During the waning days of 2006, many of us will begin to reflect on the past as we make plans for our future. As I was preparing for my year-end column on entrepreneurship, I reviewed the topics that have generated the most reader feedback during the past seven years.

The columns I have written in this space have included many topics of interest and concern to entrepreneurs: organizational form; raising money; investor relations; sales; writing a business plan; partnering; financial management; working with legal, insurance and other professionals; among many others. But the columns that have consistently generated the most reader response are the columns about "people" - the company leader, the management team, advisers, directors and partners, especially with regard to their ethics and integrity.

As I researched these past articles (more than 15 of them), I found several concepts that seemed to capture the essence of many of the messages. As my parting thoughts for this year, let me share with you those quotes:

• "What is the one thing that is most important? People," from April 2000. "In the movie 'City Slickers,' Jack Palance and Billy Crystal are riding their horses and talking about life. At one point the Palance character explains the meaning of life to Crystal's character and says it always comes down to one thing, just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean anything."

But what is the "one thing" for entrepreneurs starting up a new business? In my view, it's the people. It's having a leader who leads with firmness of purpose and clarity of vision. It's having team members who complement each other and are well-suited to the task at hand. And it's having advisers who can draw from the depth of their experience to offer skilled and capable strategic counsel.

• "The entrepreneur, the leader, the 'captain,"' from November 2003. "As Thomas Aquinas said, 'If the primary mission of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would never leave port.' The leader is not only willing to leave port, but he also has a bias for action. Centuries ago it was said, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish."'

• "Integrity," from October 2004. We referenced a presentation made by Warren Buffett at Harvard University. After his speech, a student asked him how he made hiring decisions. "I look for three things," Buffett replied. "The first is personal integrity, the second is intelligence and the third is a high energy level." He paused and then added, "But, if you don't have the first, the second two don't matter."


• "Teamwork and the ability to execute the plan," from August 2005. In his book, "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done," Larry Bossidy said, "Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing how and what, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability. It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organization's capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and linking rewards to outcomes.

"In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it."

If you summarize his definition of execution you find that it is all about managers who are good at rigorously discussing and questioning, making and changing assumptions, assessing capabilities, matching strategy to people and creating ways to reward those people.

The team that guided Salt Lake City through the 2002 Winter Olympics is an example of a group that knew how to execute and how to do it well. Mitt Romney summed up the team this way: "More than just the talent, I found a core group that would go through walls if guided in a shared vision." And in the end they went through many walls on their way to a successful Olympics and a $56 million surplus.

If people truly are the most important part of the business, we must ask ourselves why we spend so little time on this most important asset. As you reflect on the past and look to the future, commit to investing more of your time, thoughts and talent to your people.