5 Pillars of The Entrepreneurial spirit

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Niklas Hed, Jano Vakevainen and Kim Dikert founders of Rovio Studio (formerly Relude) had just won a video-game-making competition and decided to put their talents to good use by starting a company of their own. This was back in 2003 and clearly, it was not a bad decision because they were talented and probably had a lot of good ideas for a game. But as the founders later realized, talent and good ideas alone weren't enough to guarantee success. 

This was clear after nearly five years of game development and 51 failed attempts to make an impact in the market. Down to just 12 people, Rovio was dying, and desperately needed a lifesaver. This came in 2007 around the time the iPhone was first released. It presented a new opportunity and the founders (and key members) of Rovio were quick to take advantage of it. In an interview with Wired, Niklas Hed said, “The iPhone opened up the whole world”. Angry Bird went through a development and testing phase and in December 2009, it was finally featured on the Apple App Store. 

Rovio’s 52nd game title was out there and as Wire’s writer Tom Cheshire puts it - it was a flop. But Rovio had a long-term strategy, they were not expecting any overnight success and so they focused on building a presence in less dominant marketplaces before pursuing bigger ones like the UK and the United States. The strategy worked out well and in 2010, Apple featured Angry Birds on the UK App Store as a game of the week and soon after, the app went from 600th place to first place. 

As of 2018, the game Angry Birds had 66.8 million active users per month 9.2 million daily active users, 4 billion downloads, and a lifetime revenue of 600 million dollars. Rovio's founders are the true embodiment of the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Here are the 5 Pillars of an Entrepreneurial Spirit;

#1. Passion

In the course of my research on the importance of passion to the success of an entrepreneur, I came across several studies on the subject most of which are focused on the consumer/employee point of view. However, I found a reference to a study that caught my attention. A team of researchers carried out a survey involving 163 employees and 73 entrepreneurs. All they had to do was rate how much they agreed to statements like “owning my own company energizes me”. Now, the employees were asked similar questions (formulated differently) to measure how they felt working for the company. The researchers established what they termed a contagion mechanism where entrepreneurs who exhibited a high level of passion influenced their employees positively. In essence, passion is contagious. When an entrepreneur is passionate about their venture, they develop the fortitude to persevere in challenging situations and influence their employees to do the same. 

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#2. Perseverance 

While anyone can start a business, very few steer it to become an absolute success. There are comprehensive statistics on why businesses fail. The top 3 reasons according to CB Insights are; lack of funds, no market, and stiff competition in the industry. In reality, most entrepreneurs face the same challenges so how do they manage to scale through? They persevere. You’re not always going to have it easy. Most times, it will be a struggle, especially in the early stages of your business. You have two choices, throw in the towel and call it quits or weather the storm just like the founders of Rovio Entertainment did. These moments can be very difficult but they also help you build character and experience. Perseverance is known by many names, such as grit, and tenacity. Even successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos know a thing or two about perseverance. After all, he had to face two of the toughest periods in the history of entrepreneurship, the fall of the dot-com era and the Great Recession.

#3. Stubbornness

When starting as an entrepreneur, it can be very frustrating to learn that help is hard to come by. Sometimes even the closest people to you will discourage you from pursuing your dream, especially if you fail to make significant progress at first. Failure to heed this advice will be tagged as “stubbornness”. They are right, you are stubborn but that’s precisely what you have to be to succeed. Recall the question I shared earlier. Perhaps the Quora user was going through a similar experience and it is not uncommon among entrepreneurs. Stubbornness may not be an attractive attribute but it can see you through the most difficult times.

#4. Optimism

Many people see optimism as a mindset that sees the best in every situation of life. This is true in a sense, but optimism is also a measure of how much faith you have in yourself and your abilities. Expecting the very best in a bad situation won’t help if you don’t have confidence that you can overcome the worst. Optimism inspires action which in turn increases the chances of success. In the same way, a lack of optimism can lead to inaction and consequently failure

#5. Patience

If there’s anything you should take from the story of Rovio Entertainment, it is that there is no overnight success. What may seem like an overnight success often takes years to accomplish. If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, then you will have to understand that breaking out in any industry will likely take time and most of that time will be spent on building. 

That’s all for now folks.

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

Cheers,

Alex