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Facebook 534, Twitter: 35, Linkedin: 34. If you’re asking what are those numbers, they represent how valuable are those projects for certain people (in millions dollars invested!!). Those are just a couple of samples of how much funding can get a web project. But how far is going to be yours?

I always liked to merge entrepreneurship with leadership. I think that an entrepreneur needs to be a good leader to be successful, and a leader by default, is generating new things all the time, he’s taking people to places that they couldn’t go alone (sometimes they couldn’t even imagine to be there) and that’s done by being creative, by looking forward, and staying sharp as a leader.

But “generate new things” it’s not the only job for an entrepreneur. The reason that companies like Facebook went so far, or that startups like Twitter or LinkedIn are going so far in the middle of this crisis, it’s not because they’re lucky, but it’s because they’re leading the process which includes overcoming difficult times.

I have failed sometimes in the past, even when there were great forecasts announcing really high revenues, I saw great ideas die after a hard reality hit them. But I reject to talk about this “crisis” that everybody’s talking about, I prefer to say “Silence, I kill you” (see Achmed video for reference) to the idea of a global crisis because the way we talk, the things we say, the conversations that we maintain have impact in our reality, that’s why I always prefer to talk about possibility. We need to understand our reality, but as entrepreneurs, as leaders, as people that live on the cutting edge technology we must talk about a possible future, always.

There’s a very interesting principle that the ontology studies which says something like: “The human being is a linguistic being”, which means that the second thing that we do all the time after thinking is talking. That said, we really need to think about what we’re saying!.

The second principle that I learned, is that “the language is a reality generator tool”, every time you declare something with your mouth, you’re generating changes, when a judge says Jail to somebody, he’s changing somebody else’s life. The same happens when you declare that you’re done with something, that 2009 is not the best year to start anything, or to invest time on anything. When you say that kind of things you’re actually “jailing yourself”, probably without being aware of that.

I always remember three advices that helped me be strong in those “critical times” in the past.

1) “If somebody did it before, then you can make it”. When I see countries rising up after very long wars, or after horrible events like 9/11, when I see them strong again, I think that’s a miracle, but it’s not. Whenever you feel like you can’t keep up, whenever you feel that you have spent too much effort on your project without any reward, think about this kind of events, they will show you that there’s nothing impossible, that there’s not a situation that you can’t overcome if you really strive with a strong entrepreneur’s vision, being focused on the future.

2) “A leader is never dropped, he’s always rising up”. As I said I had difficult times in the past, times where I didn’t have even one dollar for the bus to go to a meeting. But you can’t quit just because you feel tired, you can’t forget about your vision because it’s difficult to keep up. Leave your projects when you feel that it’s done, when you feel that the time has passed to that idea, but not because you’re holding fear about the future, or because someone else is saying you can’t.

3) “Go get the opportunity, don’t wait for it”. It starts in your language, it’s starts in your brain where you let your thoughts exist. Don’t believe that phrase saying that the opportunity comes next to the crisis. The real entrepreneurs are those who generate the opportunity with their efforts, their passion of what they do, and their constancy in those difficult times. You won’t find people touched by a wand, that didn’t happen to those companies that I mentioned before, they just remained strong, and as Steve Jobs said, they probably remained hungry and foolish too, that’s how they got so far!.

Two days ago I posted my goals for 2009 at Facebook and somebody told me: “isn’t that too much?”, that remembered me a great phrase that I want to share with you, specially today:

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”

Matias Paterlini

Article originally written for YoungTechStars.com

paterlinimatias Entrepreneurship, Social Media Entrepreneurship, Facebook, leadership, opportunity, possibility, twitter

If you want to create a rocket and put your flag on the moon, let me tell you it is late my friend. If you want to sell a million flying cars in the states, it’s probably not the right moment. One of the most important things that will make you successful is to be completely aware of what you’re doing, know exactly the time to do it, as well as the current status of the market.

“Finding the right idea is almost as important as finding the right time.”

When I was having my coaching training the first lesson that they gave us was “The future is all possibility!!”, but if we want to see the OPPORTUNITY, we need to be good observers of what’s happening around us. I saw many business fail because they didn’t take this in to account. I have a friend who wanted to put a computer shop together for years, but when he started his company it was a complete mess. 6 months later, he had to close the store.  Today, the idea wouldn’t be as succesful due to the fact there are big retailers with better prices in better places.

If I make a review of each of my four startups even when not all of them were successful and others are just beginning, I find that everyone of them was started when it came time. My first startup was a christian mobile contents company; it was the first one in Latin America and we’ve been alone in the market for more than 8 months. The second was a real state platform which provides websites to real state agents. We are still the only ones offering that service. The next was a new format to sell properties using videos over the internet and television- there’s nothing like that in Argentina yet. And the last one, a social media development company which was working on social media even when people didn’t know about Facebook in our country.

I really had that advice in mind before I started anything, but How can we know when It Is time??? Let me answer this with a short story in my own words.

“There was two rough fat woodcutters who were called the Kings of the handsaw. Nobody could beat them, till the day that two young and thin guys got into the business and started making twice the production that the kings were doing. Of course none of the woodcutters could understand what was happening, because they double their efforts to increase their production, but nobody could reach the young guys marks. So one day they decided to pay attention to the successful woodcutters and they found that they were taking 15 minutes every day sharpening their handsaw before doing anything.”

If we want to see when is the right moment for an idea or startup, we have to be sharp. How Can We Be Sharp?

Three “How-To” Methods of Staying Sharp:

• Take Advantage of Twitter Momentum: If you’re on the net, you have to be on twitter. There are at least two or three special moments in the day that have momentum and those are the moments between 6 and 7 AM PST (9and 10am EST). That is when people get up and check all the tweets from the people they’re following. In the morning you can see the biggest amount of hot news about technology, startups, and the market. Of course you can read blogs too, but tweeter works like a efficient filter of the hottest changes in the world. That early moment in the day people are concentrated on twitter, paying attention to the new followers, so that is the moment when you can find opportunities, where you can hear the world telling you “This is the moment”, or “Not Yet”.
• Take care of your blindspots. Our eyes give us 180 grades of visibility, that means that you always have blindspots where you don’t know what’s happening. So, I think that one of the most helpful tools is to follow someone that you respect on your field. In the past you had to go to a monastery, or to the heights on the mountains. Nowadays we have lots of ways to follow people such us twitter, blogs, rss, email newsletters, etc. If you don’t have at least one person from which you are learning constantly, try to get one because  that will allow you to see something that your probably not aware of.
• Never lose your passion. The passion will help you take those risky decisions in the right moment, it will help you make unbelievable efforts when it’s required, and to fight for that dream that you have. If you fell like getting unenthusiastic, then you should open your eyes and get in contact with passionate people who are going to show you that success is still possible, and will put fuel into your entrepreneur’s heart.

Matias Paterlini

This article was originally written for youngtechstars.com. Original URL: http://www.youngtechstars.com/?p=263

paterlinimatias Entrepreneurship, twitter Entrepreneurship, opportunity, passion, success, ventures

In my deep desire of becoming a successful entrepreneur in the near future, I found this excellent article that describes my feelings every time a face a new opportunity in my life. I took it from Evan Williams (Twitter CEO) Blog, and I want to share it with you:

Starting a company is like landing on the shore of a deserted island

“You have a certain amount of provisions, which you have to make last until you find a way to make the island sustain life—or convince someone to send you more.

You don’t know how big the island is at first or what predators lie in wait.

There’s always a chance someone else will raid your island if it looks fruitful, so you need to shore up your defenses.

Eventually, if you’re successful, you’ll be king of your own prosperous world. If not, you’ll die—or, at least, have to go home.

Either way, it’s a fun adventure (until you get eaten by a tiger).”

Original post: http://evhead.com/2008/10/starting-company-is-like-landing-on.html

With passion!

Matias

paterlinimatias Entrepreneurship business, entrepreneurs, opportunity, startup