Are you curious to know the leadership lessons of a young entrepreneur who became a millionaire at the age of 21?
It all started at 18 years of age, when this young man answered the question in his yearbook “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?’
He wrote 'millionaire'.
It happened three years later.
The Young Entrepreneur
Jem Bourouh is a 24-year-old serial entrepreneur from Germany. With his Google Ads agency Adcubator, Jem and his 103 people team have spent more than $318 million profitably. He is now building his own ecommerce brands and acquiring other marketing agencies.
He has learned many leadership lessons along the way and in The Culture of Leadership (TCoL) Podcast, Jem shares his top five effective leadership skills that helped him scale his businesses and achieve fantastic results.
Here are my three key leadership takeaways from my conversation with Jem.
1. Confident leaders nurture a feedback environment.
Giving and receiving feedback in a positive and constructive way is important. An environment of feedback helps employees feel valued and supported in their growth. This often leads to more motivated, productive and collaborative employees.
You can send a message in two ways. You can have a positive connotation and you can have a negative connotation. This involves not relying on IQ but also EQ because otherwise, you don't understand what the people are thinking, you don't understand what the people are feeling, you don't understand how to act in certain situations.
This is why it is important to always talk to each other.
Have you read: How to Lead with Transparency – Hailley Griffis
2. Confident leaders emphasize the importance of culture.
When it comes to building a successful business, culture is critical. You want your employees to be proud advocates for the company, not detractors. Celebrating success, openly sharing opinions and experiences and supporting employees' learning and growth, all help emphasize the importance of culture.
Culture is King is point number four in Jems’ leadership lessons that have helped him scale his business. Is the only output that you have measured by some OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Or is it also the growth, the perspective and everything that the business has on your end.
Employees are real human beings. These are not just some domino stones that are there that you put into a system.
Have you read: Ex-Google Employee Shares Culture Perspective – Taras Koberbyk
3. Confident leaders are positive role models.
They understand the importance of being a role model for the entire team. They demonstrate common courtesy with please and thank you and stand out for their employees. Through everyday interactions, they exemplify dedication, passion, and commitment.
You cannot expect people to do something that you yourself would not. How can you be a role model for someone if you are not putting in as much work, as much respect, as much dedication and as much passion as they are.
As a role model it is also important to show face and to stand up for your employees. Treating other people as you want to be treated is so important otherwise, the team is heading in the wrong direction and things are not going to work out the way you want them to.
Have you read: The Primal Video Leadership Journey – Justin Brown
Generally speaking, money increases your quality of life and gives you a lot of security. But at some point, it is not about money, it is about making an impact and leaving a legacy. It is like a game that you want to become the best in your respective vertical, just crush all your friends and all the other people that are there and just try to become the best player.
“It is like we're playing Monopoly. You have four people playing it. You're not playing to lose. You're playing to have fun, and you're playing to win. It gives you joy as well. That's what it's all about,” says Jem.
The complete interview, leadership lessons of a young entrepreneur can be listened to on your favourite podcast audio platform, or watched on The Culture of Leadership (TCoL) YouTube channel.
