Boss Hatch - Entrepreneurs in the Making

Attributes of People Who Start Companies

by Jim Gordon on December 31st, 2007

I’m not posting today’s normal Sunday BossHatch Times to throw in something I have been meaning to post.  I was recently sent a link to a list of 100 attributes of entrepreneurs.  Normally, I would just skim over a list like this, read it, and post a comment.  However, this has 100 attributes… jeeze!  I didn’t know entrepreneurial attributes could be THAT dynamic.  Let’s break this down a bit and pull out some of my favorites:

3. Get comfortable asking for advice and help. Although there are plenty of people who have created successful businesses on their own, most need help. They bring the basic skills and passion, but learning from others is absolutely paramount. If you are someone who knows everything, good luck. Seriously, good luck. There are many, many friendly resources that are willing to help you get up and going. You just need to find them, and ask for their help and advice. These folks LOVE and WANT to help you.

Without this, I would be totally blind to business.  You can find help anywhere.  People are either friendly or want to boost their ego!

 13. Get good at motivating yourself. During tough times, can you do it? It is easy to motivate yourself when all is well..much harder, when it is fourth down and time is running out. Be self aware enough to understand this ability or capability in yourself. Find something that seems to work constantly, a self talking mechanism that allows you to keep on keeping on. I can remember someone coming into my office one day, and asking if ’something were wrong, if we were in trouble?’ When I answered no, and wondered why he had asked, he said, ‘Well, we have noticed how serious you have been and not smiling, so we assumed something was wrong.” Even the appearance of a motivated leader is crucial. So, what specific tips can I give to help with this self motivation? I have written about this subject before in these blogs, I think there are many different techniques from reading quotes and motivational stories to keeping it all in perspective. You are different than me in this regard. I have a unique ability to be just dumb enough to think that “this too will pass,” and act accordingly. Notice that I said ACT. You should develop your own triggers.

Startups are often plagued by pessimism.  So many people plan and plan and plan - I think Hoffman (the author) hit the nail on the head when he emphasized the word act.  Without taking action and COMPLETING your action, you have accomplished nothing.

49. Never talk down, talk up. Disrespect shows up in small, insignificant ways. Your people can smell disrespect like bad gouda. Listen harder and talk less. Use ‘and’ more than you use ‘but.’

No single person is more human than the next.  You may be smart and have some clever ideas, but it doesn’t mean you are a better individual.

75. No one cares as much about it as you do. Your new company will consume you, and even most of your employees. Realize that most other people will not have heard about, or even care that you have a brand new widget. Your big dilemma about increasing prices?…they won’t even recognize it or care. As one old curmudgeon told me once, “we are nothing but pimples on the ass of progress.” I got the message.

How many times will I pitch some “amazing” idea to a friend and they will sit back and say “Uhm… okay.  I don’t think I want to do that.” But… but… my idea is foolproof!  Why does no one understand me?!

77. Be gender and color, and political blind. More than a legal requirement, it will make your business better. I extend that to politics too. You simply cannot win taking one side or the other. To me, this means no political meetings, bumper stickers on cubicles and so forth. After all, I hate YOUR candidate, and all pretenses of goodwill and logic fly out the window. Don’t subject your workforce to your political leanings,…or your customers, either.

So many people have a visual bias and don’t know it - this stretches beyond gender, race, and politics.

Now for the ones I don’t really agree with:

93. Screw security. If you are all about safety, benefits protection, fast cars and big cigars, you might not have the real, down-deep confidence it might take. Actually, I am not sure it is confidence or stupidity—what it is, is a belief that no matter what, at the end of the day, you can figure it out, and make it all happen.

I don’t know if this necessarily relates to confidence.  I think it is important to be a risk-taker, but your motivation to act may be those fast cars and big cigars.  To totally sacrifice all forms of security is reckless.

 41. Be friendly but not so much. This is touchy advice and actually hard to pull off, especially with employees who are more skilled and older than you. I believe it is one thing to be nice, friendly even, and quite another to hang with them, and drink beer all day on Saturday. Your call. Your perceived friendliness will be an issue with someone not in the group. You want to be over-the-top fair with everyone.

I’m just pulling this from the article to say that a few were “Be nice… but don’t be nice,” which threw me off a bit.

If I could add #101, it would be this:

101. Focus on the user. Make sure whatever you create isn’t filled with jargon.  Make the interfaces usable and easily accessed.  Don’t rely on constant repetition as an acceptable method of learning.

So after reading over the article, are there any attributes that you can add? What would be your #101?

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POSTED IN: Top # Lists, Young Entrepreneurs