Entrepreneurialism: chemistry or destiny

Internet startup guru Bo Peabody once observed, "One does not decide to be an entrepreneur. One is an entrepreneur. Those who decide to be entrepreneurs are making the first in a long line of bad decisions."

In a recent article in Strategy+Business magazine (http://www.strategy-business.com/) Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer (issue 42, p. 1) write that others take the opposite view from Mr. Peabody. In 1996, Lloyd Shefsky, a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, studied more than 200 entrepreneurs and concluded that the most successful among them were made, not born.

So which point of view is the right one? Take the GrowthMinded poll and let us know what you think.

Future Vision or Rear View

“Everyone ends up somewhere in life. You could end up somewhere on Purpose!” – Andy Stanley.

Do you know where your business is going? I’m not talking about results. I’m talking about achieving the reason your business exists in the first place. This isn’t for those who are in business to get rich. You already have your reward and you can click on. But if you’re in business for a purpose greater than earnings, check this out..

RearView Reports
There’s a natural imbalance between where to business “could be” at some point in the future and the immediate needs of the business today. Why? Think about what you fill your mind with when it comes to your business. Most likely it’s full of the day to day mechanics of running the business. This imbalance is created and perpetuated every day, week, month and quarter through the reports most entrepreneurs thrive on: the Sales Report and the Profit & Loss statements. The problem with this is that these tools are like review mirrors; they report on where the business has been, not where the business is going.

How can you look forward into the future if you’re focusing on the past? How can you make sure you’re driving the business straight down the road to your vision of where it could be some day if you’re looking in the rearview mirror?

The danger with this imbalance is that over time you will lose sight of your vision and become reactive instead of staying true to your envisioned future. Instead of being in the driver’s seat, you let the opportunity-of-the-day bus take your business where ever IT wants to go.

Andy Stanley, founder of North Point Ministries and senior pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta tells of many opportunities his growing church has had for growth. At one point, they were in a perfect position to begin a private school. Andy was being pressured to move in this direction and all the reports indicated they had the resources to do it. If he had been consumed with last month’s business reports, or last quarter’s P&L, he may have seen the private school idea as a way to react to how the “business” has been doing and voted in favor of expanding the brand. But this would have only served as a distraction to Andy’s vision of what he believed God had for his church from the beginning.

Crystal Ball?
I’m not suggesting you replace your business reports with a crystal ball, but I am encouraging you to correct the imbalance of what you fill your mind with. Here are some ideas:

Pull Out! You can't work ON your business if you're always working IN your business. Include time in you calendar to step away from the business for one day a month (yes an entire day) and process what’s going on NOW in the context of where you want the business to go IN THE FUTURE. Each month ask yourself these questions:

1. If the future you wished for was an absolute certain occurrence regardless of money and other resources, what future would you like to see?
2. What am I working on that’s BIG? Does it get me to my vision or send me off course?
3. What 3 changes could I make in my business that would be most pleasing to God?
4. What are 3 things I can measure that will tell me how well I’m moving toward accomplishing my vision?

(Bobb Biehl has a little book full of more great questions – Asking to Win.)

Delegate Looking Back. Make someone else responsible for pouring over reports. You establish the goals and determine when and how you want to become involved in the event the goals aren’t met. But as long as
they’re being met, don’t be bothered by them.

Don’t think FOR yourself. Determine to begin each day spending 30 minutes (not in your office!) reading books by forward thinking people. Here are some of my favorites thinkers and their books:

o Tom Peters, Re-imagine
o Michael J. Gelb, How to Think Like Leonardo de Vinci
o Collins & Porras, Built to Last
o Rosamund Zander & Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility
o Andy Stanley, Visioneering

Don’t think BY yourself. Find someone from a different industry who is a thought leader; someone who has a big vision and a clear path to getting there (or someone who already has). Regularly get together to discuss the future of business, both his and yours.

Futurelab is a great blog that brings together many cutting edge thinkers in one place. A must read.

Secret to Prosperity: Letting Go & Grabbing Hold

LETTING GO

When you’re led by God (and I mean you have truly given your career comprehensively to the Lord) what you’re saying is,

“God, I believe that you have a mysterious plan for eternity that is infinite in its detail and definite in its completion. And I believe that you created specific people to play specific roles and that I was created by you for one reason:

To grab hold of the role you have created expressly for me and only me, and to live it out to its fullest regardless of what pain or joy, suffering or celebration, it may bring. And I begin by dedicating my career to You by offering it up as a stage on which to speak the role you have created for me.”

In this way I am unquestionably an instrument of God Almighty - an active participant in the activities that will help bring God’s plans to fruition according to his divine timing, not my selfish ambitions or definitions of success.

Prosperity is not about being a leader, it’s about being led.

GRABBING HOLD

When you’re there, then the Creator of the Universe himself takes charge of your career, not the person on the other side of the desk. You no longer have to be concerned with political positioning, jockeying for advancement, winning the favor of others for self-serving reasons, playing corporate politics, or manipulating the latest gossip. Since God is above all of these things than he will create situations and circumstances that places you above all these things as well. All you must do then is to work as though you are working for Christ and to be significant where ever you are you'll see that God will take your career to greater heights than you ever thought possible.

The Bible is replete with people who, left to their own resources, never would have achieved what they did. They would have been lost in a cast of thousands, but they grabbed hold of the role God had created them to play - people like Moses, Nebekanezzer, David, Joseph, Ruth and the disciplines. Only when they prayed for God to reveal to them his divine burden did their selfish ambitions melt away as the Creator revealed his role to them – the role, the reason, they were created.

Go get to prospering.

Let go of selfish ambitions and grab hold of the role God created you to play.