Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The “Power of the Future: Entrepreneurs G3 Forum Istanbul” was held at the İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar Convention Center as a part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week, celebrated simultaneously throughout 160 countries all over the world in order to raise awareness towards entrepreneurship under the leadership of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).

Reminding that Global Entrepreneurship Week is celebrated throughout more than 160 countries, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Entrepreneurship has been put on the agenda of our country this very community; we owned up to it and introduced it. I will not be modest in this because I am proud of you. As TOBB, we have attained this organization for our country. In the field of entrepreneurship, the most comprehensive and most important organization in Turkey, we created it together.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that entrepreneurship is the most important means of enhancing today's wealth, development and social welfare.

The TOBB President stressed that the previous century was the period of the third industry revolution with oil as its source. “This century is the period of the 4th industrial revolution. The source is human. In the past century, the goal was to reach rich natural resources, like oil. Now the goal is to improve human qualities. Because wealth comes not from natural sources but from ideas. The man who produces the idea is also human. Therefore, the world's strongest people, the most followed, the most exemplary people are entrepreneurs. Because they change the world, the way we do business, in a tremendous way; disrupting the way things used to be. Driverless cars, assistant robots, artificial intelligence are the new realities of the world. In the past, the world's largest institutions were oil companies, large banks, giant industrial enterprises. Now, young technology companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla and Alibaba are taking their place.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that there is great opportunity for the countries that have lagged behind in industrialization in the new era. “In the past, it was necessary to invest billions of dollars and build a plant to become rich. Now it's a computer and a good idea. In the past, finding resources was a big deal. Now the public is giving big financial support and there are many private funds. In the past, when I produced something, there was the problem of access to markets. Now, you can order with a click from 10,000 kilometers away.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu reported that apps sales in the App Store alone have provided entrepreneurs with a total of 70 billion USD in revenue; it received 180 billion hits in the last 10 years, and the number of products originating from Turkey reached to 9,000.

“During the ‘November 11th Shopping Festival,’ Alibaba.com, which doesn’t have a single physical store, has made a total of 25 billion USD in sales in a single day,” said TOBB President and went on, “Last year was 18 billion USD; sales grew by 40%. Well, here's a question for you: Does anyone know the annual turnover of the biggest company in Turkey? Our biggest company is Tüpraş. The annual turnover of Tüpraş is between 10-12 billion dollars. In other words, surpassed our biggest company's turnover of a year in a day. There is not a single physical store. The total number of orders is 812 million. 60,000 international brands and products are listed.

There is a saying, 'Make the molasses well and a buyer will come from Baghdad.’ So your customer is now on the web, at the speed of light, coming to you by e-mail.”

- “Entrepreneurship is neither science nor art”

Stating that it has been said there is a lack of training, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Here, then, is a true story: A delegation from China visited the United States to study. The US schools told them how entrepreneurship is their specialty, and how their graduates have become successful entrepreneurs. It attracted the attention of the Chinese who studied the curriculum of those schools. And they said: We’ve not seen entrepreneurship classes anywhere in your curriculum. The American school manager says: Innovative and entrepreneurial people are not trained by teaching. This is a mentality and framework; a matter of ecosystem. Indeed, entrepreneurship is neither science nor art. It is learned not by reading but by application. As TOBB, we are aware of this. We believe that your entrepreneurship is the future of Turkey. We are working to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey. We established the TOBB Women and Young Entrepreneurs Boards 10 years ago. Fortunately, today we are receiving the fruits of our labors.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the G3 Forum has been created to provide a space for exchanging ideas, knowledge and experience to carry Turkey forward by bringing together mentors, entrepreneurs, and successful names with more than 1000 participants each year aiming to contribute to the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Referring to the support they provide to entrepreneurs as TOBB, Hisarcıklıoğlu continued, “We pushed the enactment of the angel investors legislation that facilitated the financing of entrepreneurship. We are carrying out Venture Capital Anatolian Meetings with TOBB Venture Capital Council Chair Mr. Göktekin leading the initiative. We are bringing together billion-dollar funds and companies in Anatolia. We’ve been to Konya, Gaziantep and İzmir, now there is Adana.

Every year we determine the 100 fastest growing companies in Turkey. We promote them; we open them abroad. We started the Digital Workshop with Google. We provide our SMEs and our young people with digitalization trainings. We work with technology companies to open the doors of digital economy to women. Together with Turkcell, we have just completed the ‘Women Writing the Future' project. In Turkey, 1,400 women have learned to develop application software. With Facebook, we showed 5,000 women how to use social media to make money. We are turning social media into a productive medium and make it a tool to make money and develop business.

- Advice for entrepreneur candidates

Hisarcıklıoğlu also provided advice the entrepreneur candidates, saying, “Whatever you have in mind, go after it. Work harder than everyone else; prepare to get plenty of 'No's and think of the road ahead without fear! Look, Mevlana says: If you but start to walk, the road will show itself. This is the golden rule of entrepreneurship.

I often recommend the book, ‘The Start-up of You’ by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIN. 'The best way to learn is to do it,’ it says. Remember, even today's most brilliant business idea in the world lasts 6 months! So in 6 months someone else is doing that idea or your solution is no longer needed.

Second recommendation: Build your team well. As knowledge grows so fast, we are alone and we have little chance of succeeding. Because in each project we have to bring together different experiences, different perspectives and different disciplines from art to technology.

Today, the biggest investors in the world decide on investments by examining the teams rather than the idea. Because they know that needs change very quickly, ideas will change. So will the entrepreneurial candidates who I invest in be able to adapt quickly and generate new ideas? Because those who do not produce innovation lose.

On the screen you can see Forbes’ cover from 10 years ago. The title reads: ‘Nokia: One billion customers – Can anyone catch the cell phone king?’ But what happened? They fell behind in smartphone technology, and came to the point of being erased from the market. That is why you need to constantly improve yourself and complement each other's deficiencies.”

“Never give up, do not give up,” said the TOBB President and went on, “Don’t say something’s been attempted before! Do not be afraid to fail! If you haven’t fallen down you won’t be an entrepreneur; if you’re unafraid to fall, you will become an entrepreneur. Being a good entrepreneurship is not about not falling, but getting back up when you do fall. Behind many great achievements is failure and determination. Google is the 21^st search engine in the world. So it's an idea that failed 20 times before.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes. I always tell my colleagues: Where there is work, there are mistakes! Only the person who tries nothing will make no mistakes. Trust yourself and your ideas. If you are unsuccessful, stand up and try again. The real trick is to get up again when you fall down. For example, Rovio, the architect of Angry Birds who wrote the most played mobile games today, developed 51 unsuccessful games before this game. But he was optimistic, determined and successful.

You don’t need to discover a whole new business area either. There’s no one that doesn’t know about AIRBNB anymore. An innovative application designed to meet your short-term accommodation needs. But they own not a single piece of real estate. Learn from this sample. Think about how I can meet known needs more efficiently. UBER has a similar story. The work done is very simple; to make people go from one place to another. But more affordable and better quality travel.

In fact, many successful ideas are based on simple solutions. Let me give a striking example of this: When NASA started to send astronauts to space, they found that the ballpoint pens don’t zero gravity. The solution to this problem cost NASA 10 years and 12 million dollars. They designed and produced a new pen. Russians compete with America in the space race didn’t have such resources. So they looked for a simpler solution. They used pencils instead of ballpoint pens. So the solution is not always the most expensive, the most resource-intensive way.

Trust your mind, not your wallet. And be absolutely honest. Because the trick to business is honest. An honest man earns sooner or later.

The last and perhaps the most important advice is to you: There is a study titled, 'The Biggest Regrets in Life'. Do you know what is the most common regret? ‘If I knew then what I know now, I would have pursued my own dreams!’ We all have one life to live. Some of us are living this life for the goals that others have drawn for us. Apparently it is the greatest regret to be an extra in the story of others. Real happiness is to be the hero of one's own story.”