You can find many stories of successful companies that originated from a serendipitous moment like two people randomly meeting or someone being in a certain place at a certain time. The good news is you can even help increase your own serendipity with the help of science. Call it: science-dipity.

Researcher Richard Wiseman, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire, has studied and written extensively about good fortune and says it’s not chance at all, but a certain way of living that makes some people more serendipitous than others.

These people employ four key characteristics in their lives. Let’s take a look at these in the context of how one of the largest modern business empires, Starbucks, got started.

Maximizing chance opportunities

Opened in 1971 in Seattle’s historic Pike Market by English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel and writer Gordon Bowker, the original Starbucks only sold roasted whole coffee beans and coffee making equipment.

A decade after opening, Swedish coffee maker company Hammarplast sent one of its marketing executives there to investigate why this little shop in Seattle sold more of its coffee makers than Nordstrom.

That marketing executive? Current Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Wiseman says serendipitous people are “skilled at creating, noticing and acting upon chance opportunities,” and they do this by “networking, adopting a relaxed attitude to life and by being open to new experiences.”

We can see here that Schultz is adept at noticing and acting on a chance opportunity to network with clients of his then-employer, Hammarplast.

How you can do it: Keep an open mind to what everyone has to say. You might not think a certain person is worth talking to, but that person could spark an idea for you or be the connection you never knew you needed.

Listening to gut talk

Schultz was immediately smitten with the business because Starbucks’ core mission actually centered around “teaching the customers the art of making coffee.” Selling coffee beans was just a result of having this core mission.

For some of us, listening to our guts means knowing when it’s lunch, but for serendipitous people, it means instinctively knowing a good opportunity when it comes along. Wiseman says people who have a lot of serendipity in their lives listen to their intuition. Obviously Shultz’s intuition was telling him this coffee thing had a bright future to it.

Initially, the original Starbucks crew was reluctant to hire Schultz, believing that he was too eager to grow the brand, preferring instead to grow it gradually. In 1982, after agreeing to grow Starbucks at a slower pace, he quit his higher paying Hammarplast job and signed on with the coffee bean retailer, who sent him to Milan in 1983 to attend a housewares show. What he came back with — a template for the ideal coffee shop from Italy’s cafes — would go on to change American culture.

This is another instance of Schultz following a hunch and seeing it pan out in the best possible way.

How you can do it: Quite simply, listen to your intution and take a risk when it “feels” right. True, your gut might steer you wrong sometimes, but if you just have a good feeling about something, try it out and see where it takes you.

Turning misfortune into fortune

Unfortunately for Schultz, the founders of Starbucks weren’t in business to change American culture and didn’t want to become a cafe chain. Ultimately, he left the company and formed his own line of cafes, branded as “Il Giornale.”

Wiseman says people who enjoy a lot of fortunate circumstances in their lives do it by turning around situations where they experience misfortune by seeing the positives in the situation.

In this case, Schultz didn’t dwell on having to leave Starbucks to realize his dream, he simply viewed it as an opportunity to start his own business with a concept that was already proven to work.

How you can do it: Always look at the lessons you can learn from failure and the opportunities a mistake creates. There’s no use dwelling on the past, so you might as well get whatever positives you can out of a bad situation.

Expecting good things to happen

In 1988, the original Starbucks owners decided they wanted to pursue other ventures and sold the company to Schultz, who immediately rebranded Il Giornale to Starbucks and went on to have modest success with it.

People who experience a lot of serendipity in their lives are certain the future is going to be full of good fortune, Wiseman says. Therefore, they approach life full of confidence and positive thoughts, which actually help to shape their future. It makes their expectation for good fortune a self-fulfilling prophecy, just like Schultz did with his eternal optimism about the Starbucks format.

How you can do it: Be confident and think positively and approach every situation with this mindset. If you expect bad things to happen, they likely will. So expect good things to happen instead.

Be cognizant of how you shape your own world. Opportunity may be the one to knock on your door, but serendipity is the one that makes sure you’re home at the time. Good luck.

The post How Serendipity Can Play a Crucial Role in Your Business Success (Just Like it Did for Starbucks) appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

When you’re learning a musical instrument, it’s sage advice to practice what you can’t do rather than what you can do. If you can speed through your scales on guitar but struggle changing between chords, there’s no use spending half your practice time on scales since you’re already good at those. Concentrate on the chords instead.

But, sage advice for budding musicians gets completely turned around for entrepreneurs, who should pay less attention to what they’re not good at and concentrate on what they do well. If you put almost all your money and effort into what you can do, it often overshadows what you can’t do.

It’s worked for some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Let’s see how these billionaires used their strengths to build powerhouse brands.

R&D (and only R&D)

Elon Musk and his approach to Tesla are a good example of how near singular focus on one aspect of your business can propel your company forward without having to think a lot about other aspects of it. Being a problem solver who loves to rely on technology, Musk concentrates basically all of his efforts on building a better product with Tesla.

Think about the last time you saw an advertisement for a car company like Ford, Nissan or Volkswagen. I bet it was easily within the last few hours. Now think of the last time you saw a Tesla advertisement. I bet you can’t even recall one. But, somehow you still know about Tesla.

That’s because Tesla is in the news a lot and it’s in the news a lot because its products are changing an entire industry. The blackout on advertising is by design.

In Musk’s own words: “At Tesla, we’ve never spent any money on advertising. We’ve put all our money into R&D, engineering, design, and manufacturing to build the best car possible. When we consider spending money, we ask if this will create a better product? If not, we don’t proceed with spending the money.”

Regardless of what your strength is, whether it be production or marketing, differentiate yourself by using that strength. When it comes time to allocate money, dedicate the majority of your resources to what you do best.

But, the caveat here is that your product or service truly has to be phenomenal. If you are a whiz at marketing, but your products or services are subpar, you’re just going to end up alienating people.

Big numbers

For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the focus was on getting as many people using the site as possible, particularly early in its existence. Once upon a time Facebook actually did have competitors in MySpace and Friendster, but while those platforms got sidetracked with music and kept the virtual barriers up between people’s profiles, Zuckerberg understood the social aspect of social media.

Social means making connections and connections means more users. More users means more influence and more influence means more word-of-mouth advertising, which means more users … For Zuckerberg, accumulating more users meant everything and, therefore, every aspect of Facebook’s development was focused on the pursuit of attracting new people to it.

According to Facebook employee No. 30 (Noah Kagan to his mom), Zuckerberg once said: “I will not entertain any idea unless it helps Facebook grow the total number of users.”

No matter what your business is, the more people who use your products or services, the better. That might mean advertising or it might mean the aforementioned research and design, but if you reach a kind of critical mass with your product or service, the word-of-mouth advertising takes over and propels itself.

With this one, the caveat is that your product or service has to appeal to a wide audience, which is why this kind of focus works well for social media platforms. If you’re in a niche market, there’s probably only a relatively small amount of total users to go around.

Steadfastness

Sometimes a strength can be something as simple as being patient and steadfast. Take Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett for example. A lot of people pushed Buffett to invest in tech stocks, but he resisted because he has a specific investing strategy and sticks to it.

An extremely oversimplified version of his strategy is:

• Mature, stable companies that are involved in industries that are consumer staples.
• Companies that will conceivably be around in 50 years.
• Focus on a handful of stocks, no matter how many companies you have in your portfolio. (About two-thirds of Buffett’s holdings are usually only in a handful of stocks.)

As you can see by this criteria, tech stocks don’t usually fit into what Buffett looks for. Due to the nature of technology, it takes a tech company a long time to mature and become an established brand name that is assured of being around in 50 years. Despite pressure to do so, Buffett held off investing in companies like Apple until he was totally convinced the company fit with his stringent criteria and it’s paid off for Buffett and his holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Here, the caveat is that if you’re not willing to take risks on tech companies, you may indeed miss out on the next Facebook or some other massive opportunity. Playing the long and patient game works for Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, but if your gut is telling you that tech startup you keep hearing about is going to be huge, your gut may just be right.

By focusing on their strengths, these three titans of entrepreneurship have built themselves business empires. If a weakness is truly hurting your business, you should shore it up, obviously. But when allocating resources, remember that concentrating efforts on your weaknesses will at best make your company mediocre. It’s your strengths that will differentiate you from your competitors.

The post What Musk, Zuckerberg and Buffett Can Teach You About Playing to Your Strengths appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

If you ask me what entrepreneurs I want my sons to emulate as they grow up, the top three that come to mind are: Bill Gates, John Zimmer of Lyft and Elon Musk. I believe each of them has different and inspiring stories about how they’ve found success and how they’ve changed the world in positive ways.

All entrepreneurs have to start somewhere and regardless of who they are or what they’ve accomplished, the lessons they’ve learned in life start with their parents. I’ve already taken a look at the lessons Bill Gates learned from his parents, particularly his father, and here I look at what we can learn from the lessons Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, taught him.

Lesson 1: New experiences are important for expanding young people’s minds.

Elon and his siblings traveled all around the world with their father, allowing the kids to see and experience all kinds of things.

What we can learn from this: Experiencing new things is extremely important for people to grow. Obviously it would be great if everyone could zip around the world in private jets experiencing new things in person, but even if we can’t (and most of us can’t), that shouldn’t stop us from trying our best to give our kids new experiences. Between the internet, books, science centers, educational television, inexpensive workshops, classes and even ethnic restaurants there are myriad ways to try new things to expand your child’s mind (and your own).

Lesson 2: Even introverts can be successful leaders.

Elon’s father describes him as an introvert thinker, pointing out that if he were at a party, Elon would more than likely find the host’s library and go through their books rather than mingle.

What we can learn from this: Even the most ardent introvert can not only be successful, but be a successful leader. As Elon has proven, being an introvert thinker can drive big ideas, but also be an asset in leadership.

Lesson 3: It’s never too early to encourage your children to get involved in something they’re interested in.

When Elon was just 11, his father took him to a lecture about computers just as they started coming out. At the end of the lecture, Elon engaged the world’s leading computer experts at the time in conversation about the new machines. The experts implored his father to get Elon a machine, which Errol did, and Elon taught himself computing language on it.

What we can learn from this: It’s never too early to encourage your kids to explore their interests and try their hand at something. As adults, we can apply this to emerging technologies. If something new comes out and it piques your or their interest, check it out, even if they seem too young to be interested (keeping safety in mind, obviously).

Lesson 4: No matter how affluent you are, it’s important to instill your children with a sense of responsibility through work.

The Musks were an extremely affluent family in South Africa, but despite that, Errol Musk insisted that his children perform chores like cleaning the house and mowing the lawn. These are the types of chores that are usually done by maids and hired servants in South Africa, so it was quite unusual to make one’s children do them.

What we can learn from this: It’s far too easy for children from affluent families to feel entitled to a certain way of life. No matter how successful you have become and no matter how comfortable you are able to make your children’s lives, giving them a strong work ethic through actual work is important.

Lesson 5: Take a risk on your children because even if you lose money, the lesson will be priceless.

Obviously we don’t all have $28,000 ($45,000 in today’s money) to give to our precocious kids so they can start a company at an alarmingly young age. Errol Musk did just that with his two sons back in 1995, allowing them to start an internet-based business when most people were just getting used to the idea of the internet existing. It worked out well for everyone, with the Musks selling that company later for over $300 million.

What we can learn from this: While most of us would have to start with a much smaller gift than what Errol was able to offer, showing this type of confidence in a young entrepreneur is crucial for their development. Even some modest startup money that doesn’t generate any kind of return will go toward lessons they can use later in their entrepreneurial career. (Just make sure they’re actually going to use the money for business purposes.)

For me, the most important lesson is to support your budding entrepreneurs. Elon Musk and his father have had a bit of a rocky relationship, but despite what he may have said over the years about his father, I’m sure he could not have experienced the success he has without the guidance and lessons he learned from his dad. And we can apply these lessons as we raise the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs.

The post Use these 5 Lessons from Elon Musk’s Father to Help Raise Your Own World-Changing Entrepreneurs appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

You’re almost certainly familiar with the domino effect. It’s when you do something that causes something else to happen, which then causes something else to happen and so on like a line of dominoes after you push over the first one.

Particularly fruitful entrepreneurs use the domino effect to parlay their prosperity into even bigger success. However, it can also be the downfall of successful projects that are interconnected.

Take, for example, one of the United States’ most successful entrepreneurs who built an empire from his penchant for family entertainment, headed by one of the most famous rodent mascots in the entire world.

I’m talking — as you no doubt have guessed by now — about Nolan Bushnell, founder of Chuck E. Cheese’s. (Who did you think I was talking about?)

Despite losing its way back in the ’80s, Chuck E. Cheese’s has left its mark on American Culture, coming from one of the most influential business minds of the 20th Century. Bushnell is heralded as a technological pioneer and has been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame and named one of Newsweek’s “50 Men That Changed America.”

So, what lessons can we learn from his fascinating life? Let’s take a look:

1. Future business ideas often come from current business success.

Bushnell didn’t start out with Chuck E. Cheese’s. He had already founded Atari and was looking for ways to expand the burgeoning arcade game industry. Rather than keep arcade games in the smoky, adult-oriented pool halls they were often featured in, he wanted to put them into family friendly places.

He didn’t know of any family friendly restaurant chains that would fit his idea, so he just started one in Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. This was the perfect progression of business ideas for someone who grew up working in the amusement park industry like Bushnell had. He loved the Walt Disney Company and had already started a video game company in Atari.

With the perfect progression plan and relevant industry experience, Bushnell founded Chuck E. Cheese’s in a highly strategic business move by purchasing a small local operation and building it into an iconic business from the ground up that would also help expand his other business.

This was Bushnell putting the domino effect to work for his entrepreneurial success. One good business idea can lead to another one if it’s related.

2. You can recover from major mistakes.

As visionary an entrepreneur as Bushnell was, he did have a few major stumbles in his life. Once an employer of Steve Jobs, Bushnell made the cringeworthy mistake of rejecting an offer from Jobs to invest $50,000 for a one-third ownership stake of the then-newly formed Apple Computers, simply because he had no interest in home computers. (This is especially bad when you consider that this is a man who played an integral role in the creation of the home video gaming industry.)

However, despite missing out on an opportunity to be able to wallpaper his house with money, Bushnell not only survived, but thrived. He is still around today heading highly successful projects like educational software company BrainRush.

3. Knowing the right time to exit a business is just as important as knowing when to start one.

Timing plays an important role in entrepreneurship. A business that wouldn’t work right now might be perfect to start in five years and a business that you start now, which succeeds might suddenly tank in a year as the market shifts.

Atari did eventually end up tanking, but not before Bushnell sold controlling rights of the company and quit (at least according to his version of events). Chuck E. Cheese’s also tanked, but unfortunately for Bushnell, he didn’t get out in time from that and had to go through bankruptcy.

The restaurant ended up tanking largely due to Atari failing, and had Bushnell kept a keener eye on what was happening with Atari, he might have been able to avoid the losses he took with Chuck E. Cheese’s. So, just as the domino effect can be a good thing with entrepreneurship, it can also be devastating.

Entrepreneurs rarely just start a single business. Once you get that taste of success, it’s hard not to want to get it again. By looking for opportunities that are related to your successful business, you can more easily expand that first business with the help of subsequent ones. But, beware. A failure in one of your businesses can drag down others if they are too closely related. The domino effect is as powerful as it is fickle.

[Photo of Nolan Bushnell by Javier Candiera/Flickr]

The post What One of America’s Top Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Surviving Failure appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

One of my 13-year-old son’s idols is Bill Gates. The fact that he is the richest man on Earth plays a part in that, but my son deeply respects how Gates uses his business savviness to address major world problems through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

As a father, it is my job to try and teach my own son to be the best possible person he can be. To do that, I take inspiration from the father of my son’s idol, Bill Gates Sr.

6 years ago, I had an opportunity to hear Mr. Gates Sr. speak at the Rotary Club 33 in San Diego. When I listened to him, I could easily see how Bill Gates became the world-changing force that he is. At 85, Bill Sr. was articulate, energetic and genuine and it was clear how he shaped his son’s outlook on life.

Now, I’m using lessons gleaned from that talk, plus some interviews Bill Sr. has done over the years, to help me teach my son. Here are some of those lessons.

1. It’s good to have interests, but those interests shouldn’t interfere with family obligations.

Gates’ parents were thrilled their son had a passion for books, but instituted a rule that he not bring them to the dinner table.

What we can learn from this: The importance of a strong family unit can never be overstressed. Kids pull away from their family in a variety of ways, whether they mean to or not. When this goes down a negative path, it can be drugs or petty crime, but people can pull away from their families in seemingly positive ways, too, like excessive reading. Stay close with your family and be engaged with them by setting reasonable boundaries when necessary.

2. A big part of making a positive difference in your community is just showing up.

Taken from his book “Show Up for Life,” Bill Sr. says if you want to make the world a better place, the first step is just showing up when people need you. Local groups trying to raise money for a good cause? Show up and help out. Your kids’ school needs volunteers? Show up and get to work.

What we can learn from this: Too often, people think you need to perform world-changing feats to make a positive impact, but that’s not the case. All you need to do is to be where people are needed when they’re needed. Whether that’s at the beach to pick up garbage or at your neighbor’s home because it got flooded and they need hands to help move stuff, just showing up where you’re needed is huge, even though it seems small.

3. Stay curious and learn from mistakes instead of being scared of them.

Bill’s high school got a modem, which was for the teachers to use. However, while trying to use it, the teachers made some mistakes and abandoned the modem, instead turning it over to some math students to learn how to use. By 13, Bill was hooked on computers.

What we can learn from this: Mistakes — both yours and other’s — happen and you should treat them as learning opportunities rather than being afraid of failure. Also, don’t ever think that you’ve seen it all or learned everything you’ve needed to learn. Education never stops. Always be curious about how things work and you’ll never stop learning.

4. Practical learning counts as much as (and possibly more) than classroom learning.

While in high school, Bill took a break from classes to perform computer programming at a power plant. Both Bill’s parents and his headmaster at school believed the practical experience would be good for Bill.

What we can learn from this: As undoubtedly important as classroom learning is, never forget that it’s the practical application of your skills that counts the most.

5. Don’t just step out of your comfort zone, actively try things that you don’t think you’ll be successful at.

Even though Bill Gates wasn’t particularly interested in sports, his parents prodded him in school to get involved with various athletics like swimming, football and soccer. Gates says he learned a lot about leadership and the importance of trying things you’re not comfortable with and now enjoys many of these athletic activities.

What we can learn from this: Trying something that you are relatively sure you’ll fail at is important. You’ll either pleasantly surprise yourself and perform better than you thought you would or you will, in fact, fail. But that’s okay. Failing at something, even if it’s unimportant, will teach you humility and empathy. And, if you stick with it, you might even pick up a new hobby.

6. Straight from the Book of Luke: “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

Bill’s mom instilled this an important value for the whole family.

What we can learn from this: No matter how much you’ve had to scratch and claw for your success, serendipity has played a role. You might never have gotten to where you are now under other circumstances. You were given the chance to succeed and you did and now you are expected to help make this world a better place for others. It’s an obligation.

We can all learn from the wisdom of Bill Gates’ parents, Bill Sr. and Mary. By paying attention to what’s important and giving back, we can be successful in both business and in life. Entrepreneurship starts early in life and it usually starts with great parenting. You might not be raising a billionaire, but even raising a successful entrepreneur takes dedication and a lot of sage advice.

[Photo of Bill Gates Sr. by Prashant Panjiar]

The post 6 Parental Lessons That Helped Bill Gates Become a Billionaire appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.