Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneurship Track

Entrepreneurship can definitely become a way of life.  I should know.  I’ve been a life long entrepreneur,  just as my father was before me.

I don’t know if it’s an addiction,  the challenge, knowing you can bear the pain of the long climb, the exhilaration of success when, against long odds, you know you’ve created something  that didn’t exist before. Maybe it’s a hidden gene, waiting to be discovered.  Maybe it’s just that after entrepreneurship, nothing else seems so satisfying.  But whatever it is, and the x factor is, author Rajesh Setty gets it, to my mind, just right in The Dance of Entrepreneurship:

“There are broadly three phases of entrepreneurship

1. The Beginning

2. The Journey

3. The New Beginning ( Yes, It’s Not the Destination )

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Now, the quick outline of the elements in each phase:

1. The Beginning

The five elements for the beginning phase are:

1. Purpose: Knowing why you are in this will help you keep going when the going gets tough

2. Passion: Doing what you love will make it feel like you are not working

3. People: Building together with the right people will make it look easy

4. Problem: Solving a real problem will help as people will pay to solve a real problem.

5. Plan: Having a plan even when you know that it’s going to change along the way

2. The Journey

The five elements of the journey

1. Patience: Everything takes longer and costs more. Patience is a MUST

2. Persistence: Sticking to the course of action even in the face of difficulty

3. Perseverance: Sticking to your beliefs even in the face of no successful outcome

4. Pain: Ability to handle the “pains” of entrepreneurship along the way

5. Politics: Knowing how to navigate in the sea of politics. You may not want to play politics but surely you should know how to survive and thrive in the politics that already exists

Last phase is what I call the “New Beginning.” I purposely did not call it the destination because rarely I see entrepreneurship “ends” with something – it’s usually a stepping stone to begin something new.

3. The New Beginning

So, here are the five elements of the new beginning

1. Pride: The satisfaction that comes with taking a concept to a completion

2. Profits: If executed well, there is money to be made. There are also profits in terms of personal growth and fulfillment.

3. Power: Since nine out of ten companies go out of business, if you are part of the one that succeeds, you automatically have more power.

4. Possibilities: New possibilities open up as you have more credibility

5. Philanthropy: You can make a bigger difference to the world as you have “extra” capacity

For those of you who are starting on this wonderful journey, wish you the very best.

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Had Illusions? Been In The Entrepreneur Dip? Focus & Persist!

Probably every person who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur is looking at a bit of a rosy scenario. Life , or, in this case, success in business, through rose colored glasses.  An Illusion.

Not just about the outcome. About the process as well

THE ILLUSIONS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By makes no bones about it. Launching a business is hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight.  Businesses, like oak trees and flower gardens, take a long time to grow._
Illusions of Entrepreneurship - Best Small Business Book

Want to know how long?

10,000 hours.

Yep, that’s what it takes.

More than talent and more than luck, although those certainly help, it takes a lot of nose to the grindstone, seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, actually improving your skills every hour.

Malcolm Gladwell‘s new book Outliers makes this point, among others:

Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

As marketing guru, author and blogger extraordinaire, Seth Godin sagely points out : Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods–do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

Seth Godin also mentions this is somewhat  a restatement of  his concept and book, the Dip. It’s not easy to get there.

“What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

 Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.”

Someone has said that every success is a transformation of an earlier failure.  So, if you don’t succeed, it’s because you quit too soon. ( I would put that right up there with another immutable tenet of success never run out of cash.  Do those two, and you will succeed.)

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