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Before I became a dad, I bought several books about parenting. As a planner by nature, A desired to know exactly what to anticipate when my wife and I were expecting. I figured if I prepared for it like I would a college exam, there was no probability I would not pass it. One day I was talking to a good friend about some conflicting parenting philosophies and he told me: Your child will teach you methods to be a parent.
I was stunned. It was such a easy idea, and yet it stuck with me. Indeed, when I first held our newborn baby in my arms, the literature on parenting was forgotten. As our son was growing up, he taught us the ABCs of parenting, from the best solution to put him to sleep at night to methods to get him to giggle every morning. We grew up with him as parents.
In many ways, starting a business follows a similar learning curve. You can get a business degree and read all the entrepreneur memoirs and learn the most precious lessons from them, but every company is unique. You’ll gain essential business knowledge and leadership skills as you grow your organization from the ground up. That’s what I’ve been doing at my company Jotform for the last 18 years, as we have grown from one worker and one home office to 660 employees in eight offices around the world. Here are some of the essential skills I learned along the way.
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