You have seen the numbers, “80% of new businesses fail within five years” (a myth, it is actually fewer than half). For Americans Capitalism is more than an economic system, most of us quite unconsciously tie merit with money. If someone is rich he is rich because he holds title to something, and if he holds title to something it follows that he is somebody. Many times we assume the boss must know best. All of these cultural folkways create a picture of entrepreneurship that seems larger than life. And truth be told more than a few business owners have been known to fan the flame of an all-consuming ego in support of such nonsense.
Most often a company is led by someone who is extraordinarily skilled in several areas. And this can be intimidating to any heir apparent and other hopefuls who dream of ownership. It is normal to fear that one may not have what it takes to succeed. Well, if one were just able to see the whole picture, that is to go back to the time when his own employer was just starting out in business, or when he or she first came aboard the company he would see a different side of a leader, someone human, who has actually had her share of goof ups. In fact, it is only in the act of making many mistakes which teaches someone what works and what does not. The mind figures out patterns on its own. If you have ever put together a puzzle board you will understand. Various people take different approaches to the task. Most will begin by dumping all the pieces on the table and just spread them out, Different people strategize assembling the pieces in different ways, but it almost defies communication how the mind is able to sort things out and put things together when put to task. Simply set the eyes on the problem and let the mind focus on the situation and it will quite naturally make use of whatever there is present to work with. It will even discover if there are any missing pieces as well. The mind does not require language nor does it require it be educated to understand these patterns, it just does it.
Where education comes in is at the organizing and labeling the lessons which the natural human minds have unraveled. We assign words and definitions that help us to communicate what we have experienced with other people who in turn have their own insights from their own unique experiences. And to this interdependence we are able to discern a synergy; we are able to discover new concepts through communication as well as on our own. We are able to infer other perspectives.
Hence, here is the secret to success in business, as in all things in life, it is simply knowledge. It is not a philosophy but the factual information which is tried and true that holds the water in the pipes and send the same in the right direction. For instance, every business person worth his salt knows that “double entry accounting helps to detect employee theft”. There is nothing philosophical about that, it is simply business knowledge born in the thirteenth century which we still use today as a loss prevention mechanism.
We deliberately make things complicated to confound the simple minded. And who are the simple minded? Weren’t you paying attention we just covered that. The simple minded are those who are too afraid to put their minds to work and focus on certain tasks, It is anyone who is immobilized by the fear of failure.
So where does someone who lacks a mentor start to learn about business? You already are. You are reading the thoughts of an entrepreneur now, and there are many of us who write for Pulse, many who have done much bigger things in life than I have. But also Google Search, Barns and Nobles, Amazon Kindle and the Public library offer limitless opportunity to learn this set of business principles that I refer to as the building blocks of structure in any organization. With the guiding structure we understand how a business works. In each of my articles on Pulse I try to present a few building blocks which if you take them and collect them, one day you might just have enough of them to construct something of your own.
The prospector who could not tell fool’s gold from the real thing was bound to be disappointed. To claim your stake in the world you must first learn how a business works. There is a difference between how you might think it works and how it actually works, be willing to let go of the former and learn the latter. All around you are examples of businesses that function well, then there are those who are missing parts and they never get started. Others have had defective parts installed and they are the ones that crash and burn. Without mathematics and the skill of understanding financial statements a business can be profitable yet quickly run out of cash. If that happens the machine is broken and it just might prove too expensive to repair. Your business education is in a sense preventive maintenance for your business. Imagine what would happen if no one told you that you need to replace the oil in your car.
But more than mathematics and accounting, businesses are patronized and made up of people. Therefore it behooves the budding entrepreneur to study people. Begin by pondering the question of what motivates different types of people to action. What do people really want? What are people willing and unwilling to do to get what they want? How is value created and delivered (see my article: Ten Ways to Make Money) in the businesses that you encounter? How are the other businesses doing it right now? What might you do better? But the most important question of all is why should you bother? Find a reason that truly excites you, aside from the reward of compensation and you will have a winner. Businesses thrive when they benefit other people, so you must understand how people actually make choices, act on their choices, and how they communicate their intentions and desires. Having effective interpersonal skill set and high emotional intelligence is most important to play the game of business well. And do not misunderstand, it is all about persuading people to do with you what they already want or need to do but might have done with someone else. To succeed you must be authentic.
Finally once inevitable failure (but ultimate success) is accepted it must be spread as widely as possible. Build a network on LinkedIn, through Business Network International, your local Chamber, the Rotary Club and other active organizations in your area.
Learning how a business really works is called the study of proficient operations. Capital is the lifeblood of the business and has its own language and accepted customs; these are called accounting and finance. Learning how other people work is the basis of marketing and necessary for effective value delivery. Networking is how people who are not born into wealth and instant recognition find others for whom they can add value. It should come as no surprise that the average person is afraid of failure, but going forward in America one out of four people will try and make a go of it in their own business at some point in their lives. The ones who will succeed will be the ones who are best prepared to fail.
The lettering on van in the picture above represents my own past business failure i.e., sunk costs of a million dollars in equity poured into Legalbargain.net. This occured AFTER I had two other companies that were leaders in their respective markets. Goes to show that leaders are never "too big to fail". Some challenges require that we grow into them over time. Instead of giving up on our mission entirely we licked our wounds and took the lessons learned from Legalbargain.net and built LegalBee.
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