Cersei is one hell of a woman, she knows her business. No matter how much she has to go through or how much she has to give up, she always manages to find her way back to that uncomfortable chair of iron. What am I blabbering about? What is everyone blabbering about since HBO made that TV series based on the books of Georgie? Game of Thrones of course. And why?

Well the answer to that one would be, because its one helluva serial and if you watch it closely, you will probably also understand that it fits somewhere right between the Silicon Valley series and TVF Pitchers which in turn is because it gives you some really valuable business lessons which are pretty damn applicable in your life, especially if yours is a start-up.

Now what lessons? Well let me break it down for you.

No Matter How Small You Are Now, The Right Connection Will Eventually Make You Big :

What is Danaerys Targareyn (character of Game of Thrones I like a lot ), but a little girl who only knows that the King’s Landing belongs to her? She only has the idea of taking it back. But if she always lived with the idea, she would have never been able execute it. What she did wisely was the marriage. Marrying a Dothraki warlord, going through the initial phase of hardships and eventually learning to make him dance to her tune is how she turned things in her own favor.

So yes, even if you have a great idea, it is equally important to see that it gets materialised and for that, you need an assistance of someone who is already in a good position, that will be the right way of business management. So in our case, the investor.

Chaos isn’t a pit, chaos is a ladder

Perhaps one of the most iconic dialogues by Petyr Baelish, this one tells us about how to grab an opportunity. When there is turmoil and things don’t seem to be going in the right direction, you can choose to be one of the many people suffering or you can look at it as an opportunity and create an empire out of it. It is in such times that your ideas work the most. The quirkier they are, the better it all turns out.

Be Real, Be Transparent

One of the most important things while doing business and thriving as a start-up is to be yourself. We see that everywhere in the series of Game of Thrones. Tyrion Lannister tells Jon Snow to be himself. He says

Be yourself, wear it like an honour and then it can be never used against you..

In another scene, Lord Baelish is seen saying “Only by admitting what we are can we get what we want”, which is to say do not make your company look like something it is not. Don’t make it look bigger just for the sake of it because the more honest you are with what you have, the better help you can get.

Be a Visionary Leader

Now this comes with a glitch. How should the vision be? It can be anything. It can be whatever you want it to be. You want to thrive as a company? Share the vision. You want to be able to get a fat ass funding in the next six months? Share the vision. My point is you can visualize whatever you want and however you want, the only thing you ought to do is share it with your henchmen like the three eyed raven does.

It keeps on telling Bran what he has to do but it doesn’t tell how, thus pushing him to find his own way. Do that with your team. Show them where you guys have to reach and the perks that they all would win when they get there. Just don’t dictate the path for them and they will thrive in great ways.

Be Prepared

Because that is what the heroes in Game of Thrones do. The Starks are always seen saying “Winter is coming”. What does it mean? It basically only means that the long winter is going to fall on all of them, on everyone but being aware about it also suggests that they are prepared for it. when the long night comes, it is the Starks who are going to have to face it first and since they know it, they are well prepared for it.

As a leader, you should also be able to see when the long night can befall you and when it does, you should be the one taking care of each of your asset, in advance so that when the winter is over and the long night lifts itself from you, you are the first one to thrive, to reach greater heights.