A growing awareness of being an entrepreneur...

I will say up front, that I struggle with the word entrepreneur for a number of reasons, one of which, I constantly spell it wrong. With this said, I find myself "playing on the entrepreneurial side of the business fence"; I am building a business to support small and medium sized business leaders with their "commercial problems". I thought I would start with this particular idea, as I can leverage my experience; as they say, "go with your strength". You could say the plan is to become an entrepreneur to support entrepreneurs.

One of the biggest struggles I am having with the word entrepreneur is the definition. Is it a person, a state of mind, or representative of the life stage in a business? 

• Is an entrepreneur a person who is interested in making money, but simply has the inability to work for someone other than themselves?
• Is it simply the state of mind of wanting to creatively build something from an idea or concept, opposed to administrating a business process or business function?
• Is being an entrepreneur an aspect of the size of the business? When it is tiny you are an entrepreneur, as it gets bigger you manage to an entrepreneurial spirit, and finally when it is large you are "corporate".

As with all things, it's probably a combination of the above and a few other things that haven't come to mind. There is definitely one thing that has become apparent... the word "entrepreneur" is a badge of honor for those building a business from an idea or passion. There is also no doubt, no mater how you define an entrepreneur, they by necessity are salesmen. Being an entrepreneur is a sales activity, as you are selling your idea to anyone who will listen; building awareness, looking for support (either in money or in time), and building a viable revenue stream. 

As I continue to wade into this pool we call entrepreneurship, a number of business fundamentals have come to the forefront... some of which if I am honest with myself, took for granted when I was surround by a corporate structure - 

• You have to build your business infrastructure yourself, and the expertise to get it done may not be close at hand. The trap I have already seen is that "having a brilliant idea" and "being able to build a business" are two independent skill sets; having one does not mean you have the other. More often then not skills to build a business will probably have to be brought in and those early decisions will reverberate for years. The people who you want to partner with initially, are crucial.
• For those organizations that are five, ten or more years in business, (with a proven model and customer base), a "forecastable" revenue stream comes across as "straight foreword". When you are much earlier in the business developing process though, the cold reality is that revenue is hard to realize. There is a large amount of work between that first product idea and having someone ultimately pay you money for it.
• The timeframe between your idea and "exiting" as a millionaire is counted in years, not months. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but it is better to settle in for the long haul. The big dream is very important, and will carry you far, but as they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day".
• Most likely you will have to involve investors or bankers so ensure you spend their money wisely - You will need to borrow more of it down the road. To this point, it is being said money is readily available; although this may be true, you will still have to sell your idea and it's value. An investor will always be looking for a return.
• I am learning quite a lot... with so much more to learn.

Can I call myself an entrepreneur at this point? Sure, why not. Can I call myself a proven, success entrepreneur? Nope... but give it time and I do have an idea after all. Wish me luck.

gpe

Lessons for "making something happen"...

Chess is a strategic thinkers game with a simple goal of capturing the king. The strategies to accomplish this however are complex, with advanced thought out moves and counter moves to make it happen. Some have said chess is the board game of life.

Like chess, very activity that we do, more often than not, has a reason behind it; that reason is usually connected to another reason, and so on... ultimately leading us to where we want to be (or having what we want to have). Lately I have become involved with a couple of complex projects and chess, as well as a number of lessons have come to mind. I thought I would take this opportunity to share the lessons I've learned over the years for "making something happen"... 

Have a project plan written down on "paper" or in a spreadsheet. Start with the date you've targeted for completion; from there, work backwards with all the activities and milestones that need to be met.

• This will outline all the activities (or tasks) needed and illustrate how all the activities are interrelated.
• This will quickly illustrate if you have identified what is needed to get it done, as we'll as make clear the complexity.
• This will allow you the ability to communicate the project, particularly the so-called "devil" in the detail.
•  You will have "line of sight" to the resources needed to get it done.

Complex projects will require a team. It is this team that will determine your ability to execute effectively. Don't underestimate how important it is to have the right people, as well as the energy required to ensure they are working in a coordinated manner.

Communication needs to be a dialogue... and constantly ongoing. Do not underestimate the time and energy that is needed to ensure everyone is up-to-date with the latest information... just because you "talked about it", doesn't mean you "were heard". Also remember, email is great for transferring information, but horrible for communicating. 

The greatest plans will "fall off the rails". It has been said that the best plans will become obsolete as soon as they are implemented, as they are now in the real world. This is not to suggest you do not have to develop an execution plan, but rather that things happen, so be flexible and adaptable - What you thought would work today, may not work tomorrow. 

Be Patient. We are notorious for believing things will happen "sooner", "faster" and when we want them to. The universe, more often than not, does not share the same feelings as we do. I am not suggesting urgency should not be your mantra... I am just saying sometimes you need to be patient and wait for things to run the course.

Believe. I am not talking about faith here, but simply referring to being confident in what you are doing, and how you are doing it. If you are leading a team, this becomes even more crucial as others will look to you when the situation seems to be "heading to hell in a hand basket" - They need to know the course they are on is the correct one. 

Victories can be small, but they add up. This definitely occurs with complex projects, as there are many activities between the start and the finish. Look at what you have in front of you, work to the best of your ability and don't dwell on how far you are from the finish line. As they say, "It's the journey, not the destination". This of course, all within the scheduled timeframes.

Hope is not a strategy. Enough said. 

There is one last thing that comes to mind, and that is to start. As much as everyone has the finish line in mind, I believe it is just as important to have a start date - With that, you can then say, "look at all the things I have made happen so far".

gpe.

You define success... no one else does.

I have a 200 kilometer bike ride to support conquering cancer* in eight weeks; now a part of every weekend is dedicated to training. I was out today with a couple of good friends... enjoying the day and getting some kilometers under "my belt". As we were coming to the end of our ride, three riders passed us at a much faster pace and were way ahead of us before we knew it. I heard one of my friends say, "I should be in much better shape and be as fast as they are" - To that I said, "Just think of all those people who are not even out here".

For my buddy, success was going faster and for me success was being out on the road. We both have a goal to finish the BIG RIDE, but our definitions of training success are different. Is one person's definition of success better than the other? Of course not, as in this case, we will both finish the BIG RIDE. Success is different for all of us, with no one definition of success being better than the other. And only you can decide how success is defined for you.

Some people may say to me, "you should be training to ride faster", and that is fair. But here is the thing, there will be other people who would agree with my definition, and yet others, will have other definitions of successful training. And this is the trap when it comes to discussions of success; there can be a wide range of success definitions, criteria or opinion.  And who is to say what the "success hierarchy" is...

• Is success defined by wealth?
• Is success defined by the number of friends you have?
• Is success defined by the loving family you have?
• Is success defined by fame?
• Is success defined by health and longevity?
• et cetera

Which of these are more important? Are any of them? Who truly can say?

In the end, success has to be measured relative to a goal - And that goal should be yours. So again, the definition of your success has to be all about YOU and not defined by someone else. I appreciate that a person's definition of success may be aligned with someone else's definition of success and probably very contextual... such as being a sales representative and having success defined as reaching a sales target. Hopefully this is aligned with a personal goal and if not, success will most likely be hard to find.

So if you want success - set YOURSELF goals and then achieve them.

gpe

* Ride to Conquer Cancer  www.conquercancer.ca