Posted April 26, 2012 by Ladieswhobrand in Blog | No comments yet
Guest Blogger: Kathy Bass, Ladies Who Brand
This blog is inspired by a book I just finished reading: The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by the co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. {Thanks Francine Hardaway for the recommendation!}
Let’s start with the conclusion of the book: “You were born an entrepreneur. However, that doesn’t guarantee you will live like one. Instincts need nurturing. Potential needs realizing. You can take control of your life and apply entrepreneurial skills to whatever work you do – the question is will you?”
Why did I start with the conclusion first? Because you should always begin with the end result in mind. If you want to take control of your life, I invite you to read on…
“With change come new opportunities as well as challenges. What’s required now is an entrepreneurial mind-set. You need to think and act like you’re running a start-up.
Why the start-up of you? When you start a company, you make decisions in an information-poor, time-compressed, resource-constrained environment. There are no guarantees or safety nets, so you take on a certain amount of risk. The competition is changing; the market is changing. The life cycle of the company is fairly short. You never know what is going to happen next. Information is limited. Resources are tight. Competition is fierce. The world is changing. This means you need to be adapting all the time. And if you fail to adapt, no one – not your employer, not the government-is going to catch you when you fall.
Entrepreneurs deal with these uncertainties, changes and constraints head-on. They take stock of their assets, aspirations, and the market realities to develop a competitive advantage. They craft flexible, iterative plans. They build a network of relationships throughout their industry that outlives their start-up. They aggressively seek and create breakout opportunities that involve focused risk, and actively manage that risk. They tap their network for the business intelligence to navigate tough challenges. And, they do theses things form the moment they hatch that nascent idea to every day after that – even as the companies go from being run out of a garage to occupying office space.
To succeed in today’s world, you need to adopt these same entrepreneurial strategies.
Steve Jobs called Apple the ‘biggest start-up on the planet.’ In the same way, you need to forever be a start-up.”
From my own entrepreneurial journey experience, these are my top 3’s to survive & then thrive our new world:
- Stop trying to control things and people; start embracing uncertainty.
- Only compete with yourself and focus on progress and improvement every day.
- Follow up on what you say you will do or figure out why you can’t or don’t want to and communicate your reasons respectfully in a timely manner.
Guest Blogger: Kathy Bass, Ladies Who Brand
Power up! Arizona entrepreneurs…
Start today. Figure out what you love and why you love it. Find out how to add value. Create an awesome customer experience. Don’t stop being curious and asking questions. Dig deeper, not wider. Don’t compare your circumstances to anyone else – do …well, this pretty much sums it up:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
~Theodore Roosevelt 26th president of US (1858 – 1919)
Arizona’s Infusionsoft Co-founder and President, Clate Mask, shared his thoughts on the success factors they’ve found growing in number of employees and sales and at the May TiE Arizona event.
