“If you truly want a successful business one of the best things you can do for your company is build a team that makes you the weakest link.”

I’ve had quite a few different entrepreneurs that have achieved great levels of success relay this concept to me. So, now I will relay it to you! There are two things that everyone has in common: no one is perfect and everyone is unique. What do I mean by that? Simple, everyone has strengths and weaknesses and success for some companies depends entirely on your ability to fill in the gaps. Having a good idea does not make you successful, it is the execution of that idea that determines success. You must be able to take your vision and inspire others around you to accomplish that vision and then convince customers that there is value in your product or service.

Everyone that you know is a potential business opportunity because people have different skills, contacts, or resources that make them valuable. Now by no means do I suggest starting a business with the first person that you can think of that can do a task, but you should be able to dig through your own resources to create a list of possibilities. The easiest way to build a bigger list is to simply ask people what their capable of or if they know someone?

But let me give you an example. Since we’re all about making your experience personal with us I’ll use Matt and myself. My original concept for the site was simply to build a digital magazine to raise awareness before launching a print version. I had a lot of ideas that I thought would work well on the digital version but I didn’t have the experience to build it myself and asking around wasn’t going well. So I took two weeks to learn basic html and built the site myself (note: it is always easier to relay a concept when you have some type of tangible asset to display). Within two months a mutual acquaintance had connected Matt and I. That part was pure luck, but we instantly knew that we had a great concept and that we could work great together. However, in any relationship communication is key and we both let each other know exactly what we expected from each other up front from day one.  

We’re both very creative but Matt is great with technology and I am a people person. Knowing what we both do best has already helped us secure a deal with our college entrepreneurship program for their students to utilize our subscription service (will be released soon). More importantly, we are using our strengths to teach each other which will fill in our weaknesses and make the company stronger. We have both developed a circle of mentors that constantly give us feedback much like a board of directors would. My circle was built at an early age when I didn’t charge others to help build their businesses and Matt’s was built by interning at a very successful SEO firm. So when you take that into consideration we are both the weakest links within a very strong circle, which has brought us a great amount of early success. You should look to extend your circle if you want to improve your chances of success.

-Bryan