Madrona Venture Group’s Julie Sandler inspired a crowd of 15,000 high school students earlier this year with her talk at We Day, imploring the teenagers to approach entrepreneurial ideas with confidence all while embracing critics.
Even more important, she stressed the importance of not being afraid to ask other people for what they want. You have to be bold, and you have to ask, she said.
“In my experience, the best entrepreneurs are the ones who listen really closely to what their critics and their skeptics have to say,” explained Sandler. “They learn how to make their idea better based on that feedback. Sometimes that feedback can hurt … but if you can put that aside any hurt feelings about your and turn it into focus as you tackle your challenges, those critics can be some of your most valuable relationships.”
You can watch Sandler’s full talk from We Day — put together by international charity organization Free The Children and Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll — above.
