They are very effective with people.Īs Americans, we tend to admire people who are out on the edge a little bit. Regardless of the industry or product, they can almost immediately home in on the two or three key points that the business’ success depends upon. They rapidly get to the success or failure points of the business almost every time. But notice how the judges on the show (all of whom are successful entrepreneurs) really know what they are talking about. Shark Tank is an entertainment show, without question. Good entrepreneurs are able to identify the few key factors that are important to a decision or a business. They can reduce complicated data into something manageable and actionable.Įven extremely complex business problems usually reduce down to three or four important components. Donald Trump is a sales entrepreneur (among other things). Scott Cook at Intuit is a product entrepreneur. Even though Bill Gates had technical expertise, he was actually a sales and marketing specialist. Steve Jobs was a good communicator, but his skill lay in products. To successfully lead a company, you have to be able to drive at least one of those pillars. Companies live or die on the strength of their products and their ability to market and sell those products. Good entrepreneurs tend to fall into one of two buckets: those who sell stuff or those who can build great products. But the story behind entrepreneurial success seldom resembles “The Social Network.” It’s probably closer to “All at Sea.” 4.
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I don’t mean to trivialize the success of great American entrepreneurial stories like Facebook. The amount of work involved is unfathomable for those who haven’t tried it yet.
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It takes a long time to generate momentum. The truth is that the task of building a successful business is a thankless and grueling one. They’re willing to work the long hours.įacebook went from an idea in a dorm room to a billion dollar company in a flash. Related: One Bad Apple Can Ruin the Barrelģ. They tend to be good at finding backdoors and keys to locks that other people don’t see. They are resourceful and creative folks who burrow a little bit further and try different angles than other people. Successful entrepreneurs are not sages or mystics. Part of this involves assigning an almost mystic quality to individuals who start successful companies from scratch. Without question, there’s a “cult of the entrepreneur” in this country. The very good entrepreneurs that I have met are not trying to be eccentric or unconventional they simply tend to think a little bit differently and creatively. Good entrepreneurs tend to be skilled problem solvers and analytical, but they also approach problems in a creative fashion. Successful entrepreneurs are highly goal oriented, blending their big-picture strategy with a laser focus on execution and results.
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Most ideas are going to have to be heavily revised when you get out to market. In fact, I’d even advise aspiring entrepreneurs to avoid spending too much time on developing business ideas. This may be true, in some cases, but the best ones I’ve worked with can blend their “vision” with the ability to get things done.
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We tend to think of successful entrepreneurs as big-picture people and visionaries. Great entrepreneurs blend vision with execution. And even for existing entrepreneurs, I hope this piece may provide some insight into the things that you want (and need) to focus on in leadership. However, I truly do believe that it’s important for budding entrepreneurs to understand what will be required of them to successfully start a business. Despite having strong opinions on the matter, most times, for obvious reasons, these pieces do not include enough data points to support the conclusions that are made by the writer. I was slightly reluctant to write a piece about the common characteristics of excellent entrepreneurs.