Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Daniel Ek

by Scott Edward Walker on May 23rd, 2012

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we present Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify and a brilliant, serial entrepreneur.

In this fascinating interview (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), Daniel shares a number of solid nuggets and insights, including:

  • his definition of an entrepreneur – i.e., “someone who has an itch for a problem and is annoyed enough by that problem to go out and seek a solution”
  • the advantage of youth and how naivety allows you to be solution-oriented
  • the importance of execution – “It’s really all about execution.  Ideas are 5%; execution is 95%.”
  • the importance of patience and perseverance – “The one trait that I have is this itch, and I never, ever, ever give up.”
  • the effectiveness of testing to get to a “crisp” solution
  • management/leadership tips, including the importance of physical presence, the sharing of company information and focusing on 3-5 key, measurable results
  • “surround yourself with people smarter than yourself”
  • the importance of being obsessed with “the few things that matter” and learning to say “no”
  • “hire fast and fire fast”

I hope you enjoy it.  Many thanks, Scott

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