What makes an entrepreneur? | Sahar Hashemi | TEDxYouth@Bath

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Sahar sits on the Entrepreneurs Panel for the government and was voted one of the 10 most influential thinkers in the UK alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee, Sahar is also a fantastic speaker and we can’t wait for you to hear her.

Sahar Hashemi brought the coffee cafe culture to the UK in the 90′s with her chain Coffee Republic.

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What makes an entrepreneur? | Sahar Hashemi | TEDxYouth@Bath

I’m gonna take you on a little journey

with me a journey of entrepreneurship

but just before I do one question

hands up those of you who like me

consider yourselves entrepreneurs okay

entrepreneurial okay for all of you that

didn’t actually put your hands up don’t

worry because the reason why I always

ask this question is when I was your age

if someone had asked me to put my hand

up as to whether or not I was an

entrepreneur I would have never put my

hand up either I thought when I was

growing up in a way the idea of an

entrepreneur we just had Richard Branson

and I would sort of compare myself to

Richard Branson and think well there’s

no way I am like Richard Branson you

know I thought you have to have a

special chromosome to be an entrepreneur

some sort of a magic dust or at least

like Richard Branson you had to be a

school dropout which I wasn’t in anyway

I’m so looking at him and now you guys

on top of Richard Branson you’ve got the

Dragons which are terrifying images of

entrepreneurship and The Apprentice so

clearly I thought I’m not at all the

entrepreneurial type I didn’t love

business in kindergarten I didn’t make

my first million-selling sweets’s school

playground so basically I thought

clearly I’m not at all the entrepreneur

so I actually went off and I became the

opposite of an entrepreneur I went off

and became a lawyer and but very quickly

I realized that actually I had chosen

completely the wrong career for my

personality because they’re just about

two things going for me my optimism and

my enthusiasm and quickly I realized

that just about the two qualities you

don’t need to be a good lawyer

optimistic or enthusiastic so I was sort

of wasted than what I was doing and just

work felt like I was leaving myself

behind to go to work work felt like

incredibly boring really it was just it

was I just did it for the paycheck

I just went in everyday not being able

to be me and I remember thinking why is

this not fun and I was just asking my

work colleague saying

you know why are we having fun and

remember they said fun a work they’re

not paying you to enjoy yourself and I

just refuse to accept that because I

thought you know what I’m going to be

working the best years of my life most

of my waking hours so how on earth could

work not be fun how could I accept this

so I ended up basically staying there

because sometimes you really have a

dream but it’s scary to change because

you’re in a sort of comfort zone in a

way and I ended up staying at the law

firm sort of really hating it but

thinking this is life this is working

life until something happened which

really snapped me out of it and

sometimes you get shocks you get

dreadful shocks that happen which snap

you out of things what happened to me

was I come from a close family of four

my mum and dad my brother and I and in

jail in 1993 my dad died very suddenly

very unexpectedly and I remembered the

shock was so big

it was like my world had fallen apart

and I just remember the very next

morning I came back from hospital and I

thought you know what actually this

comfort zone is an illusion I’ve got to

be true to myself and I’ve got to do

something absolutely love doing because

this is not it and I’ve got to do

something where I could be me doing it

so I basically took a big jump I took a

big leap I left the law firm I had no

idea what I was going to do but actually

my motto in life is leap and the net

will appear and I just really believe

you’ve got to take the jump sometimes so

I basically took this jump I went to

visit my brother Bobby he was my only

sibling so he was working in Nuuk at the

time I went to visit him in New York a

terrible jet lag thinking you know I’m

just going to take some time be in New

York have some change of air and I

remember the very first morning I got up

thinking with this terrible jet lag

thinking let me go and get a cup of

coffee

and back then America was known for

horrible coffee even we would make fun

of American coffee and I remember just

walking down Madison Avenue and I was

sort of hit by the smell of fresh ground

coffee beans and this is even before

Starbucks had come to New York but I

walked into this coffee bar that was all

the smell of coffee why the coffee came

from I said can I have a cappuccino

please and they said would you like it

with full fat milk skim

milk semi skimmed milk soya milk and you

know I sort of just couldn’t believe it

I’m always on some sort of diet so I

couldn’t believe I could get a skinny

cappuccino and I just fell in love with

it and I just didn’t think anything of

it and I go back to London and I was

actually sitting with Bobby in a Thai

restaurant with my mom we just got out

for Thai meal and in the middle of this

time meal I said to my brother how much

I missed these coffee bars I just wish

we had them in London I couldn’t believe

that I was stuck at home there was

nowhere to stop my morning apart from

making some instant coffee and I wish we

had those amazing New York Stock offer

bars so I could go and have a skinny

latte every morning and as soon as I

said this to my brother he got the light

bulb you hear about he said I can’t

believe you’ve said this this is

incredible you and I should be the ones

to bring American star coffee bar to the

UK this is like an amazing business idea

and my reaction was hang on a minute

Bobby you got me completely wrong

I meant white Zin someone else open it

and for me to go to it in a way I was

the customers I couldn’t quite

understand why I had to provide a

solution for my own problem in a way

it’s but anyway my brother was having

none of it he said you know ma if you

don’t want to do it I’ll pay you to do

research for me and just because my

brother was paying me basically the next

day I got myself a one day to pass and I

got on the circle line and that was the

first day of my research I got off at

every single of the stops on the circle

line to see for myself what there was

and I could see the crap quality of

coffee everyone was getting and by the

evening when I got back that was really

the night what I thought you know what

there’s a real gap in the market and if

we bring american-style coffee bars to

the UK it’s going to work but the thing

is you know I didn’t think a hundred

percent I just thought about one percent

this is going to work I wasn’t a hundred

percent sure so one side of my brain is

this is this is amazing there’s a gap in

the market but this left left side of my

brain is telling me Shirley’s aha what

do you know about coffee bars this isn’t

going to work it’s too good to be true

just because you like drinking skinny

lattes doesn’t mean this is brilliant

business idea but what I’ve learned in

life is that whenever you want to do

something these doubts and I’m sure

you’re growing up and the more

you grow up the more you hear these

doubts these doubts are always going to

be there and you must never stop them so

my solution is when you start doubting

yourself when they start feeling

insecure you basically press the delete

button because if you don’t press delete

listening to that voice you think it’s

the voice of reason it’s not it’s the

voice of fear and fear is a serious um

game

there’s no point indulging in it so we

didn’t press Delete the next step was

okay let’s go and do some research

because a lot of it is about doing

homework making sure there’s room for it

making sure there’s a market for it and

the problem was well Bobby Knight we had

no idea about this we were clueless

about this business in a way I worked as

a lawyer all my life my brother as a

banker so we were entering this world we

are completely clueless about food is

about retail clue is about coffee

clueless about catering but one low I’ve

got in both my books I call the

importance of being clueless

so never worry about not knowing never

worry about had not having expertise not

knowing is actually good because you can

teach yourself and you can teach

yourself with the fresh information and

basically once you start jumping in and

that’s what my brother told me don’t

worry about not knowing because you’re

about to go to the best business school

in the world right bang in the middle of

this so you will teach yourself as you

go along never worry about that and

being an outsider is a huge advantage so

basically we were Outsiders we gave

ourselves three months to learn all

there was about coffee at this point we

moved back to live a home with my mom

which you can imagine is a bit of a

comedown if you’ve like moved away then

you move back in with your mom and your

brother at a certain age but anyway we

did that and we just gave ourselves

three months to become experts I can

tell you we just drank as many coffees

as possible

I once almost actually killed myself

OD’ing on 26 espressos in the course of

a morning because no one had told me you

have to spit it out and not drink them

so we did that then I said you know what

let me go back to New York on a

reconnaissance mission because when I

was in New York I just had no idea that

we wanted to copy this so I said well

I’ll go back to New York and I went back

to New York I took

some disposable cameras which is what we

had and started taking a picture of this

coffee bar which was the predecessor to

Starbucks of every single little thing

they do and of course as I’m doing this

the managers getting quite pissed off so

she noticed that I was taking a picture

of every single thing so we can copy it

and just she followed me onto the

pavement and confiscated my cameras

so I basically thought oh my god that’s

just you know I’ve got to come back home

with that because of the best coffee bar

with the manager finding out so I ended

up doing something the entrepreneurs do

that you all do in everyday life is just

that entrepreneurs use it for business

bootstrapping basically in order to come

back to London with pictures of the

coffee bar without the manager finding

out my bootstrapping solution was I had

a couple of cousins who lived in New

York and me and my cousins pretended as

if we were innocent

New York tourists taking innocent

tourist snapshots at each other you will

see a picture of my cousin coming up

lovely you hardly see my cousin there

which is the point where you fully see

how they display their pastries what

everything looks like

again another cousin showing the boss

eating this is the first time I’ve seen

employees wear t-shirts and baseball

caps and this is another cousin so

basically we took these clandestine

pictures and this is the picture I drew

on the back of the Virgin flight back

from New York I’ve kept this because I

genuinely believe there’s no point

having ideas in your head ideas are

worthless you’ve got to make them happen

stop putting them on paper if you’re

inspired after today start putting stuff

on paper it starts happening and another

thing for us we were coming up with a

brand imagine coming up with a brand

when you’ve got no idea about branding

and we knew we had to be up there you

know on the high street with those big

players and we had no idea but you know

that’s the thing about entrepreneurship

is just trial and error and sometimes

you make a fool of yourself as I’m about

to share with you a logo that we

actually considered lovely you could

imagine this would have been nice and

out of date but you just think

entrepreneurship is not a genius

tendency it’s about trial and error

until you get things right then we work

this business plan again the business

plan wasn’t the right name but we wrote

it when the word business plan came up I

have to tell you I was terrified I said

to my brother Gina well let me

to Business School not come back in two

years I’ll read by the business plan my

brother said you know what actually all

the business plan is is answering a few

questions what is he going to do how are

you going to do it how much is it going

to cost you and who are you going to do

it with and anyway in this plan we

calculated we needed to raise 90 grand

to open the first door just give you an

idea we started calling random bank

managers off the yellow pages basically

we got rejections from 40 bank managers

this is page goes on and on I’m just

sharing with you the first page of the

40 bank managers we called we got

introduced with 20 bank managers of the

20 we got interviews with the first 19

said to us there is no way we’ll give

you money to open a coffee bar we said

why on earth not

they said it’s really obvious isn’t it

we were like what’s obvious so like

resolve it’s obvious word nation the tea

drinkers you know Brigitte is famous

three drinking so what the hell you

doing bringing coffee in in Asia tea

drinkers but I done my homework and yes

we were in nature tea drinkers but

basically in the 80s we’re drinking four

times more tea than we were drinking two

times more teas I’m seeing this is going

the right way

which is why us entrepreneurs called

bank managers enemies of innovation this

is just a quick facts I wrote to my

brother about a certain bank manager

which you’ll see it’s just all you know

sort of this the life of entrepreneurs

we’re not perfect this is the picture of

the bank manager and basically the next

one was making it happen you know you’ve

got to actually do it and that was a

nightmare ever you know when you’re an

entrepreneur it’s an obstacle course

everyone’s against you and we were

looking for cups no one had these cups

at that time all they were had was

polystyrene cups the cup suppliers

thought we were crazy they were like I

don’t know what you’re going on about

we’ve never had cups like this

we ended up bootstrapping we did we

ordered blank cups of America we had two

parties five bottles of wine some pasta

got all our friends and they stuck the

stickers on the cups the same thing with

the muffin suppliers there were like

blueberry muffins fat-free muffins sorry

the only muffins we’ve ever baked or

yellow the only thing they’ve got in

them are raisins so we ended up making

them often at home delivering them

ourselves getting mold

delivering them ourselves but and we

ended up nicking our first employees

from Preta male this is all

bootstrapping stuff that all

entrepreneurs do and basically we open

the doors to the first door this is the

first door just to show you

entrepreneurship is not necessarily

about original or new ideas it was a

copy the benches came later so it was a

complete copy of what we see in New York

and basically this was the first coffee

bar was kind to open in the UK just to

give you an idea it was a disaster when

I say disaster at break-even sales were

700 pounds and every single day we were

making 200 pounds of sales a day and

when I say 200 pounds to sell today I’m

discounting my mom who’s coming and

drinking as many cappuccinos as humanly

possible

so without my mom’s excessive coffee

consumption we’re making much less this

is just you know telling people what

we’re about educating people the bad

coffee and one by one sort of you know

we converted one customer at a time

sales started creeping towards breakeven

Starbucks came it was absolutely

terrifying time but at this stage we

were big brand and when we got to 2001

basically Bobby and I both sold our

shares because we thought that’s what

you do when your company is successful

huge mistake I remember when I sold my

shares instead of celebrating I taken my

mom we’d gone to celebrate um to America

and instead of celebrating I was so

upset that apparently according to my

mom in the British Airways lounge I

started reading the store in the

Financial Times the story of us leaving

and instead of kind of celebrating I was

crying so hysterically people must have

been thinking what could be quite so sad

the FT that this girl is bullying her

eyes out but that for me is

entrepreneurship out of budem I started

writing my book I always visualized this

is my visualization of a book I wrote

this book and this book was almost my

anti Richard Branson book saying do you

know what actually if we did it then

anyone can do it and this myth we have

that entrepreneurship is a special

chromosome is rubbish don’t listen to

the Dragons then it’s not a personality

trait entrepreneurship everyone’s got it

you don’t need skills or expertise you

become an entrepreneur it’s a process

it’s something you don’t need to be an

entrepreneur before you start no-one is

determined in advance if they’re an

entrepreneur you become one when you

start

and when you start basically there are

five steps to entrepreneurship and my

brother taught me these steps and I want

to show you these steps because going

going through every step from A to B you

turn into an entrepreneur step one the

idea make sure it’s something you love

the beauty about entrepreneurship is you

don’t have to live someone else’s life

you find something you love and I

guarantee what you love doing you will

be good at and vice versa what you hate

doing you’ll be crap so you might as

well stick to what you love doing

and what you love doing activates the

entrepreneur within you because all of

us have an entrepreneur within we just

need to bring it out so make sure you

find the store within you and do it and

jump that is the idea that’s going to

bring out all these wonderful qualities

about yourself you never knew you even

had had I stay the lawyer I would have

thought I was a pretty mediocre lawyer I

would have never known I have all this

creativity within me and that’s the

journey for you number two do your

market research lazy people can’t become

entrepreneurs you have to be thorough

you have to know your market

back-to-front so you have to do your

homework there is no substitute for hard

work that’s why it’s not about genius

agencies it’s about hard work do your

business plan you’ve got to be organized

it’s just it’s a really easy thing it’s

just a couple of questions and just but

you have to organize raising money

people are going to say no to you we got

14 O’s guess what Howard Schultz of

Starbucks got 275 knows JK Rowling 12

people said her manuscript for Harry

Potter was rubbish so you’ve got to have

stick ability in entrepreneurship you’ve

got to make it happen

because making it happen is about doing

doing bring self belief I never had self

belief when I started I had one percent

but self belief doesn’t grow on trees

self belief comes when you start doing

when you’re committed when you go on

journey that’s how you gain yourself

belief and my last point don’t give up

entrepreneurship is difficult it’s not a

fairy tale everyone’s against you

everyone tells you your ideas rubbish it

won’t work the critics come out

but it is an absolutely incredible

journey if you learn to stick with it it

is a journey where you find things about

yourself you never knew you had every

single one of you has a star within you

and entrepreneurship is an amazing

journey where you find that star within

you and all I can tell you is in my life

it is something as well that’s where you

combine what you do and who you are so

work doesn’t become the opposite of life

work and life are the same thing and I

can tell you it’s a difficult journey

but it’s a wonderful journey and I in my

life have absolutely never met unhappy

entrepreneur that’s my story thank you

very much