Welcome to the Platitude-Free Zone
This blog post is intended to start a conversation with entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and the people who invest money with entrepreneurs. I would like us to have a real discussion about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur (however you define success)–free of platitudes and “conventional wisdom.”
My vision for this post is, via your comments, we will inspire one another to reach a little higher for our goals, dig a little deeper for strength, and reflect internally a little more deliberately for clarity of purpose and mission.
You’ve Determined You ARE an Entrepreneur. Now What?
I’m no expert on entrepreneurship. Really, I’m just a dude with a dollar-er-fifty cents-and a dream. And I am working incredibly hard to launch my start-up, WeMontage.
Maybe you determined you’re an entrepreneur after reading one of the many blog posts that force you to ask yourself a few tough questions before you take the plunge. Or maybe, like me, you knew all along, but forgot the truth and suddenly had an “epiphany” that led you back to it.
Either way, once you take that first step toward entrepreneurship, there is no guarantee you will be successful.
So What Does It Take To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?
This question seems to be the rub.
We’ve all read the self-help books and seen pithy quotes from our heroes about what it takes to be successful (here’s a great site for quotes and inspiration). Maybe some of you, like me, keep up with the latest trends in the “science” of entrepreneurship (e.g., The Lean Startup movement) and know the importance of having a great team and a killer business model.
I’m sure some of us lean on our faith or spiritual teachings to shine the light on the path to success and rely on blessings to lead us on the way. I’ve done all of the above, yet I am no closer to a definitive answer to the question. Am I cynical? Perhaps.
I did, however, stumble upon the following quote and it struck a chord deep within me:
“A true entrepreneur can’t imagine living a life any way other than on their own terms. Their success is, metaphorically, a life or death situation. If you feel the entrepreneur inside of you screaming every time you’re forced to suppress an idea, then it’s a matter of life or death for you. Every time you suppress your inner entrepreneur, a piece of it will die.” – Liz Seda, Lifestyle Designer and Entrepreneur
So, after speaking with several entrepreneurs over the years and taking my shots at entrepreneurship, I’m left with only one reasonable answer to the question: luck. You need to be lucky. I’m ok defining luck as a blessing from God, or being in alignment with ‘The Universe,” or it’s where hard work meets opportunity. However you want to define it, I’m good with that.
After you’ve gone all in with your resources for your idea, put together the best possible management team, worked tirelessly, turned over every stone, designed a killer business model, and tested and validated your idea, I believe it takes luck to be successful; something that is completely out of your control. Luck. That’s it.
I’m not saying I’m right about this. It’s just my opinion and I’ve got lots of them (just ask my wife :-)). If you have a different one I’d love to read it in the comments section below.
@jamesoliverjr
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Hi James,
Great post. One of the definitions you gave for luck is in sync with my belief… that luck is where preparation and opportunity meet. I think that is where you have your best chance of luck to strike. I do, however believe in karma and the fact that the more you give, the more you will receive, so long as you never look to receive when you give! That is a hard one… Anyway, I think it also has to do with the post I put out today on the difference between the Quality and Quantity of your work… Furthermore, I think that Quality has much to do with learning from failure, so mistakes are a good thing, if you make them early before the stakes are high. It's also better (in my opinion) to learn from the mistakes of others. That way it doesn't impede your experience. Again, great post and good LUCK! (pun intended) Best-MJ
Thanks, MJ, for the very thoughtful comment. And I'll head over to your post now!
Cool. Will put on my stream to do my part to spread the word :-)
Interesting article James – and I love the Liz Seda quote. Both I and the entrepreneurs I know would relate to that quote. I personally believe there's a degree of luck in entrepreneurship – in terms of how sizeable the business venture actually becomes. So many businesses differ enormously a couple of years from launch, compared with what was originally envisaged. The entrepreneur can take credit for having steered the business in new directions in response to market feedback, but where that results in the business being far more sizeable than was originally envisaged there's been a degree of luck involved for sure. But I also think people are hard-wired to feel the urge to be entrepreneurs, so from that perspective it's more genetics and nurture than luck.
Will watch with interest to see how this conversation develops – and good luck with the new venture.
Great comment, Tony. I'm really encouraged so far with the quality of the responses here.
For the greater part of 14 years, I've owned my own businesses. My current is my third. I can say that luck has something to do with it, if you define luck as the meeting of preparation and opportunity, rather than hard work and opportunity.
Entrepreneurs are successful because of a few things:
1. We work very hard; harder than most.
2. We understand that there is no separation between work and life – it's all a part of who they are
3. We acknowledge that we don't have all the answers, and that's a good thing. We then find the people that do have the answers.
4. Insatiable thirst for knowledge.
5. Intrinsically motivated. External stuff is good, however we're internally driven, and that is what helps us learn from failure and continue to rocket ahead.
Good luck with your startup James!
Thank you. Agree with everything you said there, Robert. Especially the last point. I've always been intrinsically motivated. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, James. I've long thought that luck is as essential as hard work, diligence, persistence, confidence, etc.
Sue
Thanks for commenting, Sue. What's going on in Madison?
Luck – you hit the nail on the head here, James!
And it's driven by purpose, passion, ambition, hard work, and a will that cannot and will not be broken.
Great thought here, James!
Nice. #Nevergiveup
Great post James. I believe that many elements come together and play a role in the success of an entrepreneur. Having said that, I believe the entrepreneurs internal drive must be the strongest element of all. Love the quote from Liz Seda. I agree that if entrepreneurship is not literally a part of who you are it won't work. Wonderful read and very encouraging to those who are or aspire to be entrepreneurs. Best wishes for much success!
Thanks so much for the comment and the twitter share, Beverly. Do you think internal drive alone is sufficient?
The answer is that luck is a large component of the success story. I have have a few articles on this topic. One which is last year is attached: Advisors and Luck Improve Business – Photo Example http://taffywilliams.blogspot.com/2011/05/advisor…
I have had multiple times with a company could have been closed. Being able to hold out is a critical part. I have written on a case here a friend was planning to close a business only to have a major order come through in the last day. When he was telling me the story, his salary was $8MM per year. He later sold the company.
Luck and abllity to stick with the company are essential. A friend of mine sold his hedg fund in 1999 at the peak of the market. His quote was "it was better to be lucky than good". I have a number of other articles that provide such stories. LUCK is important.
Taffy http://www.colonialtdc.com
That's exactly what I'm talking about; it's stories like these that support my point. And that is my favorite saying on the golf course. 'Cause "lord knows" it's too hard to be good on the golf course. Haha!
Hey Taffy nice to see you around these parts! Everyone should listen up. Taffy really knows his stuff.
Great post James. One thing I believe entrepreneurs spend too much time on is the uniqueness of their idea, and not enough time on the category they are working in. Having a mediocre idea in a fast-growth market is better than having a great idea in a modest-growth market. Often what people refer to as "luck" is really about a successful entrepreneur creating something in the right market at the right time. Sometimes that's luck, and sometimes it's target discipline.
That's interesting. Hadn't thought about it that way before.
I am a brand new business owner that does outsourced sales/marketing representing very large companies and I ask myself this question al the time.. Then one day it hit me.. I am not one of the lucky ones. I think the lucky ones are the ones who are willing to be happy with less.. Or work for other people and not have to give it 100% every day. The ones that are just "Happy" with life in general. James in my opinion we're not lucky. We're driven, determined, motivated, encouraged and not willing to be anything less than everything we can be and more! I don't want you to get me wrong, I consider my self an extremely lucky man. I just don't think my success as an entrepreneur has anything to do with it.I am a firm believer that life will hand you anything you want. It's just, are you willing to do whatever it takes to get it!!! I know I am and I also know that is the reason why I will be a successful entrepreneur!!
"It's not the situation. It's your reaction to the situation."
Conklin, Robert
Thanks for the inspiring feedback, Donny.
First off, great post James! Now on to the more thoughtful comments ;)
I'm not one to believe in luck. I think the only time luck actually matters is if you gamble on something, or approach something completely blindly. I am one to believe that I'm in control of my own life, and that everything I choose (or not choose) to do, leads to future opportunities. It's my responsibility to capitalize on opportunities when I see them.
Here's what I think is THE determinant factor in which an entrepreneur either is successful or not: TIMING. It really comes down to that one factor – did I launch my product or business at the right time. If you look at a healthy company – one that has plenty of financials backing them up, great quality product, great management team – and they have a good understanding of external influences – the consumers, the economy, government, laws, etc. – the only variable left is timing. If they launch at the right time, they'll succeed. If they don't launch at the right time, they won't succeed.
A few months difference in timing can mean a lot. If you're a couple months early of the market, you will spend a lot of time and resources educating the market about your product/service. The next person coming in will have full resources, and a market that's already educated about your service – they'll most likely succeed, and you won't. A few months too late, and you're bombarded with competitors.
I would recommend you read The Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. He has a great chapter in their that mentions timing for successful people. If Bill Gates would have been born a couple years earlier, or a couple years later, probably wouldn't be as successful today – he was born in the perfect timing for computer programming, and was presented with the right opportunities at that time.
So those are pretty much my views about success and entrepreneurship. And even anything in life, haha :P. Looking forward to your reply James.
That's a really great point and I think timing does fall under the umbrella of my definition of "luck" because it is completely out of one's control.
Thanks for the incredibly thoughtful comment. And I'll check out that book. Cheers.
Interesting question. I don't like the idea of pure luck because it implies something outside of our own control. Granted, results are not always in our control but the how, when, where and to whom we deliver to is in our control. Timing is certainly important and being able to identify opportunities where others see crises is also critical. All of this boils down to working hard AND smart, which brings me to the famous quote from film maker Sam Goldwyn. He said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
So, I think luck is where hard work, smart work (strategy) and timing converge. A perfect storm if you will.
Fair enough. But is there ever a case when the storm never comes together in spite of the existence of its separate components? What then?
Well, we have no way of seeing into the future, so we just press on. That's why hindsight is 20/20. But hindsight is only useful in learning lessons to apply to future endeavors.
Our job is to do our best work everyday. We have no control over how the planets align or if a customer has fight with their spouse minutes before our presentation. We still show up everyday with our A game. Then, when the planets do align, we will be in a better position to take advantage of luck, opportunity, the big break, or what have you. Our job is to do our job.
I think you just inspired a blog post my friend :-)
nice!
Good post James, being an entreprebeur and having worked with entrepreneurs for years, and I am sure they will agree with your premise that in the end you need luck.
They do all the homework and develop a great business plan, even getting financial, but in the end you still need the stars to align or get devine intervention, but luck all the same.
Maybe luck in marketing, or finding the right partnerships or just entering the market at the right time.
Keep up the great discussions
thanks!
Luck is the biggest factor for sure… The perfect example is Facebook… Before that there was Friendster, Hi5, MySpace, Orkut etc. All of them were very popular. Facebook came later and with not something revolutionary. But Facebook is the biggest social network now and all the mentioned ones are nowhere in the scene now
Thanks, Shaan, for weighing in! How are things over in Riyadh?
Hi James,
I think a key trait of entrepreneurs is perseverance. We get so many knocks along the way but over time you brush them off and get back up again. I met a highly influential person at an event recently and ended up having lunch. Was that luck? The phrase I use was that I was a bit lucky but really it wasn't luck. I went to the event hoping to meet people, I engaged with lots of people, I hung around corridors to meet the right people and then I got my chance. Thanks for an interesting post! Ian
I totally agree perseverance and resilience are key ingredients. Thanks, Ian.
Great post. i believe that we can all be luckier if we choose to see ourselves as lucky.
Hey, Griselda. Thanks for stopping by and weighing in. Hope things are well across the pond :-))