The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “How do you stay inspired to run a business?” is written by Laurence Cooke, founder and CEO of NanoPay.
Nothing is more motivating then seeing an opportunity to make a difference in an industry. After all, good opportunities don’t come along very often, so you need to be willing to jump when one presents itself. After spending 12 years working in the wireless industry, I noticed a need to change the way payments work.
They are just too slow, expensive, and inundated with fraud. Four years ago, I knew I could create something that delivered tangible value to merchants well beyond payment acceptance. Since then, I’ve used that opportunity as the biggest motivator to make NanoPay a success. Here’s how I stay inspired to run a business:
Set a clear goal and stay focused on making it a reality
There was more to my initial vision than simply changing the way payments work. I wanted to make an impact and, more importantly, make a difference. Just remember what it is your company is doing to positively impact people’s lives. At NanoPay, for example, we can create a payments ecosystem that lubricates the economy, increases velocity, and creates new business models for businesses with an exceptional customer experience. We can make our economy more efficient, increase global competitiveness, and improve output. More importantly, we can change people’s lives in the third world by reducing their transaction costs and include people who were previously financially excluded. We can provide the ecosystem with a way to send funds around the world—ethically, legally, and at a fraction of today’s cost. What could be more rewarding than improving the lives of the most underprivileged people in the world?
See also: The Hardest Part of Starting a Business
Choose a team of great people
Whether you’re a small startup or a global enterprise, people are the real competitive advantage of the business. A business is just like a team sport, so you need to select and grow your team carefully. A good individual contributor can produce 10 times another individual, but a good team can deliver 40 times. So focus on performance at the team level. This makes hiring more difficult and perhaps slower to start, but you’ll be more likely to create an eclectic and diverse team that possesses the magic of creating something from nothing. We have a pretty relaxed culture, but have the highest standards and extreme intellectual curiosity.
Take a moment to express gratitude and celebrate your wins
Whether it’s sticking around after work to enjoy the company of my peers over a beer, or calling everyone into an impromptu meeting to announce a big change, there is never a day when we don’t say thank you. Celebrating success is different for everyone, but what keeps me inspired is acknowledging the team behind me whose efforts and contributions are keeping the big vision alive. Recently, after a yearlong and intricate bidding process, NanoPay acquired a digital currency platform called MintChip. Of course, we celebrated this win, but the real excitement that keeps us motivated day to day lies in what the world’s developers and our partners can do with our platforms. The use cases are immense, but our technology will not be limited by my ideas in order to drive us ahead of competition.
