Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









Lesson #5: Discipline Yourself and Learn To Say No

Chris De Wolfe Tom Anderson Quote


Article Overview: “We were resolute to do what our users wanted,” says DeWolfe. “Having discipline and saying no is why we ended up being so successful.”

Free Download - Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson Quotes By Chris De Wolfe Tom Anderson
Name: Email:

Lesson #5: Discipline Yourself and Learn To Say No

“We were resolute to do what our users wanted,” says DeWolfe. “Having discipline and saying no is why we ended up being so successful.”

Anderson and DeWolfe witnessed it in other companies time and time again, and they were determined to avoid the same fates. One of the biggest traps entrepreneurs fall into, says DeWolfe, is “when you start to grow and there is a little bit of success.” Then, “people get on the soapbox, like pundits and venture capitalists, who tell you how to run your business.”

MySpace had its fair share of pundits in its early days, and still does. There were those who thought the site should implement pop-up ads. There were others who thought that members who wanted to use MySpace for commercial purposes should be charged a fee. Finally, there were those who thought that allowing individuals to design their own profile pages was just plain bad common sense. “It’s important to be very disciplined in terms of not listening to them,” says DeWolfe.

“For the most part everyone doubted we were a real company and a real site because we weren't in the Silicon Valley,” he continues. “And we didn't do things like everyone else. We had ten different features on our site. They considered that to be unfocused. The user interface wasn't pretty. We weren't using Linux operating system but off-the-shelf Microsoft products, which was unheard of.”

“So we are not doing what everyone else is doing,” says Anderson. “When we were getting popular, people were saying, ‘Why aren’t you doing this or that?’ I thought they were ridiculous, and they thought I was ridiculous.”

One of the most major criticisms of MySpace in its early days was that Anderson and DeWolfe were trying to accomplish too much. Was it a site for music? Instant messaging? Blogs? Nobody could quite figure it out. They told Anderson and DeWolfe to scale back their operations. “That was the antithesis of what we aimed to do,” says DeWolfe. “Most of the sites that did that became boring after awhile.”

That being said, however, the duo does understand the importance of focus. They just did not want other people telling them what that focus should be. “Others try to do too many things at one given time,” says DeWolfe. “At any one time, we focus our developers on the top three to four initiatives and don’t get distracted with what others tell us we ought to do.”

They also understand the importance of having a trusted team of advisors around them, who they seek advice from even if they choose not to listen. “Continuity with senior management is very important,” says DeWolfe. “It’s been one of the reasons why we’ve won.”

But no matter who is around them, at the end of the day the final decisions always came back to DeWolfe and Anderson, who says, “In a way, it’s our lack of experience that helps.” It was their lack of experience that let them do what they did not know they could not do.

Related Articles
  Discipline Is A Beautiful Word
  Personal Discipline
  If You Do Not Conquer Self, You Will Be Conquered By Self
  Improve with Discipline and Persevere
  The Gravity of Failure

Home > Famous-Entrepreneurs > Chris De Wolfe Tom Anderson > Lesson 5 Discipline Yourself and Learn To Say No
Article Tags: antithesis, commercial purposes, common sense, discipline, fair share, fates, instant messaging, linux, little bit, microsoft, microsoft products, myspace, operating system, pop up ads, pundits, silicon valley, soapbox, traps, user interface, venture capitalists



Related Forum Posts
Lisa Shepherd Story Lisa Shepherd Story - Great story! I love the Earn - Learn - Equity - it's very relavent for new entrepreneurs.
Hello from Newbie Hello from Newbie - Hi everyone: I am newbie and a freelance bookkeeping & accounting entrepreneur. Hope I enjoy my time here. Will Learn from you and share my thoughts and ideas with you.
Re: Do you have to have your own business in order to Re: Do you have to have your own business in order to - Good for you, and remember that education is never wasted. So the more you learn the better off you will be and the less chance you will have of being ripped off by anyone. Learn all you can about patenting and marketing your product and you will be sure to succeed. MichelleJ
Re: Make millions with this software Re: Make millions with this software - Hi ideasprosperity, Very good post. It is a real challenge. I think we all can benefit doing a '30 day challenge', especially as we face so much distraction. One thing I learned from a Internet marketer, do not read the emails several times a day. It results in responding and consequently wastes the time. Just one point I will raise, life can get in the way. Discipline is very important factor to keep going on without getting sidetracked. We benefit by being on course like Mike Dillard suggested: Make a list the night before for the following day. It is good to read the previous post several times so that it will sink in to make a difference. Be encouraged
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods - We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her. Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails. I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out. So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.


Recommended Article for You close

  Discipline Is A Beautiful Word

Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

How Many Buckets Do You Need for Retirement?

Fear Factors in Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Are You My Mentor

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.