The idea of the entrepreneur has come to be synonymous with the Bransons, Jobs, Gates of this world. What are called “transformational leaders”, the hypomanic, “crazy” people a few (very few) of whom create new business dimensions – and most (the vast majority) fly too close to the sun, and just burn up (themselves and their investors’ money).
And “How to Become an Entrepreneur” has been taken over by armies of “gurus”, each with their own Seven Steps To…
But the real world is not like that.
For every one Branson, there are (tens of) thousands of bright, knowledgeable, hard working, hard pressed people running their own businesses the best they can – and making a pretty damn good job of it.
What are called “transactional leaders”, determined, down-to-earth entrepreneurs making money with as little risk, and as much intelligence and expertise as possible.
The transformation gurus look for “kind of crazy” people, and say things like “You need to suspend disbelief to start a company”. The transactional experts say “No, you don’t. The opposite is true”. You need to be as realistic as possible. You need experience. You need to have your eyes wide open. You need blah-blah…
Most people are not “geniuses” who have one great idea. They are born and brought up in a certain way, and then they work really hard to create new opportunities for themselves.
It’s what Malcolm Gladwell calls the 10,000 hour rule. He argues that Mozart was not a boy genius. He was hugely talented, but he practiced for (give or take) 10,000 hours (ie he was a prodigy at 8, but didn’t produce any great music until he was 18).
Bill Gates was very bright, but he went to MIT where they had the first powerful computers, and he spent mega hours playing and working on them. Musicians, artists, etc, the same applies. They spend mega hours in their bedrooms playing guitar/drawing for hour after hour.
You get to be a “genius” by hard work and putting in the hours.
Of course, you’ve got to have the “creative spark”, but you’ve also got to have the experience...,
So we say there are the “One Day Entrepreneurs” – the ones who have one great idea, and make a fortune (or not) – and there are the “Everyday Entrepreneurs”. Those are the ones we are interested in.
The ones who have to deliver solutions to minor and major problems everyday of their working lives.
Who is out there to help them?
Who has been-there-and-done-it so can provide reliable advice? Who can deliver practical action plans rather than unrealistic, magic wand solutions?
25 comments:
We're out here to help 'everyday entrepreneurs'! From a contemporary work and business hub in the global valley of entrepreneurship in Shropshire, we provide work space away from home, free coaching and marketing sessions, an economic place to work and best of all - the company of like minded / same spirited everyday entrepreneurs. We are all part of the next industrial revolution and between us, we will get the UK trading again! Great blog, fabulous philosophy - come up and see us sometime! www.enterprise-hq.co.uk
Yes - had hoped to see you in Liverpool today with the truck but not to worry. This article certainly rings a bell for the sort of clients we have up here in the NW.
Robert
You ask "who is there to help them?" - I would say that there are plenty of mentors and specialist consultants around that can help businesses. (Although perhaps you are asking how do they go about about choosing the right one?).
In my opinion, many businesses hit a brick wall, because the owners simply won't ask for help (and probably don't realise they need it). One reason is that many businesses owners focus too much on the "hard work" without standing back and looking at the strengths and weaknesses in the business > it sort of comes back to your Business Plan question!
Quoting the man - they work in and not on the business.
Will put a bottle of champagne in fridge for tonight!
Be interesting to see if this runs like your previous blog post entry at http://robert-craven.blogspot.com/2010/12/do-you-really-need-great-business-plan.html which had loads of hits. It is curious to figure out what makes a subject so popular.
Is there a connection between Entrepreneurship and Innovation ? Is one essential to the other or are there other factors
Hi Robert
Interesting blog post - thanks. I like the concept of Everyday Entrepreneurs - we come across many of them and you're right, they are having to deliver solutions everyday - often with a deficit of resources and/or time.
Against this background, it's difficult to recognise the need to stand back and work "on the business", as opposed to "in the business". Probably the bit we could learn from the likes of Branson is recognising the need to recruit people far better than ourselves, if we are looking for growth (keeping in mind your previous blog, "The Big Mistake - not staying small"!) - getting great people and empowering them is sometimes difficult for an entrepreneur, but seems to be one of the keys to success.
Emma W
Roy Orbison was right
Very interesting. Of course the root word for Entrepreneur in old french has them meaning of "to undertake". Anyone therefore that undertakes to start and run a business is by definition an entrepreneur.
Today of course it is more defined as someone that starts one or usually more businesses and is not risk averse and always prepared to try something new either new to them or literally new in origin.
Verticle integration of strategic delivery within learning transaction and buddhist philosophical expression of Leadership Styles and Brand Positioning.
1. Cohesion, Learning to Be, Root Chakra, Ark Leader, Need Brand
2. Buy In, Learning to Do, Swadhisthana, Sacral Leader, Buy in Brand
3. Deliver, Learning to Think, Manipura, Intellectual Leader, Path Brand
4. Monitor, Learning to be skillful, Anaharta, Emotive Leader, Community Brand
5. Precision, Learning to be powerful, Vishudda, Orator Leader, Quality Brand
6. Governance, Learning to be secure, Ajna, Controller Leader, Differentiation Brand
7. Vision, Personal Mastery, Sashasrara, Sales Person ,The Executive Brand
A really interesting topic and I look forward to hearing what others have to say. From my perspective, I have worked with many small business owners, all "entrepreneurs" in their own way.
Lots of interesting people lots of nice people, but sadly the one thing they tend to have in common is that they are really quite poor when it comes to managing the business and even more so when it comes to managing and leading people. So is the real entrepreneur the one with the ideas, the flair and the drive but also with the ability to provide strategic leadership to the business and the people within it.
Interesting article. I've only got 5 minutes to catch my plane so I'll be brief. Most of the books are bullshit. You read them when you set up your first business and are still in that wow cloud of going it alone. A few businesses down the road - i'm on my 7th startup - you have an understanding that hellps you really understand what the boks were trying to say, and an experience and confidence that makes it mostly unnecessary.
About the only thing that stuck out of everything was some scottish guy who talked about potholes. As an entrepreneur there are always going to be potholes in the road ahaead. You're job is to decide when to do something to avoid them. Its the when that is important not the what. That was the most useful thing i learnt - the rest came from repeatedly hitting my head against stone walls and learning it for myself
4 1/2 minutes. Perfect. Now home to wife and baby ;)
Surely entrepreneurs come in all guises, whether they are 'everyday', 'one day' or 'only for special occasions'. Some succeed by employing team members that are better than them, others by driving with their own genius, passion and determination. Some use their capabilities to deliver what to others are mundane services and have successful businesses that leave them with some cash but a lot of satisfaction.
Some are even happy working IN their business and don't really want to grow their businesses too far.
The spread of capabilities, success criteria, industries and ideas is so vast that none of the books will ever be able to give the single recipe for success.
One thing that entrepreneurs may all have in common is that they are AND people - they manage to keep all of the important plates spinning most of the time.
Various studies have show that it is hard to put entrepreneurs as a group in box. It would seem the only true characteristc they share is a desire to start a business (which of course requires determination), and certainly not have a core set of traits. Studies of Branson and the like can be very useful for a general reader but are unlikely to offer recipes which others can follow. After all, one of the key aspects of his job was to make it very difficult to be copied. Once could also argue that looking to exceptional leaders for example may be missing the point. Surely it is better to understand how the vast majority of moderately successful entrepreneurs work (i.e. those not in the public eye) than the elite few. There is anecdotal evidence that Sir Richard has few of the "crazy" attributes which the public seems to think he has. Like a good PR man, he has created a public image which is part of a strategy to advance his various businesses.
Who's there to help the everyday entrepreneurs?
Dragon's Den of course!!
Lovely post - very timely in my life, so thanks for that. I would like to put a provocative statement forward:
Everyday Entrepreneurs are happy, and are not looking for help.
I have been an everyday entrepreneur (love the phrase) since '93 and generally I have been happy. This is no longer the case and I feel the need to do more.
Whether this means I go from an EE to a crazy superfocused dynamo on the 10 steps to financial freedom as a key person of influence in the new social media enterprise 2.0 blah blah ...well we'll just have to see!
Cheers, Mark
Risk aversity appears on the literature, but also locus of control, awareness, etc. So there are lots of both innates and learned traits that must come together to, perhaps, create an entrepreneur. So they're rare specimens. And like Dan H said, it's proved to be very difficult to group them as a whole.
It's interesting the link with growth some of the posts mentioned, actually, even though growth has a very positive acceptance within society, it's not as clear in the business world; growth is not a defined term, it can be measured very variately. So growth can mean more benefits, but also more employement, market share, etc.
And depending how we conceive it growth is going to be more or less desirable.
Quite curious too the disctinction betweek everyday entrepreneurs and one day entrepreneurs. Outliners will always exist and since the field of research is relatively new, one should expect people to undertand the concept with the most different profile they've been given. That's how we start learning concepts when we were little, by comparison and by addition or substraction of caracteristics.
According to that, the disctinction is, as I said, curious, but is not the target of current studies.
I'm looking forward to reading next comments.
Mar
Nice post Robert. I think it is important to remember that many of the so-called transformational leaders, would have shown tremendous transactional qualities throughout their entrepreneurial careers. I am sure Richard Branson could appreciate the 'everyday entrepreneur' for the long hours he put into his first magazine and record businesses. What set Sir RB apart was that he had that overarching vision that could be applied to so many other businesses. yes he took risks, but so would most other everyday entrepreneurs if they had shared that same vision.
Thanks for a great post.
Jed
Nice post Robert. I think it is important to remember that many of the so-called transformational leaders, would have shown tremendous transactional qualities throughout their entrepreneurial careers. I am sure Richard Branson could appreciate the 'everyday entrepreneur' for the long hours he put into his first magazine and record businesses. What set Sir RB apart was that he had that overarching vision that could be applied to so many other businesses. yes he took risks, but so would most other everyday entrepreneurs if they had shared that same vision.
Thanks for a great post.
Jed
Who's there to help the everyday entrepreneurs?
Dragon's Den of course!!
Lovely post - very timely in my life, so thanks for that. I would like to put a provocative statement forward:
Everyday Entrepreneurs are happy, and are not looking for help.
I have been an everyday entrepreneur (love the phrase) since '93 and generally I have been happy. This is no longer the case and I feel the need to do more.
Whether this means I go from an EE to a crazy superfocused dynamo on the 10 steps to financial freedom as a key person of influence in the new social media enterprise 2.0 blah blah ...well we'll just have to see!
Cheers, Mark
Is there a connection between Entrepreneurship and Innovation ? Is one essential to the other or are there other factors
Will put a bottle of champagne in fridge for tonight!
We're out here to help 'everyday entrepreneurs'! From a contemporary work and business hub in the global valley of entrepreneurship in Shropshire, we provide work space away from home, free coaching and marketing sessions, an economic place to work and best of all - the company of like minded / same spirited everyday entrepreneurs. We are all part of the next industrial revolution and between us, we will get the UK trading again! Great blog, fabulous philosophy - come up and see us sometime! www.enterprise-hq.co.uk
The difference between entrepreneurs and most consultants: http://su.pr/62mBHw
How Many Successful Entrepreneurs Would Fail an IQ Test?
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mr-personality/201103/how-many-successful-entrepreneurs-would-fail-iq-test
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