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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

11 Ways to Further Enhance Your Core Strengths

Young Entrepreneur Council

11 Ways to Further Enhance Your Core Strengths

Question: What is one way to take your core strengths and make them even stronger?

The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Assess Subsets of Your Strengths

While you may be an excellent programmer, what are some other areas of programming where you can improve your skills? Being good in a few core areas doesn’t mean there isn’t additional learning to do.

Nicole Munoz
Start Ranking Now

Find People to Cover for Your Weaknesses

Core competency is a phrase that is often heard at our offices. What is your core competency as an individual? What is our core competency as a company? Once we know what we are best at, we allow those individuals to focus on their strengths. To do so, we have to identify others who are strong where we’re weakest, so we can focus on our strengths.

Marcela DeVivo
National Debt Relief

Get Additional Training

Once we graduate from school, we generally don’t revisit core subjects — especially if we were good at them. But times change and business evolves. If you want your strengths to stay strengths, take some additional coursework or solicit a mentor who can help you take things to the next level.

Alexandra Levit
Inspiration at Work

Identify Strength-Enhancing Opportunities

Practicing humility and recognizing that you can in fact improve in certain areas is key. Constantly challenge yourself to get better and look for those opportunities to sharpen your skills.

Jacob Goldman
10up Inc.

Deliberately Practice

If you’re good at something, nothing makes that skill better than deliberate practice. Deliberate practice focuses on the quality of your practice, not necessarily the quantity and, in some cases, practicing “more” can actually be counterproductive to your goals. I make sure that when I practice at a core competency, I do it to the best of my ability and never practice in a trivial way.

Liam Martin
Staff.com

Communicate and Blog

As a columnist for Inc. and a new blogger, I’ve come to appreciate how writing forces you to organize your thoughts and dive deeper into topics that you have expertise in. Blogging is a forcing function for developing a strong personal perspective on issues that you face in your day-to-day work.

Jordan Fliegel
CoachUp, Inc.

Learn From Others

I like to observe other people who have similar strengths to my own. As an innate problem-solver, I’ve become better at my job by watching how other people approach their work and learn from their experiences. I’m then able to adapt what I’ve learned and take my own approach to the situation.

Abby Ross
ThinkCERCA

Be Open to Change

Even if the idea remains the same, the way to go about achieving the end result may change over time. Core strengths shift. The apex of your business today may not be as relevant tomorrow. Something that started as secondary to the success of your business may become essential to keeping you at the top of your field. Keep an open mind and evolve. Keep learning so you can keep growing.

Andrew Kucheriavy
Intechnic

Focus on the Positive

In this performance-oriented world, sometimes the focus is on continually improving your weaknesses, instead of building your strengths. Having a mentor who can help identify where your strong suits are is a key ingredient in continuing to strengthen them. Remaining focused on the positive, and putting less emphasis on the negative will aid in building your core strengths.

— Sheldon Michael
Netjumps International

Devote 80 Percent of Your Time to Them

Double down and focus on your core strength to enhance it and make it even stronger. This would mean devoting 80 percent of your productive time to your core strengths and relegating the remaining 20 percent doing other things. The more time you devote to working on it, the more opportunities you will discover as a result of going deep in that specific domain.

Rahul Varshneya
Arkenea LLC

Read Frequently

Thanks to the importance of content marketing for SEO, excellent advice is everywhere nowadays. Read any resources you can on your core strength, and invest in buying some related books as well. Reading forces your mind to slow down and think. Plus, if you go with books or other offline materials, you can do it anywhere. Keep a notepad with you, and write down any ideas that your reading inspires.

Jared Brown
Hubstaff

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