3 Essential Actions for the New Entrepreneur
May 25 by Jason Connell in Work | 30 Shares
I recently delivered a keynote at a conference on modern entrepreneurship. A new entrepreneur asked me, “What three things do you think I should do to start a successful business?”
While there are a million pieces of advice to give to any budding entrepreneur starting with a laundry list of books to read and people to speak with, and ending with getting used to eating ramen for a year or two, below are the three essential actions that any new entrepreneur will need to truly flourish.
Doing one of these things will help you succeed. Doing all three will turbo-charge your new business and set you on the path to success.
1. Burn your ships
Imagine for a second that you are a warrior and that you have just sailed to enemy territory. Moments before you begin your attack your commander says, “before we attack we must burn our ships!”
How would you feel?
If you’re anything like me you would feel terrified. And motivated. Suddenly, the only way you would return home safely was through victory.
As a new entrepreneur, if you really want to succeed, then burn your ships. Resolve yourself to succeeding and eliminate all possible alternatives. Do not contact your old boss to see if you can come back. Do not toy with the idea of going back to school if you’re not cash flow positive after 6 months. Do not take a part time job that will make ends meet to relieve pressure. Instead take a loan and let the fear motivate you.
Commit to your own success by burning all of your ships.
2. Get a mentor
Now that you have burnt your ships, add an essential person to your team: a mentor. A good mentor will show you how to navigate failure and speed up your success.
How do you get a mentor? Think about where you want to be 10-20 years from now. Find someone who is there right now in your city and email him or her. Ask if you can take them out for coffee, lunch, breakfast, or anything that would be convenient for them for 15 minutes.
Once you setup the meeting spend 80% of the time listening. Contact them again a few months later giving them an update on your work and ask for another meeting. Continue repeating this process until you have developed a stable relationship.
3. Stay playful
It’s trendy to tell new entrepreneurs that life is easy if you’re passionate and committed to your success. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s true. While entrepreneurship is incredibly rewarding, it’s also an uphill battle for the first year or so.
The trick to surviving the turbulent start-up phase of business is to ensure that your life outside of your business is still playful and fun. Make sure that each week has at least one personal activity that you are truly looking forward to. This will revitalize you and give you more energy to channel into your startup.
Besides, life is too short not to have fun along the way.
Starting up is tough. In fact, most businesses bust before they ever even have the chance to become successful. Leverage the odds in your favor by burning your ships, getting a great mentor, and staying playful along the way.
Good luck!
(Photo credit: lamp head male writing something via Shutterstock)
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While I understand the point he is trying to make I believe part of his “burn your ships” advice is erroneous. I think it is absurd someone would tell another person who obviously doesn’t have an income to “take a loan” is out of line. Borrowing money is the absolute last thing someone should ever do who wants to bee successful. Here is a better idea, save enough money to live for a while before “burning your ship”.
Hi Bornagainscholar – Jason Connell, the author here. It’s funny, when I walked into my coworking space this morning, someone said the exact same thing to me. I agree with you – people should save up about a years worth of money before they attempt to start a business. In fact if someone is financially responsible for another person – I’m thinking children, parents, or a significant other – then I believe they have the obligation to be as financially stable as they possibly can be.
That said, there’s no time like the present and with all the various crowd-funding opportunities available to entrepreneurs I encourage people to burn their ships and take action (provided again, they have no dependents). Doing so virtually ensures success. Not doing so prevents people from fully committing to their dream.
Thank you for your reply. I do agree with you that now is a good time to bring a great idea to market. And that being fully committed is necessary and adds more of an opportunity to see the project through the rough times. But the borrower is always slave to the lender. I think that being in debt isn’t necessary to “burn your ship” and has the possibility of hindering success. If someone who cares about their FICA score ( I personally think is not something to be concerned with. I think burning your ship to lenders is a great idea) which is most Americans, when the day comes to make their payment and are unable they will return to work. A second possibility is that the added pressure of owing money could cause people to make decisions that they wouldn’t make otherwise, to much pressure cripples creativity.
That being said, I appreciate your statement about having responsibility to others. So I am ready to meet you half way and agree that your proposed theory is valid and should virtually guarantee success. Thank you for your professional insights.
Hahaha – I’m with you at half way :).
Thinkings about it, I wish I had mentioned other suggestions for finding cash in the article than taking loans (crowdfunding, bootstrapping, service exchanges, etc). While I personally took a loan to focus exclusively on my startup, this is assuredly not a good idea for everyone. Thanks for keeping me real Bornagainscholar!