Lesson 6: Surround yourself with a team of great people and nurture a strong culture.

The nights will be long, the weekend work grueling, the challenges constantly growing and changing. Maintaining the enthusiasm to keep that up requires that team members are confident that everyone else is working just as hard and are equally as good or even better at the job they each are doing. This is particularly challenging in a start-up when people must do a good job in areas outside of their expertise or interests – the jobs that need to get done are constantly changing. Successful entrepreneurs are great at hiring people that are willing to “sweep the floors”, can grow with the challenges, have fun while working long hours and stay positive despite the setbacks that will be encountered (see #3).