What Mark Burnett Can Teach You About Starting From Scratch

Mark Burnett - Television Producer

There are so many great ideas out there that fail everyday or never even lift off the ground because people with those ideas think that they need substantial financial backing to get going.  But, if there is anything I learned from Mark Burnett's book "Jump In!: Even if You Don't Know How to Swim" it's that you need neither of those things (a great idea or financial backing) to get a company going. 

Mark Burnett is an extremely successful television producer.  He has created and produced several successful television shows that most people have heard of including Survivor, The Apprentice, the Voice, the Sing Off, and a show that I'm sure many of our readers are huge fans of, Shark Tank.  It's a little surprising that he produced Shark Tank because to me its a little misleading for young entrepreneurs who are lead to believe that if you have a cool idea and are modestly successful that you need to get a big investor to take you to the big leagues.  If you told Burnett that he'd say you're dead wrong.

I say this because Mark Burnett started working as a nanny and selling T-shirts on the Venice boardwalk when he moved to America.  With little money he was able to grow his T-shirt business big enough so that when the opportunity came around he'd be able to pounce.  After competing in an extreme race over seas called Raid Gauloises he found his big idea, and ran with it.  He had enough money to buy the rights to the race and started filming it and airing it on TV.  Long story short (if you want the full story read his book) he learned that it wasn’t necessarily the excitement of the race but the story lines and personalities of the people competing that viewers connect with and therefore tune in week after week.  Survivor (and arguably reality TV) was born and the rest was history.

If you remember my opening statement, I mentioned that the majority of young entrepreneurs who want to start a business never make the leap because they don't have an idea or have no backing.  Well Burnett's story proves you need neither.  Start from scratch. Burnett sold T-shirts.  I guarantee he didn’t want to start a t-shirt monopoly when he started but he new he was entrepreneurial minded.  So he jumped in and started something, anything he could do to make ends meet and was patient until the idea fell in his lap. 

What to take away from this…

1.         If you don’t have a great idea for a company and don’t want to work in finance for your uncle, start something to at least make ends meet and do it well.  (sell t-shirts, mow lawns, build websites, freelance design, etc.)
2.         When the opportunity poses itself, take it, and don’t look back.
3.         If your business isn’t taking off like you know it can, look at what’s making it somewhat successful and focus on strengthening that aspect.