What are the most important rules every entrepreneur must know? We take a look at some of our favorites.

We’ve been following the stories of successful entrepreneurs we admire and we came up with a list of lessons that all would agree are critical rules every entrepreneur MUST know.

None of them will surprise you: Work hard, be focused, don’t get distracted, and fail fast (and often) and these greats did exactly that to become who they were and what they achieved.

There’s no doubt in our minds the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is right around the corner. Or maybe not! Sometimes it takes years to build something amazing. But what do we know? Not much! We’re just two guys writing an article on this cloud-based blogging platform so yeah… we’re just kidding around 🙂

See for yourself: What are some of the most important rules every entrepreneur must know?

We’re a fan of lists and these are pretty good ones.

1: Keep your eyes on the prize.

What do you want to build? Why do you want to build it? How do you plan to charge people for it? Why will they use your service over something else like so-and-so’s thingy?? Seriously, answer those questions as best as you can and live by them! When things get hard or stressful or confusing, go back to this list and question #1 about what you’re building and why. It’ll keep you grounded and focused because FOCUS is what matters in the end.

2: Be careful who you hire and what you pay them.

You get what you pay for and if you don’t believe it, talk to anyone at Google or Apple about how they manage their teams of top engineers. They (Apple) pay their interns more than most people make in a year! It’s absolutely nuts but that’s kind of the point: paying smart people well means having smarter people around! And that means a better product!

3: Take risks and learn from your mistakes.

What did Facebook do right? When they were young upstarts (and hated by many), what did they change and why? They were called “Facebook” because no one knew how to pronounce “face”. The domain was owned by someone else and Zuckerberg didn’t like it. So he went out and bought the domain Facebook.com, Boom. And when they wanted to add a service, Zuckerberg didn’t waste time with market research or focus groups; he just built it and was relentless in his support of the product until everyone loved it!

4: Stay humble.

It’s easy to get lost in your own ego when things go well but stay grounded and remember why you started this company/project/service/game whatever it is that you’re building because if you don’t have this down by now…you never will! Those closest to you can smell bullshit from a mile away so be real, work hard and make something amazing even if no one notices at first or hates it for being “that service”. If you care about what you’re building and why…someone else will too.

5: Don’t be afraid to fail.

Remember when Apple was a super important company in the ’90s? And then they released that Newton thing which didn’t really work out so well? I could have been a doctor but instead, I watched Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone in 2007, and man, talk about being alive when history was being made! The Newton failed and Apple almost went away because of it (until Steve Jobs came back). But look at them now! So maybe don’t get depressed and give up on something just because it doesn’t work out as you envisioned. Try again or try something else entirely but keep going because if you don’t…who will?

6: Work your ass off.

 You can call Elon Musk or any other great entrepreneur and they’ll tell you the same thing. They didn’t get to where there are because of work-life balance! Work hard, play hard but make sure it’s not at the expense of something else. But if you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have a life anyway so might as well enjoy your time while working because yeah…it’s basically all that matters 🙂

No matter what field you’re in or how old you are, these rules apply everywhere. If someone is getting rich doing something out there on the Internet, chances are they’ve followed these simple yet important rules 🙂

If you’re confused about something, ask yourself: what do I want to build? Why am I building it and why will people care and use my thing over someone else’s thing?

Those three questions are really all that matter in the end. They’ll keep your project grounded because nothing good happens when you stray from the path. If you can’t answer these questions well…it could be time to quit.

Conclusion:

There’s a ton of stuff you can learn from successful entrepreneurs and if this post interests you, I’d recommend checking out some books by great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, etc…