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What Should I Do with My Life?
I am currently a consultant with a small organizational development firm, but I dream about starting my own business. How do I know if I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? I always experience such conflicting emotions when it comes to this issue.

Your conflicting emotions concern you; they concern us too – a lot. Being an entrepreneur without ambivalence is a tough road. It’s got to be twice as tough with it!

Still, the idea intrigues you enough to ask what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Your question alone proves you understand a fundamental truth about business: entrepreneurs really are a breed apart from company types. Incidentally, there’s no value judgment in that statement. Both kinds of lives can be totally fulfilling. But they’re different.

So here are four questions. If you answer yes to them all, forget your mixed emotions and get out there on your own. You’ve got the makings of an entrepreneur.

1)    Do you have a great new idea that makes your product or service compelling to customers in a way no competitor can match? Sometimes people are attracted to the “lifestyle” of entrepreneurs – control, autonomy, the possibility of huge wealth, and all that – but they don’t really have the blockbuster idea to make it actually occur. Real entrepreneurs not only have a unique value proposition for the marketplace, they are madly in love with it. They passionately believe they have discovered the greatest thing since gravity, and now all they have to do is sell it to the whole, wide, waiting world.
2)    Do you have the stamina to hear “no” over and over again and keep smiling? Entrepreneurs spend a lot of their time asking (and sometimes even begging) venture capitalists, banks, and other investors for money. Often they get a stick in the eye. Now, no one likes getting rejected, but entrepreneurs have the resilience to not be daunted by it. The best of the lot even get energized by the experience; hearing no only makes them get out there and sell their idea even harder.
3)    Do you hate uncertainty? If so, stop reading here. Entrepreneurs spend more time in blind alleys than stray cats, if not chasing dollars, chasing new technology or service concepts, not to mention everything else they need to build a business. If not in blind alleys, they’re aboard a leaky boat on choppy seas – or put more plainly, they are often running out of money while betting on the unknown. If you’re an entrepreneur, that actually sounds like fun.
4)     Do you have the personality to attract bright people to chase your dream with you? Early on as an entrepreneur, of course, you may work alone. But with any kind of success, you are going to need to hire great people whom you can’t pay very much. To do that, you need the special talent of making people love your dream as much as you do. You need the ability to convert employees into true believers.

We certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from starting his or her own business. The free markets depend on entrepreneurs; they’re the lifeblood of healthy economies everywhere. Just know, however, that going out on your own is a radical departure from any company job you’ve ever had. The ultimate question is: does that worry you, or excite you to no end?

This question and answer originally appeared in Business Week magazine on December 26, 2005.
Rahul
4/28/2009 9:37 AM

These questions are very pragmatic.Everyone who aspires to be an Entrepreneur should read this.

 
Karen Heck
5/6/2009 12:41 AM

An Australian story - family business succession using 10-10-10 I am a 5th generation member of an Australian sugar/ethanol/property family business that stretches back to 1870. My parents are in their mid 70’s and my brothers and I are in our 40’s. Over the past 10 years, we have all labored through various attempts at putting a succession plan in place, without success. My parents ( particularly Dad ) have been struggling to psychologically get past the short term answer for “ What happens when I retire ?” and look further ahead. Rather than living their “ retirement years” with peace and harmony with their kids and grandkids, they are battling to hang in there and find meaningful business roles for themselves, often creating conflict with the current vision of the next generation. They are more concerned about their retirement than they really are about getting the succession issue resolved, which leaves my brothers & I in a constant state of uncertainty and the business in chaos. This scenario is common in so many family and private businesses around the world, despite the fact that these enterprises are the backbone of economic growth and jobs creation 10-10-10…. Or 5-5-5 I have recently tested the succession waters again but this time using a different approach with your 10-10-10 methodology ( I have in fact used 5-5-5 because at 76 it might be hard for Dad to look past 5 years). I am having a more positive response so far. Watch this space ! An opportunity This process has got me thinking that all family businesses need some help. I can tell you ( having researched this topic extensively over the years) that there is so little help out there which seems to work. A new approach is needed…. And soon. Would you consider writing a book / manual on succession planning for private enterprises using your 10-10-10 methodology. I would happily act as your Australasian researcher. I am sure with your connections there would be a suitable person in Asia, UK and Europe who could do the same.

 
 
     
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