A few weeks back, we were invited to record a segment with Vibewire’s Mary Nguyen on Business21C Weekly, Business21C’s regular business podcast.  The segment was called “Young Entrepreneurs Shape the Future” and we talked about how Vibewire’s Enterprise Hub helps creative and social entrepreneurs and the challenges Axle8 (who happens to be a resident at the Enterprise Hub) face as a early stage startup.

Personally, it was my first interview in a radio studio (2SER) and we were interviewed by the presentators of the Business21C podcasts Mike Hanley and Kristen Lees - they as well as their producer Gabriella Lahti were great and i was humbled to discover that they interviewed living legend of architecture, Mr Frank Gehry in this segment only 2 weeks before. Being a podcast, it wasn’t recorded live which was a good thing; there was only one guideline: try not to thump the table in front of us where the mics were mounted during animated discussion (I think i might have sat on my hands for whole time i was there).

At the end of the interview I were asked what my advice was for young entrepreneurs. Here’s a summary of my thoughts:

1. Talk to people about your idea. Get feedback. Don’t work in stealth - that’s the worst thing you can do as you won’t get balance and perspective. And you know what, if an idea’s good, there’s probably a good chance some other smart cookie has thought of it too.
2. Ask for advice and help. Just because you’re young or inexperienced doesn’t mean you can’t tap into the knowledge base of the budding entrepreneurial network that’s around you. But what it does need is discipline and tenacity, a urgency to “figure it out” and to “get it done”.
3. Execution is key. This goes back to the first point and is what i think probably has the highest correlation to success. Ideas can be copied but with execution, well, it’s different. It’s harder, it takes more steps, it has more unknowns, it’s never just on a single piece of paper. It’s what will make you win but it’s also what will keep you up at night. But most of all, it’s probably what will protect you best against copycats.