I saw a quote by Naval once that said if you can build and sell you’ll be unstoppable. I think that’s true. The most successful entrepreneurs in our world right now could do both. The best CEOs in the world right now, were mostly people that built their first product and then sold themselves and their ideas as they built their business.
I’ve been in partnership management for three years now at JUMO. That position has required me to learn about selling, about providing value to large accounts, and how to close multi-million dollar deals. I don’t think I’m great at sales. I have a natural ability to sell and to build relationships from scratch. But I’m weak at managing the ongoing routine of after-sales support. That part bores me. Putting in place daily rules has helped me manage that, as well as surrounding myself with people who are good at that.
I’ve never learned to build anything though, and that’s something I want to change. Recently, I signed up for a udacity course on android development. It’s a four-month course with a couple capstones in the middle. Android accounts for 80% of smartphones out there, and it’s the dominant phone in emerging markets. It makes sense to learn to build for a platform that can reach the majority of people out there. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to build something worth selling as well.