Startup Founder's Self-Developing Experience

As a business, startups are required to keep moving forward. Boosting growth is a daily thought. Many new events forced the people in them to be swept away in the pace of development. When businesses skyrocket, the people in them are full of experience and skills.

For a founder, CEO, or people who are responsible for thinking about the direction of the movement of the business, the fast movement of the business must be accompanied by the pace of self-development. That's why startup founders need mentors or other learning resources. In an era of ease, where finding out information is only limited whether you want it or not, the media study now in many forms. Books, audio, videos, and the like are easy to find. It's just a matter of how we prefer it.

DailySocial interviewed a number of startup founders about their habits in developing themselves. The results are mixed. The titles of the books they read, the people they meet, and the mentors in their networks all play a part in their development.

Some like to take inspiration from the books they read. For example, Irzan Raditya, CEO kata.ai. He mentioned that he would read books on topics he wanted to master, such as questions about human resources or sales. He also does not hesitate to run to find online courses which if it can open up his insight on a topic that is useful when running his business.

"So basically when we set up a startup or become a startup employee the most important thing is growth mindset, "Irzan said.

Meanwhile for Founders Wahyoo Peter Shearer, the process of self-development can also be obtained from other co-founders. In addition to being a partner in developing a business, a co-founder can be a way to broaden your horizons, especially in crucial areas. As for books, Peter recommends a book by Tony Hsieh.

"I like books Delivering happiness written by Tony Hsieh. How did he tell about the process he built Zappos so that it could be successfully bought by Microsoft for 265 million dollars," he said.

Reading books is also a favorite way of self-development for WarungPintar Co-Founder Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro and TaniHub Co-Founder Michael Jovan.

For Agung, one of the main things in self-development is with stay curious. Curiosity will encourage individuals to keep developing. In addition, listening to users is also one of the best ways for Agung to get input about his business.

Agung is also included in one of the founder who made the resource book for upgrade self. One of the books that Agung read was The Art of Happiness of the Dalai Lama. The book called Agung is always a guide and is always recommended to his colleagues who need insight in self-development. According to him, in the book we can understand the issue of prioritizing kindness, compassion and tolerance. Complete with implementation in everyday life and the world of work.

"The part of the book The Art of Happiness that is no less interesting is the part where we are directed to view our work as a calling, so that we stick to the original reason why we got into the job and don't give up easily. It would give you a greater sense of purpose and resolve," said the Great.

Meanwhile for Jovan, inspiration and ideas can come from anywhere and in any form, either directly or indirectly. That's why Jovan learned many things from various things, such as reading, watching movies, to watching a football match.

These things can trigger him to find out something further by typing a keyword in a search engine or reading a book.

Jovan admitted that he only liked books in the last three years. War-themed books, such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Swordless Samurai, are among the lists he has completed. According to his confession, the most impressive was outliers written by Malcolm Gladwell.

“But the point of it all is that I always broaden my horizons in a way that and random. From this method often find various common threads from various previous information. After getting this insight, only then did I look for relevant books to deepen my knowledge," said Jovan.

Apart from books, everyone agrees that "listening" is the best way to develop yourself. Listening to this can mean looking for or talking to mentors, discussing with fellow entrepreneurs, or hearing the experiences of those who were successful in the past.

At least that's what Rama Raditya did while running Qlue. Not books or online classes, he admits that he was inspired by several fellow startup founders, one of whom is Nadiem Makarim, the founder Gojek. He is also quite active in listening to directions from Martin Hartono and Arya Setiadharma as his mentors.

"Learning is the main key if we run a startup. So if we are too busy just to run a business As usual without honing ourselves it also results in ineffective, inefficient. My principle is, instead of having to chop wood with the same ax for 6 hours, it's better for us spend time to sharpen the ax so that it can cut wood faster. The most dangerous thing is when our company is bigger than ourselves," continued Irzan.

For those who want to develop themselves through online courses, DailySocial summarizes several classes that can be useful if followed. Not only about technology, the classes on the list also contain a variety of themes that startup founders can take advantage of. Here is the list:

• Open Yale Courses: Game Theory
• Open Yale Courses: Financial Markets (2011)
• MIT Open Courseware
• Harvard Online Courses