ll Go


You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

5. Oh, The Places You’ll Go!


Entrepreneurs Launch and Adapt Entrepreneurs have the passion, they research,

they find their feet (their own and the team) and

then they set their (first) plan of attack. Gone

are the 3 months it takes to build a 40 page

business plan. Steve Blank, who has been

called the father of the Lean Startup movement,

defines a startup as a temporary organisation

formed to search for a repeatable and scalable

business model.

Entrepreneurs these days launch off a 1-

page business model canvas or a 15-slide

pitch deck as their starting plan. As the

saying goes “if you fail to plan, you fail to

plan”. Good entrepreneurs know and accept

that whatever plan they first come up with, its

only the first of many.

They Plan. Try. Learn. Adapt. Repeat.

A startup is a temporary organisa&on formed to search for a repeatable and scalable

business model. – Steve Blank

“

- Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

6. A most useless place, the WaiYng Place


Entrepreneurs don’t wait ... ever Anyone can come up with ideas … on a good

day, I have a million of them before breakfast.

Others do great research. One of the most

commonly described attributes of successful

entrepreneurs is that don’t wait for anyone,

anytime. Their uncompromising energy and

drive carries the whole business forward.

And they certainly don’t wait for a plane to go,

or the phone to ring, or wait for a Yes or a No,

or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting. NO! That's not for you!


7. There's nothing that's higher than me


Entrepreneurs look forward, not sideways King Yertle was obsessed with being the best, the

biggest, the highest in the land. It can be easy to get

distracted by what your competition is doing.

Entrepreneurs are aware of their competitors and what

they’re doing, but recognize that when they’re watching

competitors it takes their eye off the main game – it’s

looking sideways around them, rather than looking

forward along the path they’re following.

- Yertle the Turtle, and Other Stories

Entrepreneurs obsess Entrepreneurs are obsessed with quality

(entrepreneurial obsessive is a recurring theme

isn't it?!). They care an awful lot about their

product, but especially by the customer

experience. And this is a good thing, and no

time more so than when you’re just starting out.

Your product may not be perfect, but beta

customers get this. Commitment to listening

and responding to customers wins you loyal

customers who become your best referrers.

8. Everything SYnks UnYl It’s Finished

9. Do You Like Green Eggs and Ham?


… Do You Like Green Eggs and Ham?


Entrepreneurs don’t take no for an answer In the book Green Eggs and Ham, the character Sam-I-

am offers his prospect 14 different ways to eat his

green eggs and ham before convincing his prospect to

try them. One of the key tasks in the customer

discovery part of Eric Reis’ Lean Startup method is

about repeatedly testing the message to customers

until they find the one that works best. Sam-I-am and

other Entrepreneurs are persistent bordering on

stubborn-ness – taking A/B testing to another level.

This applies when you’re selling your products and

services but equally well when you’re capital raising.

- Green Eggs and Ham

10. Bang ups and hang-‐ups can happen to you


Fail and Learn On his path to inventing the light bulb, Thomas

Edison has been quoted as saying “I have not failed

1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000

ways NOT to make a light bulb”. The point being

that startups are a journey of discovery in an

unknown area. There will be failure along the way to

success, both small and large. Entrepreneurs get

that failure is a prerequisite to learning. They fail,

learn, don’t dwell and move on.

Fail + Learn = #flearn (thanks Pollenizer). And

where the lesson is that the business model isn’t

working entrepreneurs, being entrepreneurs, pivot to

their next iteration and keep moving.

.


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Pushing the boundaries

18 Dr. Seuss on Entrepreneurship

Remco Marcelis Virtual CFO. Entrepreneurial Educator.

Remco has been a CFO/COO for innovative

technology/cleantech businesses for the last 10

years, preceded by 4 years in private equity and

10 years working with multinational management

consulting/IT services.

@MarcelisRemco

www.linkedin.com/in/rmarcelis

All images and quotes are from various Dr. Seuss books and are the property of Dr. Seuss Enterprises http://www.seussville.com

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