The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed

by Ash Ali

credibility comes from having an Insight into a problem, and having some Expertise on how to solve that problem.

Make sure you look after the essentials: sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, and meditation or spirituality. These are the things that will help keep you sane on this crazy journey.

By locating yourself in the midst of positive, determined and encouraging peers and mentors, you are far far more likely to stay sane and succeed.

Most startups are either a twist on an idea that already exists, or the implementation of the same idea but in a new market or industry.

It’s more the execution of it, including leveraging a lot of unfair advantages to succeed.

Intersectional thinking, which comes from an interdisciplinary approach, as we mentioned in the section on creative intelligence in Chapter 8, is where ideas come from. Great ideas come when you put a twist on existing things, consider a problem from another point of view, or take a solution from one industry and apply it to another, or from one geographic region to another.

trained his mind to be highly attuned to seeking out inconveniences, issues, time-wasting processes, underwhelming products and gaps in markets.

Again, what you have to ask yourself is: What is the problem I am going to solve?

Startup success isn’t just about choosing the right idea; it’s about choosing the right idea for you.

It’s very important to bear in mind which ideas you have unfair advantages in.

In a startup founding team, what you need is a creator, a communicator and (often) a technician.

What you need to be asking yourself is: Where am I weakest? Which of the unfair advantages do I have the least leverage in?

You can meet potential co-founders in relevant meetups, events, seminars, conventions and exhibitions. Just think about where the person you want to meet might be hanging out.

Avoid falling into the trap of being too picky about whom you add value to, and ‘saving’ your value for only those you think are relevant.

That’s the thing about social interactions ‒ spreading positive emotions, even if it’s simply a warm smile, costs you nothing, and pays you dividends.

You can add more value to your network by proactively reaching out to people periodically, and not just when you want something from them.

always seek ways of helping before asking for help.

Acting naturally and not letting their higher status get to you is the way forward.

you need to start small – take small risks by running small tests to see if your idea has legs.

The only way to learn is to dive in at the deep end.

You may have created a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist, or for a problem the customers don’t perceive as a problem, or for a small problem that the customer is not motivated to solve.

Beware of falling in love with your idea before you have any feedback from prospective customers/users.

‘If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.’

Mindset is critical at this stage. Being resilient. Having the vision to motivate yourself. Having the determination, perseverance and grit to just get on with it and unearth an unmet need.

keep experimenting and tinkering with your tactics.

And remember that what worked in the past will often not make you a success today. That’s why the mindset is more important than the tactics and why being a growth hacker means unlearning and relearning all the time.

And we discussed the hard work mindset ‒ the belief that we have the power to change the course of our lives for the better by setting goals and putting in the effort and the hours to get there.