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Today's entrepreneurs need to learn from their predecessors' mistakes. Shutterstock

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Vishen Lakhiani, Young Entrepreneur Council

6. No skill is as important as sales and marketing.

We all have different skills. But there’s one skill I feel is most crucial to entrepreneurial success, and it’s the ability to sell. I scoffed at the idea of marketing and sales. As a computer engineer, my vision of the world was "build epic stuff and the crowds will beat a path to your door."


I failed at my first two businesses because I was terrible at sales, so I decided I needed a job. But it was April 2001. The bubble had burst in Silicon Valley: 14,000 people lost their jobs and I was attending pink-slip parties.


Ever see the movie Boiler Room? There were days that reminded me of that movie. It was awful work that made it hard to get out of bed in the morning. But boy, did I learn to sell and market. That made all the difference.

Exactly one year later on December 22, 2002, I started Mindvalley. My new edge? Selling.

7. Don’t build crap just to make a buck.

I believe companies like Coke, McDonalds, etc., were started by entrepreneurs with good intentions but now exist for stockholder value. Are they actually pushing humanity forward?

In that famous Apple ad, "Here’s to the Crazy Ones," Steve Jobs contributed just one line. It was, "Push humanity forward." That’s what real entrepreneurs do. Peter Diamandis is taking mankind to space. Branson adds fun, quality service and cheekiness to old entrenched industries. Tony Hsieh "delivers happiness." I believe in teaching the world new things that enrich the human potential.

