Guest Post: The Biggest Myth in Entrepreneurship Dispelled (Part 1 of 3)

February 17, 2010 by thriveal | 3 comments

Lets listen in on a hotel lobby bar conversation between some entrepreneurs as they talk about their biggest frustration in business.

Bob, the manufacturing company owner: “My biggest frustration is having a vision and drive so big that my key executives and staff have a hard time keeping up. I mean, they are the best people money can buy, but they just don’t get the big picture. I’ve laid out all the systems they need to scale this company up in a big way. But they just don’t take true ownership of the opportunity. I have gone through at least half a dozen VP’s of sales but we’re still nowhere near where I expected us to be.”

Susan, the CPA: “My biggest frustration is standing out in a crowded marketplace of competitors. I know most of my competitors in town. None of them really come close in knowledge, expertise and service quality. I do all the networking events. I ask for referrals. We’ve done some advertising with marginal results. But we haven’t cracked the code on getting clients at the pace we’d like.”

Omar, the MLM Leader: “Well, I don’t have any employees to frustrate me and I don’t plan to have any. The product I am marketing is so unique that I really don’t have any competitors. So neither of your frustrations are a big deal for me. However, my big issue is getting hung out to dry when business opportunities go south. It almost seems like success is a moving target. Just when I have landed the right income stream and started to build it up, someone or something pulls the rug out from under me and I have to start over.”

Ingrid, the scientist: “Wow! Just listening to the three of you makes my head spin. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know the first thing about business. I feel like I am stuck at square one. I’d much rather have someone take my product and market it for me. Better yet, I wish they’d just go and build out the entire company and pay me a small royalty. I don’t want the fame or fortune. I just want my product to get into people’s hands.”

As you listen in on the conversation in the lobby bar, do you find yourself resonating more with Bob, Susan, Omar or Ingrid? Chances are, you connected with one of their frustrations more than the other three. And that says a LOT about you as an entrepreneur. A LOT more than you can even imagine! It begins to expose your entrepreneurial DNA. See, the biggest myth in entrepreneurship has been that we are all the same. That all entrepreneurs are cut from the same piece of cloth. That we are essentially like the “borg” in Star Trek…assimilated into wearing the same uniform and deploying the identical game plan. But is that really true? Are Bob, Susan, Omar and Ingrid really the same? Will they build the same size or type of business? Do they have the same appetites for risk and opportunity?

What about yourself? Are you like every other entrepreneur in your rolodex? Do you think, operate and manage the same way they do?

The answer is a strong and emphatic NO…right? All entrepreneurs are NOTthe same. There are actually 4 dramatically different “DNA’s” in the world of entrepreneurism. Each DNA has it’s unique set of strengths, weaknesses and frustrations. Each DNA also has it’s own achilles heel.

You’ll learn more about that in our next post. For now, here’s the question: Are you more like Bob, Susan, Omar or Ingrid? Use the comment box above to weigh in!

The entrepreneur’s biggest fan, Joe Abraham is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved as founder, executive or advisor in the startup and growth of companies in over a dozen industries from financial services to motorsports. Today, he is managing partner at En Corpus, a startup and small business accelerator that serves closely held companies. Joe is a featured speaker at industry events and an expert to the media on the topics of entrepreneurship, small business development, business startup and free enterprise. He lives in the Chicago area. You can connect with Joe and learn more at http://www.JoeAbraham.com.