x
☰
StarterNoise

3 Mistakes Kanye West Made as an Entrepreneur

Kanye West Kaitlyn Jenner Mad
02.25.16 | Tyler McKnight

As we all probably know by now Kanye West has gone off the deep end.  His Twitter rants have begun to get weirder and uncharacteristically more honest.  Let’s take a look at the 3 mistakes Kanye West made.  Not as a person but as a budding entrepreneur.

Here comes the humility…Wait, nope.

So Kanye West is in debt.  $53 million to be exact.  What does that mean to an entrepreneur?  Well here is 3 mistakes the rapper, fashion designer, actor, poet, Caitlyn Jenner’s in-law, and future presidential candidate made.

First, let’s take a nostalgic look at the highlights of Kanye’s business ventures over the years and where they are now:

Pastelle Clothing 2005-2009

Clothing line

DW Kanye West 2011-2013

Clothing line

KW Foods LLC ?-?

Fatburger Franchises (10 planned and 2 opened and closed in Chicago) 2008-2011

Thanks to Ice Cube we know this is a hamburger chain

Yeezy Season 2015-Present

Clothing line

GOOD Music 2004-Present

Record label

Tidal 2015-Present

Music streaming app

DONDA 2012-?

“pick up where Steve Jobs left off”.

This brings us to the 3 fatal mistakes every entrepreneur should try to avoid.  Well, every celebrity entrepreneur should try and avoid.

Banking on his fame to propel his brands.

We cannot argue that Kanye is one of the most famous faces in the world.  But, just because you are famous does not mean you can own, operate and market your brand.  Kanye has proclaimed time and time again his passion for his ventures, but passion does not translate into results in the business world.  You need to know what you are doing and when you don’t know, you humbly admit that and hire someone to do it for you.  This is one of the huge mistakes failed businesses make.

Letting ego and arrogance take over.

When you make sweeping statements publicly, you sure as hell better be able to back them up. Because the public relishes in the opportunity to bring down egotistical and arrogant figures.  We see it in politics.  And at the risk of making too close of a comparison, Kanye West is no different.  People want to see him fail.  Period.  Not because we are cynical but because we don’t want you rubbing it in our faces, and when you do you better do something about it.  Unfortunately for Kanye, he has yet to follow through on any of those proclamations.  Most notably he was quoted as saying in regards to his creative brand DONDA “We are going to pick up right where Steve Jobs left off.”  Eerily familiar to “Make America great again.” Coincidentally, we could put Donald Trump in the same category as he runs his Presidential campaign the same way;  although he is a successful business man.  Maybe he should take a stab at rapping and all will be right in the world.

Putting all his eggs in different baskets.

This is his biggest mistake in my eyes.  When you have capital and an idea, you put your money into that one idea.  For example, let’s say you have 20 million in capital and you would like to start Video Production company.  OK, you write out your mission.  You do your market research.  Halfway through you decide, “Oh I also want to open a chain of Sushi Restaurants and have the employees wear my latest fashion line.”  You see the insanity there.  You don’t go Thailand and order a pizza is what I am saying.  The bottom line is you stick to what you are good at and put all your money, time, and effort into that.  Sure, ambition and ego sometimes drive us to do things a bit out of our reach, but having the ability to control that impulse in business is key.

Rome, the Ottoman Empire, and the Mongolian Dynasty weren’t built in a day.  Hell, Rome wasn’t even built in a day.  But Kanye doesn’t know that.  We should keep it that way because without him what would we have to mock?  Tweet?  Or write?

If you have any ideas on how to get Kanye out of debt tweet @StarterNoise with the hashtag #BailOutKanye

In the meantime enjoy Kanye at his finest.

Facebook Comments