The Book “Start Something That Matters”.. What is the purpose of business?

The Book “Start Something That Matters” by Blake Mycoskie offers a brief overview of the author’s journey to create TOMS, the leading footwear brand. The book also highlights the famous charitable and marketing scheme “Buy One Give One” adopted by this author.

The author explains in this book that any one of us can create a company that helps make the world a better place. He also points out that fears are natural but must not go unchecked. So he advises you to to identify these concerns first so that you can move forward, and then do what you want.

The author of “Start Something That Matters” also advises you to make your business simple and with low-budget, in addition to managing limited resources well. Finally, he stresses that you offer a good product and market it with a good story too.

Themes of “Start Something That Matters”

The most important themes of “Start Something That Matters” are explained in “Entrepreneurship”, as follows:

Confronting fears

The first lesson in “Start Something That Matters” is to confront concerns that prevent you from participating in big projects.

Many people want to start their own businesses but most give up without even trying because the project seems risky.

Fear can prevent us from doing what we love in any field of life. Despite this, there are always tricks to overcome it and keep doing what we want. Often we express concern when we first encounter a situation and do not know how to deal with it.

When Blake Mycoskie, author of “Start Something That Matters” was planning to create his new company, he was terrified. He had very little knowledge about shoes and didn’t have many resources to invest. However, how did he overcome his fears? He wrote down these fears and confronted them, identifying the things he was afraid of and what could happen if they happened. In the end, it was not too scary.

You can only conquer fear by confronting it. Analyze the risks you will be exposed to and may discover that they are not worthy of extreme fear. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “The only thing we should fear is fear itself.”

Creativity, flexibility, and cost reduction

When you start a business, simplicity is very important and should be applied to every aspect of your business. That’s how the author of this book advises you.

You first have to choose what you want to do and do it optimally. This will allow you to work efficiently and save money, it may also help you find investors, who are more likely to understand and appreciate a simple business model than a complex one.

You can simplify your business by focusing on important things and ignoring irrelevant ones; you can’t prevent bad little things from happening but you have to keep focusing on the next step of your project.

Simplicity also means avoiding all unnecessary costs. When starting your own company, keep a low budget, use free tools, and do everything you can. 

Lack of resources and adroitness

The big lesson to learn from “Mycoskie” is to be a resourceful expert in how to manage your limited resources. He argues that you don’t need to invest or pump a lot of your own money to meet the company’s initial demands. He stresses that the constraints on your resources can inspire your creativity.

With few resources, you need to employ the trial and error method. Therefore, you need to be creative and come up with different or effective ways to perform tasks.

TOMS company started in a small apartment owned by Mycoskie; he used all the spare space in the apartment to store shoes and other equipment.

Initially, Mycoskie could not even buy business cards. He reused old business cards given to him by people. He then wrote his contact details on the cards’ back. By being a resourceful person, he gained hands-on experience in the business world.