Over the past 5-6 months checking medium has incrementally moved its way into my daily routine slowly but surely. As the platform grows, as does the quality of content that is shared on it. The product itself isn’t the most innovative thing that we’ve ever laid our eyes on, however with the rise in people sharing their thoughts through writing, medium came to the market at just the right time, and thus is one of the main platforms where people can now both curate and consume their content in one convenient location.
“Entrepreneurship” is often a hot topic on medium and there is usually no shortage of people sharing their latest take on it. The beauty of medium is that some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs regularly share their latest stories and anecdotes on life as an entrepreneur. After condensing it down here are our 10 Medium articles every aspiring Entrepreneur should read.
- 7 Rejections. This article was written by Brian Cheskey, the Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. The piece shows some of the email replies he received from potential investors in the early days of Airbnb and goes on to highlight the struggle entrepreneur’s face when trying to raise capital in order to get a startup off the ground.
- Do Fewer Things, Better. Written by Dharmesh Shah, the Founder and CTO of Hubspot, a powerhouse in the inbound marketing world. The article focuses on what founders can do to batten down the hatches and concentrate on what customers actually want in order to become a successful player in their chosen space.
- My Advice for First-Time Entrepreneurs. This piece written by Gary Vaynerchuk outlines his thoughts on what it takes to make it as a truly successful entrepreneur. Advice about being practical with your money and realizing that entrepreneurship is a huge commitment are just a couple of pointers that he outlines throughout.
- How To Make Something People Give a Sh!t About. This piece written by Jon Westenberg is a no-nonsense take on what it takes to build a successful product or service. Throughout he identifies things such as building something you really care about and having a work ethic that matches.
- I’m going to tell you a story about the most successful person I know. This article tells a story of how James Altucher convinced one of his most successful friends to invest in his company in the early stages. Eventually the company went bust after further money was invested and employees were poached, however, Altucher tells a tale of how things panned out and identifies a key ingredient that he believes was at the core of his anonymous friend’s ultimate success.
- The 37 best websites to learn something new. Kristyna Z’s article isn’t in any ways motivational or insightful, but instead acts as a fantastic repository of websites and apps that can teach you anything in the world of science, art and technology. It is easy to see why this is one of the most liked articles on Medium as it has undoubtedly enabled many people to expand their knowledge and learn new skills, which ultimately has led to a lot of successful businesses being created.
- The best startup advice you’ll ever receive. This article by Product Hunt answers some of the many questions that Product Hunt live guests are consistently asked. Guests include the likes of Jack Dorsey, Andrew Chen, Brit Morin and so on. The answers act as an insight into how some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs think.
- CEO Advice from a New CEO. Having worked along some of the world’s greatest CEO’s, Biz Stone shares five lessons he’s learned along the way. He talks about how he has identified small traits that he has admired in different leaders and how he tries to adopt these traits and implement them within his new CEO role.
- Growing Kids and Growing Companies. For Entrepreneurs out there who are trying to strike a balance between raising a family and growing a company, this Ev Williams article is a must read. The piece acts as a timeline of his live and how he managed his work-life balance to become an incredibly successful entrepreneur.
- Scaling LinkedIn with Jeff Weiner. This article, from Chris McCann, a community lead at Greylock Partners goes through an interview that Reid Hoffman did with Jeff Weiner at Stanford University. Weiner answers a series of questions about his approach to scaling LinkedIn when he became CEO back in 2008. He talks about how LinkedIn’s vision and culture shaped the way the company strategically scaled over time. Definitely one to read if your company is nearing that ever daunting stage of scaling.
At the end of the day, Medium=content and similar to Twitter, there is nothing stopping influencers utilizing the platform to write content and engage their audience. If you’re looking for tips, tricks or stories from some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, get reading, equally, if you’re looking to write your own masterpiece, there is no better place.
-Michael.
