Hey EV readers 👋 

I hope you've had an amazing week so far! I've got something special for you - a delightful mix of insights that will quench your thirst for knowledge and help you power through another week of hustle and bustle. Enjoy!

Teamwork makes the dream work but how do you create the dream team? Here are five hacks you may find helpful.

Understand the role of each team member in the bigger picture. The right team is like a puzzle where all the pieces fit together perfectly. So before you start building your team, figure out the roles of each team member and find out who best fits that role.  Without knowing this, you will spend time trying to force people into roles not meant for them.

Fill up areas where your skills or knowledge are limited. Being the founder of a business does not mean you know it all. Perhaps you came up with a good business idea but you’ll need people to help you execute your idea. The best place to start is recruiting people who are great at doing things you are not so good with. It is a simple technique that will make sure there is no skill vacuum in your business as each team member is great at something that sets them apart. 

Develop a strong personality. In an interview with CBNC, Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple revealed that Jobs's success as Apple’s visionary leader was not because of his technical skills but because Jobs developed a strong personality early on in the business. Jobs’s excellent communication and marketing skills were not natural-born talents. He worked hard to acquire it and later, it positioned him above his peers in the tech world, turning him from just another tech entrepreneur into an innovative icon. 

Hire people who share your passion. Passion determines who gets to be on the team. When building a business, make sure you have passionate people in your team. This is because the early phase of building a business can be rough and without passion, it becomes increasingly difficult to see it through.

Meritocracy - values ideas over hierarchy. By rewarding great ideas instead of just blindly following hierarchy within the team, you will promote meritocracy and encourage team members to share their ideas and opinions. In return, team members experience greater job satisfaction and are less likely to quit. 

Skill or Zeal - Which one is more important to Entrepreneurs?

Steve Jobs was not a natural-born leader says Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak. Wozniak and Jobs go way back and you can bet if anybody has the right to make such bold claims, it is Wozniak. In addition to that, Wozniak also revealed that Jobs lacked engineering skills. So he turned his attention and unbridled effort toward making himself a better communicator and marketer.

No wonder Steve Jobs became known for his genius marketing and excellent communication which he made seem all so natural. So much so that Bill Gates is quoted saying he was jealous of Jobs for his ability to portray himself as a natural-born public speaker.

So if Jobs wasn’t so good with the tech side of things or naturally gifted with speeches, what then drove him to found one of the biggest and most innovative tech companies in the world today?

According to Wozniak, it was Passion. The Apple co-founder revealed that his long-time friend and business partner Steve Jobs wanted to be remembered as an “important historical figure”, and that passion drove him to build the skills he needed. Wozniak summarized it perfectly by saying that “sometimes, wanting something is a lot more important than having the real skills”.

As an entrepreneur, I would agree with Wozniak on this one. There are a lot of highly skilled people who do not have what it takes to run a business. It takes more than just skills, you need to be passionate as well. Passion is the fuel that will drive you through the challenges you’ll encounter in your entrepreneurial journey.

Industry Insights:

2023 was a good year for AI startups and although venture dollars seem to be slowing down in the first month of 2024, AI startups are still raking in dollars. According to a report by Crunchbase, not only are AI companies still being funded, but there seems to be a shift in focus from generative AIs to more practical applications like weather and construction led by companies like AiDash and Briq. With smartphones incorporating AI into their software, I believe we are going to see more AI startups spring up and get funded this first quarter of 2024.

Read the full article on Crunchbase Here.

That’s all for now folks.

Until next time, stay inspired and keep chasing your dreams!

Cheers,

Alex