Stay Focused. NetSuite Founder Evan Goldberg Shares His Secret to Success.

Have you ever wondered how you can create a billion-dollar business or the lessons you can learn from someone who’s done it? Evan is the executive vice president of Oracle and founder of NetSuite, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that helps businesses cut costs, maximize profits, and jumpstart company growth.

Check out Evan’s thoughts on failing, being thrust into success, and why you shouldn’t try to boil the ocean below.

Maintaining Focus

“There’s going to be distractions along the way… you’re not going to be able to go directly towards your vision. You’re going to have to bob and weave.” -Evan Goldberg

Things weren’t always smooth sailing for Evan. In typical Silicon Valley fashion, his first business failed, but he took those lessons and applied them to his new business with NetSuite.

His most important lesson?

Stay focused.

Evan and NetSuite have encountered a lot of pull in several different directions. From customers that want them to go one way to shareholders that think they should go another, Evan has had to maintain a laser focus on his original goal–being the best at what’s different.

“People are going to say competitor A does this, why don’t you do that? And sometimes maybe it is right to catch up in some ways, but the most important thing is that in how you’re different, you are the best and you’re known for it”-Evan Goldberg

If you’re having trouble staying focused, check out some of these tips:

• Figure out what it is that makes you different
• Concentrate on turning that into the best version of itself it can be
• Surround yourself in that vision-put it up on the walls, write it down, etc.

Where Does Success Come From?

“You can’t be all things to all people and just maintaining that focus on what’s different about what you’re doing and being the best at that is generally where success comes from.”-Evan Goldberg

If you’re focused on being successful or making a lot of money, you’re headed in the wrong direction. If there’s one thing Evan has learned, it’s that if you have a bad idea no amount of hard work will make it a success.

However, if you have a good idea it’s going to take off whether you want it to or not.

Since most of you are interested in growing your business, focus on coming up with a good idea that nobody else has and then use your time and energy to become the best at what you’re offering. Once people are talking about your product and sharing it with others, success is virtually guaranteed.

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Your Business?

In our digital age, technology affects all businesses and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a crucial tool for business owners to spot trends and identify patterns in your business. Although AI won’t be able to make decisions for you, it can be useful in helping you collect and analyze important data.

While the powerful potential of AI can make it tempting to integrate it into every aspect of your business, Evan warns against “boiling the ocean”, at least in the beginning.

Boiling the ocean refers to trying to do everything with AI and is a common problem in the tech industry. Instead, find certain areas that will benefit from AI analysis and focus on those. Once you’ve experimented with it and begun to see some success, then you can think about expanding into other areas.

How Does NetSuite Use AI to Help Businesses Grow?

NetSuite has recently integrated its platform with AI capabilities that can collect data, predict future trends, and even carry out automated tasks on its own. Using NetSuite, businesses can:

• Collect and analyze data
• Manage quality control
• Automate processes and tasks
• Predict future trends and actions
• Pay and collect accounts

The Takeaway

• In order to be successful, you must come up with a good idea that sets you apart from your competitors
• Once you have a unique idea, concentrate on being the best at delivering it
• Don’t lose sight of your vision-maintain a laser beam focus
• AI can help your business grow-experiment with integrating it into certain parts of your business and then go from there