Entrepreneurship and Business Success Quiz with Insights from Shopify's Presiden...

Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, on Entrepreneurship and Passion

Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify, one of the largest e-commerce platforms worth over 60 billion dollars.
He became an entrepreneur out of necessity when his father was arrested and he had to support his family.
Finkelstein co-founded Shopify with Toby Shannan, and they did it better than their competitors.
There is a perception that entrepreneurship is expensive, but it's less than a couple of Starbucks coffees to start a business today.
Finkelstein wants more people to try their hand at business creation or entrepreneurship and to find their life's work.
He believes that the world is more colorful and interesting when people commercialize their hobbies.
Many people work at jobs they hate because they think they have no choice, but entrepreneurship is now accessible to anyone.
Finkelstein believes that the cost of failure is close to zero, and people can try again if something doesn't work out.
Passion and disparity or being desperate are the two catalysts for starting a business.
Finkelstein started his first business, a DJ company, out of passion, but his T-shirt business was born out of necessity.
He thinks that therapy is a hack to get to self-awareness faster, and entrepreneurs should seek out the right fit for coaching, mentorship, or therapy.
Finkelstein believes that entrepreneurs and builders are the ones who matter, not the critics or spectators.The Importance of Entrepreneurship and Self-Awareness
Entrepreneurship is about solving problems in a way that uses the least amount of resources but has the highest amount of output.
The best way to live is to be in the arena and pursue entrepreneurship despite critics and internal doubts.
Therapy can help with overcoming fears of failure and taking risks.
Failure is the discovery of something that didn't work and can be used to make improvements for the future.
Shopify releases new products and features regularly, not all of which are successful, but some become game changers for the company and its users.
Self-awareness is crucial in career decisions, such as accepting a promotion or changing roles.
Being spiky means focusing on one's unique skill set and becoming the best in that area, rather than trying to be well-rounded.
Not everyone needs to become a manager to be successful, and companies should allow for upward mobility in individual contributor tracks.
Phil Reimer, a mentor to the author, encouraged him to attend law school not to become a lawyer but to gain knowledge and sophistication to become a better entrepreneur.
Finding an unobvious skill that is complementary to one's entrepreneurial goals can provide an alpha or arbitrage opportunity.
Improving oneself in areas outside of one's expertise can lead to better entrepreneurship and overall success.
Selfishness in seeking knowledge and experiences can lead to personal growth and better performance in entrepreneurship.The Importance of Skill Stacking and Pursuing Hobbies in Entrepreneurship
Law school taught the author critical reasoning, negotiation, and writing skills that helped in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship was deeply personal for the author and he made decisions with the goal of becoming a better entrepreneur.
Skill stacking with complementary and rare skills can make a person the best in a million people at a particular thing.
Cristiano Ronaldo is considered the best football player in the world because he indexes high in various skills.
Most people start companies with people just like them, but it's better to find partners with complementary skill sets.
The author's experience as a DJ taught him the importance of building relationships with clients and reading the room, skills he applies to running a large public company today.
Pursuing hobbies outside of one's industry can provide valuable skills and insights for entrepreneurship.
The author's experience helping his wife start an ice cream company and starting a tea business himself made him a better leader at Shopify.
Many people are intimidated by the expectations and barriers to starting a business, but the cost of failure is low and it's easier than ever to start a business with platforms like Shopify.
Starting a business in school can be a good time because there are few expectations and pressures.
Pursuing hobbies and interests can provide a perspective change and allow for stumbling forward through the process of entrepreneurship.
Removing expectations and focusing on the process of building a business can lead to more successful ventures.Building a Successful Business: Lessons from Shopify
Many successful businesses, including Shopify, began as an accidental idea that was explored and developed over time.
The key to building a successful business is to focus on doing something better than the competition, rather than trying to do something completely new.
Shopify was founded by an immigrant who started a snowboard company and then developed software to sell snowboards online.
At the time Shopify started, there were many competitors in the e-commerce space, but the company focused on providing a better solution for merchants.
Shopify's philosophy is to have deep empathy for merchants and focus on providing practical solutions that add value at every step of the way.
Shopify has a strong focus on helping small businesses grow and succeed, and the company is proud of its homegrown success stories.
Shopify's approach to innovation is to use technology to make things better and more practical for merchants.
Shopify embraces challenges and welcomes pain and difficulty, as it believes this will make the company stronger and more resilient.
Resilience can be taught and learned, and Shopify believes that its entrepreneurial culture helps foster resilience in its employees.
Shopify's employees are largely entrepreneurs themselves, with many having side hustles or past experience running their own businesses.
Shopify's focus is on building something bigger together, rather than individual success, and the company believes that one plus one equals more than two.
Ultimately, Shopify's success comes from its focus on providing practical solutions that add value for merchants, its entrepreneurial culture, and its willingness to embrace challenges and pain in order to become stronger.