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 Entrepreneur
Essentials
by Gary L. Crocker
illustrations by James Steinburg
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Despite the conversion of hundreds of dot.coms to dot.bombs over
the past year, Americans continue to view entrepreneurship as a
career path with potential.
According to the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, 52 percent
of those surveyed in 2000 perceived good opportunities to start
new businesses, down only slightly from 57 percent who felt this
way in 1999.
The trend toward entrepreneurship hasn't slowed much. Since 1980,
Fortune 500 Companies have lost five million jobs, while the United
States as a whole has added thirty-four million jobs—most of which
were generated by small businesses. The increase in start-up activity
combined with the recent downturn in the economy has caused investors
to be far more selective in who and what they back.
Working in the trenches of many startups, I have gathered some valuable
insights about what it takes to start and sustain a new venture.
Taken from more than twenty-five years experience, I believe there
are ten entrepreneur essentials.
Radiate
passion and energy.
I have never seen an entrepreneurial situation, no
matter how good the business plan or product, succeed without the
infusion of personal passion and commitment by the people at the
top of the organization. A great leader has the capacity not only
to be motivated to an extraordinary degree but to share that passion,
commitment, and vision with others. Venture capitalists or anyone
else funding new businesses will look for passion and energy in
the founders.
Passion and energy rule Wall Street. Those who can't communicate
passion have a hard time getting funding. Investors care more about
commitment and passion than they do about expertise or intelligence.
To succeed, entrepreneurs must avoid complacency and focus on a
sense of urgency to get the job done. One of the worst things that
can happen to a small business after it hits the initial "seed"
round of funding is to lose its sense of crisis and urgency. Founders
often get a little funding and think it's sufficient. They don't
realize that a little bit of funding is setting itself up for a
larger disaster if they don't make it work. Entrepreneurs have to
refuse unacceptable reality and create new reality. That requires
a lot of energy and time to move forward. If founders don't have
passion or the ability to communicate that passion, they should
find somebody to work with who does.
 Don't
allow your organization to politicize.
In other words, insist on absolute integrity in behavior
and information flows. Small organizations don't have the luxury
in terms of cash flow and products to get bogged down in politicization,
secondary turf fights, or policy or strategic fights. These conflicts
drain the critical energy required for passion to move forward.
It is incredibly easy to fall into this crippling morass of backbiting
and positioning fights that characterize many, if not most, business
organizations.
Every time I interview new job candidates, the first question I
ask is how they view themselves on a scale of one to ten as a political
infighter. If they brag about their expertise and how good they
are, I take it as a red flag. That means they're wasting energy.
Managers and entrepreneurs should make it clear to new hires that
they will not tolerate politicization nor unproductive time spent
trying to position oneself, one's career, one's strategies, or one's
preferences. Many good organizations are crippled by internal politicization.
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