I learned the most important lesson from business school within the first 72 hours of being an MBA student. Conventional business school wisdom would advise telling the reader said takeaway in the first paragraph, but some guidelines are worth veering away from.
Such as a word of caution given to me about joining the founding team at Live Bash. I mentioned to a friend that we would all be remote, and they told me, “It would be a big mistake to join a time-, capital-, and resource-intensive technology startup when you’re not in the same physical place as the rest of your team.”
I didn’t heed their advice, and that turned out to be a savvy decision. Why? Well, let’s get back to that B-school takeaway.
Carl Voight, a fan favorite professor at USC Marshall School of Business, told us a story about how his son was about to go off to college and wanted some guidance. He distilled his fatherly advice into five simple words to ensure his son wouldn’t forget it: Get out of bed early.
This recommendation stemmed from his experience meeting with successful CEOs. They always suggested meeting early in the morning around 6 am. With regards to rising early, Voight said, “Successful people naturally do it, whether they realize the importance of it or not.”
Lucky for us, getting out of bed early is embedded into the DNA of Live Bash.
A team member based out of NYC has a bread baking side hustle and is putting the dough in the oven by sunrise. Immediately after, he is diligently working on our AI.
Another employee, located in Chicago, was a state champion runner in high school who always woke up early to get additional training in. Now instead of running 12 miles in the morning, he’s coordinating the complex buildout of our first stage.
Our CEO comes from the trading world, so his internal clock is set to be in full work mode by the time the opening bell is rung. By then, he’s already been collaborating with our team in Germany for a few hours.
As for me, someone who has consistently struggled with sleeping in, I have developed a groundbreaking method for getting up early. Step One: adopt a dog. Step Two: join a team where you’re the only person in PST, with a designer in MST, two team members in CST, one in EST, and several developers in Germany.
By getting out of bed early and working across several time zones, we are stealing hours in the day. This is the advantage of being a remote start-up.
We naturally extend business hours without having to work crazy long days. Progress on important items is constant because things don’t sit idle as everyone sleeps. And most importantly, it helps our team to avoid burnout while staying fresh and engaged. All of these elements are incredibly valuable to a start-up trying to build something unique from scratch.
Our initial success isn’t attributed to some trendy Scandinavian work style or to a new collaboration app out of Silicon Valley. Instead, it can be distilled into five simple words: Get out of bed early.
*The views and opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily reflective of those of Live Bash. Also, I’m not saying you don’t learn other important things in business school. My advice is just to be careful which school you pick because for better or for worse, I am now a USC sports fan.
Author
Cole Sosnoff
Strategic Ops