Break the Rules! Quotes

“as I studied some of today's most accomplished entrepreneurs and the extent to which they apply these mindsets, I found something surprising. In a sample of 138 accomplished entrepreneurs running fast‐growing, successful businesses, the mean number of the six mindsets that they reported as characterizing the way they work was 3.4.12 Few in that sample exhibited all six!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“It is widely known that entrepreneurs tend to have an inherent bias for action and for learning by doing. “Analysis paralysis” is not a disease with which most of the successful ones have been afflicted. “Ready, fire, aim,” is more like it. They try something and see whether it works. Experimentation, of course, amounts to just that.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Thus, contrary to the folklore, entrepreneurs don't much like risk either. They use these six mindsets to mitigate it. Or manage it. Or off‐load it onto others. “Isn't your idea risky?” they will be asked. Of course, it's risky! There's market risk: Will customers buy (They bought from the outset at Budgetplaces.com; but not so fast at Nespresso.)? There's technology risk: Will the new‐fangled product actually work (Would Elon Musk figure out how to build electric vehicles with enough range?)? There's execution risk: Will the team be able to deliver what it sets out to deliver (Simon Cohen's 2 a.m. wake‐ups stole a day on his competitors.)? And more. Working counter‐conventionally, they all put one or more of the six mindsets into action.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“With innovation comes risk. Why don't big companies like risk, when innovation is so central to their future success? In my experience, risk calls to the forefront the possibility of failure. Big companies, especially those traded on public stock exchanges, are asked to deliver consistent quarter‐after‐quarter results to their shareholders. Almost by definition, big new ideas, whether new products or new ventures, with their high risk of failure that I noted in Chapter 1, simply don't fit. Why change something that seems to be working just fine?”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Best‐selling authors Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin said it all in their 2010 book, The Power of Positive Deviance. “You cannot think your way into a new way of acting, you have to act your way into a new way of thinking.”2 So putting the mindsets revealed in this book into action in your life and your business isn't going to happen by just thinking differently.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Or, just maybe, you are the leader and you've been charged with or taken on the daunting task of getting your slow‐growing company out of its rut. What you probably need is get a few brave people onto your bus, as Jim Collins puts it, to start breaking some of the conventional rules! I suggest you give them this book, or at least Chapters 3 through 6, and let them get on with it!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“There was a lot of fear on their part that they would be a famous national case if they didn't take action on something that was now very public,” Jorgensen recalls. He learned his first government‐relations lesson: The regulators enforced laws; they didn't make them or change them.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“It might be that begging forgiveness after the fact will turn out not to be necessary! Thus, as we'll see in this chapter, a better course of action, in many entrepreneurs' minds, is never to ask permission at all. Just get the ball rolling, and if the venture eventually runs into legal or regulatory challenges, they'll beg forgiveness later, contritely of course, and seek to resolve them at that time. Meanwhile, if the venture pans out, they may have won an abundance of customers who love what they do and may join the venture in pleading that any legal ambiguity be resolved in their favor.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“The result of all this thinking and of the bureaucratic cholesterol that often accompanies it, in many established companies, is threefold: There are lots of people, processes, and perspectives that can say “no” to a new initiative. There are few who have the authority to say “yes.” And, whatever the verdict, it rarely arrives quickly. Often, however, the pursuit of opportunity requires acting quickly,”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Is the venture legal? Are there regulations that might limit or forbid it? Are there risks, including some perhaps previously unseen, that should be considered? Fortunately, in such companies, there are committees of all kinds and armies of lawyers whose main job is to protect the company from those unseen risks, avoid potential lawsuits, and keep its executives out of jail. Why? Many companies' leaders, at their core, don't like risk very much. They prefer as much certainty as they can get their hands on. If the company is listed on a stock exchange, they feel obliged to deliver the earnings that investors expect and deliver them consistently, quarter to quarter. No down quarters, please.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“If you're working on your own venture, rather than in a deep‐pocketed large company, you may well need to raise capital at some point. You'll raise that capital more easily, and on better terms, if you can demonstrate progress, of course. But “borrowing” the initial assets you need demonstrates something else, too. It shows that you're conscious of and serious about running a capital‐efficient business. Investors like that! A lot!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“On the value of exclusivity: GoApe!'s 26‐year exclusive deal with the UK Forestry Commission would not have happened without Tristram Mayhew having thought ahead about how best to build a business whose business model could grow and how to maintain attractive profit margins. Keeping prospective competitors from bidding against him for future Forest Commission sites was a stroke of genius. You should try to do likewise whenever you can. It will help you keep competition at bay!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman puts it this way: There's a bunch of things that, structurally, start‐ups have as advantages over big companies. One is speed across all levels. It's not just speed at raw execution. But it's also speed of hiring, speed of decisioning, speed of learning, speed of judgment of product‐market fit, etc… . They [big companies] have a group consensus process, so that if they're going to take a risk, somebody who's in a managerial or executive role will question that risk. So it's hard for them to do, hard to move quickly.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“In late 2004, countering the conventional wisdom that the outsourcing boom meant Western companies' outsourcing to Eastern resources, Bharti made front‐page headlines in the Wall Street Journal for “reverse outsourcing”—that is, by reaching agreements with IBM and three network equipment vendors, Ericsson, Nokia, and Siemens—to carry out Gupta's plan.7 Under the network equipment deals, Bharti would pay for capacity only once it had been used by customers. IBM committed to certain IT service levels and would get a percentage of revenue.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Mittal recalls what he and his team had been thinking. If you're caught between speed and perfection, always choose speed, and perfection will follow. You never wait for perfect positioning, because in business you don't have the time; especially if you're small, you can't do it.6”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Whether you get the cash you need—and whether it's to get started or to grow—from customers who pay early or from suppliers you can pay late, or from other unconventional or counter‐conventional sources, the sheer beauty of all of this kind of finance is what it costs you—nothing! You don't have to pay it back with interest, like a bank loan. You don't have to give up a stake in your business to a possibly rapacious or unhelpful investor.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“The audacity of Elon Musk to ask for $100,000 to reserve a yet‐to‐be built Roadster, or a more modest sum for a new Model 3. The courage of John Erceg to keep spending every spare euro to buy more AdWords. The personal conviction of both that they were on sound paths. The trust that Jay Gupta built with his suppliers. The self‐belief of all three that, in the end, they would do what it takes to survive and succeed, no matter the prior odds. It's your own personal attributes—your mindset—that make this kind of “ask for the cash” funding possible. These attributes—audacity, courage, trustworthiness, faith in oneself—are not part of everyone's personality, to be sure. Setting forth on an entrepreneurial path, whether from your garage or within an established business, is not for everyone, either. But if the entrepreneurial path is one you wish to pursue, in one way or another, there's no better or more hospitable way to finance your journey than by finding a need that's so compelling for your customers that they'll pay you up front, and finding suppliers that will take payment later, if only because they trust you and they believe you'll bring value to their business, too.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“At the end of the day, starting something new, whether at a kitchen table, in a co‐working space, or deep inside an established business almost always initiates a learning journey. But that journey is not only about what the customers want and will pay for. It's also about how best to get them to pay as far in advance as you can.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“I often hear entrepreneurs say they require seed funding to build their initial prototype. I always respond, “Not so!” In my first entrepreneurial venture, I convinced a high school metal shop teacher to have his students undertake, as a class project, building the prototype I needed, for free. It was win‐win for the students and for me.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“I'd always had profits and I always had the cash I needed to operate. I had failed to appreciate the difference between profits and cash flow. It shook me up to see the cash disappear when I started flipping the stores and adding corporate overheads.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Surprisingly, at least to most observers, Tesla has not needed to raise any further equity since May 2019. Who needs investors—or bankers, either—when your customers are so excited about what you offer that they are willing to fund your business, with what amount to interest‐free loans, at that! As Bruce Sidlinger, already an owner of two Tesla vehicles reported, “The morning after the Roadster was announced, I put a deposit down … Elon Musk is one of our planet's great hopes. I would offer a kidney to him if he needed it.”20 Thus, here's a question for you: Can you find a way to get your customers to fund your business as generously as Musk has at Tesla? Perhaps, with the right mindset and a compelling offer, you can!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“It's Musk's view that if you've built something that customers simply have to have, they will queue up to get it and pay deposits in advance to secure their place in the queue. That cash, paid well in advance at multiple points in Tesla's journey, was used to hire automotive engineers, to build new factories, and to do what was necessary to keep Tesla on the road to survival and more.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“First, let's be clear what I mean by “ask for the cash” and “ride the float.” I mean the following: After (courageously) asking for and getting payment from your customers as early as possible (ideally before you make or deliver what they've agreed to buy) and after convincing your key suppliers to take payment from you as late as possible (perhaps 30 or 60 or 90 days after they've shipped you what you ordered), you'll find your bank account flush with cash, at least until you have to pay your suppliers. While you have that cash in hand—the “float” before you have to pay it to your suppliers—you can use it to grow your business. Buy inventory. Hire people. Buy more Google AdWords. And so on. As your business grows, you then use your future revenue to pay your suppliers and your people, just in time when their bills come due. That's exactly what 19‐year‐old Michael Dell did in 1984 to start Dell Computer. And it's mostly how he grew Dell, too.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“While thinking narrowly is not going to guarantee the success of whatever opportunity you next pursue, it's going to enhance the depth of your understanding of what your customer wants and will pay for. It will give you a fighting chance of building a successful first platform, even if it's a small one. You can then grow from there. Among the break‐the‐rules mindsets that skilled entrepreneurs adopt, this mindset might be the most important of all.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“But the corporate shackles of rules, plans, and governance do not always lend themselves well to new product and new venture settings. Moving Nespresso's team outside Nestlé's headquarters unquestionably helped Gaillard and Favre get on with it and eventually break from Nestlé's conventional marketing practices with the Nespresso Club, which proved to be a pivotal marker in Nespresso's journey.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“These days, it seems, entrepreneurs are in a great hurry. They want to grow their companies into unicorns the day after tomorrow! But entrepreneurship played to win is typically a long game. Building successful companies for the long term requires a combination of patience and perseverance to stay the course, along with the flexibility to pivot when the data calls for a pivot. It's a journey not for the faint of heart, as we've seen. My advice? Don't rush it. If you're on a sound path, success will come, as Pandora found. If it's a narrow path at the outset, so much the better, as you'll better understand what your narrowly targeted market really wants. One entrepreneur I know well says that entrepreneurship is the art of staying alive until you get lucky!”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“On the “large market trap”: It's easy to become beguiled by large and potentially attractive markets, as Tuninvest was. Nespresso, too, in its early days, eyeing the 70 percent of the coffee market served by roasted and ground coffee that it did not sell. “If I can only sell my widget to 1 percent of the people in China, I'll be rich,” some say. Market size is important, of course, as there's more room in large markets for multiple companies to be successful. But, as a starting point, I'll take a very narrow target market having a compelling problem that I can solve, and solve better than anyone else. My advice: think narrow at the outset. Moving the needle can come later, once progress is in hand.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“In building your next venture, think narrowly about what's crucial to do yourself and outsource the rest. Doing so will give you the bandwidth to continuously examine and deepen your understanding of what your narrow target market needs and what your narrow product line should consist of.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“One might reasonably ask, though, about the risk entailed in adopting a narrow focus, when that initial focus probably isn't going to work. Wouldn't it be better, some wonder, to have several irons in the fire? For the reasons mentioned earlier, my answer is, “No!” You'll probably have to pivot, perhaps more than once, but a preponderance of evidence suggests that pivoting to a new area of focus is much better than lacking focus at the start.”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

“Focusing narrowly, whether on a narrow market or a narrow product line, brings important benefits. Whether for entrepreneurs writing their first business plan or those toiling inside a large company, these benefits can be material. They: Limit the resources—human, financial, and otherwise—required to move forward Aid in understanding the target market's unique and perhaps unmet wants and needs Enhance speed to market Get everyone rowing the boat in the same direction”
― John Mullins, Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World