Gurbaksh Chahal on being an entrepreneur

CEO of gWallet shares insights into the world of entrepreneurship from his book, "The Dream"

Gurbaksh Chahal, founder and CEO of gWallet, just wrapped up his keynote presentation at Vator Splash in San Francisco, CA, after sharing some great insights from his book, "The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions." Chahal's latest venture, gWallet, is a virtual currency platform for social media sites. Here are the key takeaways from his talk:

--On beginning entrepreneurship, Chahal says that ideas are just 1% of the journey. He cited Google and Facebook as excellent examples of this because neither exactly came up with search engines or social networks, but both made them much better.

--Solid advice: Be open to change. According to Chahal, "One of the key things I've picked up is that you have to take the blinders off, look around, go off in all sorts of unusual directions, and that's probably where you're going to find the most promising opportunities."

--With a slide entitled, "Hire Only Rockstars," hanging behind him, Chahal argued that more than anywhere, quality comes before quantity when hiring employees. He believes that if the company doesn't start with five great, smart employees, then it will probably never grow to be a company of many great, smart employees.

--While on one hand he understands the necessity of great people backing up a business, Chahal reiterated again and again that everyone is replaceable and an entrepreneur should never have to be in a vulnerable position because of control another person has.

--Chahal used the example of when he met the team behind AdRevolver--their offices were shabby and everything had an air of bootstrapping--to illustrate that entrepreneurs should more than anything have an undying ambition, drive, and hunger for the technology they're creating.

--Because he believes "everything happens for a reason," Chahal thinks an entrepreneur should know how to embrace rejection. No one would fund ClickAgents, but it sold for $40 million. Investors repeatedly backed out of supporting BlueLithium, until the company finally attracted more funds than the earlier investors had promised. As for raising capital in general, a company should not wait money when it needs it because investors will smell weakness.

--Chahal unwittingly made a little nod to an earlier presentation, emphasizing the significance of relationships to businesses: "Never burn a bridge."

Great thoughts for rising entrepreneurs.