Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2013. Its data are from that time, including the fortunes of Slim and Gates and the description of Sallie Krawcheck’s role at 85 Broads, which was renamed Ellevate Network in 2014.
Every writer reflects their own views on what it takes to succeed in business, or on the skills needed to be a great leader, a great CEO or a great entrepreneur, and some of the advice real business owners give can sound a little clichéd. Some of it may even look contradictory at first glance, but that is necessary given the diversity of opinions.
Unfortunately, I increasingly see how, because of the human tendency to go for the easy option, many people take refuge in the advice of those new entrepreneurs who became millionaires in 12 months wearing a tracksuit and carrying a laptop, with an app that was bought for millions of euros.
It might seem as though the internet has changed the rules of the game in business, but there are people who remind us once again what business is and what real businesspeople are. Some comments by Steve Tobak, a technology consultant at Invisor Consulting and a regular columnist on sites specialising in entrepreneurship, caught my attention. In case you ever forget, remember these words from Tobak as a business appetiser for today’s entrepreneur:
- Naming yourself CEO doesn’t make you a CEO.
- Having a huge legion of followers on social media doesn’t make you a leader.
- There are ENTREPRENEURS and there are “entrepreneurs“.
With that as a starting point, let’s debunk some ideas that are often used and that are probably far from reality when we talk about great entrepreneurs and the price we will pay for being in business, which is why not everyone could be an entrepreneur or would have what it takes to be a great leader. In this case, they are not universal truths.
(Read also: 4 pieces of advice from entrepreneurs that contradict our beliefs)
1. Entrepreneurs don’t think about work-life balance.
Tobak is very clear that real entrepreneurs are genuine workaholics. In fact, work comes first for them. They don’t spend their lives thinking about where they’ll have dinner with their wife at the weekend. They live only to do what they love, which is work, with what they truly love, which is their company.
2. They don’t believe in personal branding.
Probably one of the most damaging myths in business is “personal branding”. An entrepreneur has neither the desire nor the time to pretend to be something they are not. What’s more, according to many business owners, promoting a “personal brand” means thinking of yourself as a product. They are clearly not a product, and they don’t think about selling themselves. They only think about their ideas and how they will turn them into great products and services.
Did you know Warren Buffett has two wives? (watch the documentary). That is frowned upon in his circle of traditional investors, but he couldn’t care less. That’s who he is, and he isn’t going to change in that respect. To be clear, a personal brand does matter in your professional career.
3. Stories of great sudden ideas that turn into success aren’t true.
Everyone has heard the story that an apple fell on Newton and inspired his theory of gravity. Although nobody knows for sure, I would bet that no apple fell on Newton, or at least that this isn’t how the light bulb went on. Behind Newton’s discovery lie long study and plenty of headaches. He may well have finished his theory sitting on the toilet, but the apple story was more elegant. It’s like when Thomas Edison gives advice about working hard until you get the result and uses his light bulb as an example, when today we all know that Edison didn’t invent any light bulb and only bought the patent.
These kinds of stories about sudden business ideas work well as a hook in a talk. In fact, almost every entrepreneur today has one in their TED talk, whereas the old-school business owners only talked about hard work, planning and more hard work.
A personal anecdote:
“When I was 22, after more than three weeks of saying I was going to visit an important client, one morning I went to see that client and came back with an important contract signed. When they asked me how I had gone without telling anyone after three weeks of saying every day that I was going to go, my answer was that I had got up that morning full of energy and inspiration, motivated to take on the world.
At the company’s annual meeting I was held up as an example of how, when a person is motivated, they can achieve anything. In fact, the truth is that I spent three weeks shaping that visit and preparing every last detail, and I actually took three days longer than I should have because just thinking about it made my stomach churn with nerves (even though I have always been a very calm person). But I wanted to win that client and I knew I only had one chance. So it wasn’t morning inspiration.”
What I mean by this is that planning and work are what make businesses great, not luck or something that happens without looking for it. There will always be someone who strikes it rich overnight, but the truth is that it isn’t the norm.
4. They don’t do it for the money.
Strange as it may sound, most multimillionaire entrepreneurs stopped working for money long ago. Let’s say money is the evidence of their good work. As the fictional character Gordon Gekko put it, more or less: “it’s not about the money, it’s about competing with other people”. Otherwise, would it make sense to pile up more than 50,000 million, as Slim or Gates have?
5. They have real mentors.
However much we love the benefits and advantages of the internet, following certain influential people on their blogs or Twitter accounts doesn’t make them your mentors. That said, you can learn a great deal. It is often said that behind every great entrepreneur there is a real mentor. If you want to do great things, you will have to find a mentor in real life. An entrepreneur rarely succeeds alone. And as far as we know, there isn’t a single great company whose founder made it without help.
6. There’s no shortage of business ideas.
On another note, Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of 85 Broads (as of today, former CEO), a network that connects more than 30,000 professional women around the world, used to say that there are more great business ideas out there than great companies, and that the only difference between an idea and a company lies in the person and their willingness to execute the idea. We can create profitable companies or end up with big failures, but great entrepreneurs tend to take risks with their ideas.
7. Entrepreneurs’ luxuries.
The image of millionaires as sports stars or Hollywood celebrities has also done a lot of damage to how we see millionaires, leading us to misunderstand the real lifestyle of business owners. In a big company, people often think you can spend the company’s money as if it were your own, but you shouldn’t spend money “as your own” until it actually is your own money. As we covered at the time, one of the big mistakes in business is mixing personal finances with business finances.
8. “Quien tenga tienda, que atienda.”
This old Spanish saying (“if you have a shop, mind it”) reflects the idea that a small business can’t work without the owner being there. And it is precisely this belief that has given us the mindset of the self-employed rather than that of entrepreneurs, because an entrepreneur never stops growing, while a small owner keeps going until the business dies. (Read: Differences between Spanish and American entrepreneurs)
9. Failure.
Sometimes it’s true that we talk about failure as if it were something almost blissful, where it even seems advisable to fail in order to learn. The truth is that there’s no harm in making plenty of moderate-sized mistakes and even some fairly big ones, but only at the beginning, because once you are a major business owner your mistakes can only be small or moderate.
And the truth is that failing is no fun at all; it can even frustrate you seriously. Although it’s also true that it’s one of those things that, if it doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Above all, you should never make the same mistake twice in business; otherwise your earlier failures will have taught you nothing. (Read: An entrepreneur succeeds after failing 15 times)
Further reading
Featured image: Plucas58, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
