THE SIX ESSENTIAL TRAITS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
This is where the decision-making process gets real. In the previous chapter, when reading about entrepreneurial characteristics and applying the 80 percent rule, you still had some wiggle room to maybe kid yourself. In this chapter, it’s all or nothing: 100 percent or no deal. You either have the six essential traits, or you don’t.
A trait is defined as a “genetically determined characteristic.” That means a trait’s in your DNA. It’s your natural wiring. We aren’t talking about skills here. Skills can be learned; traits can’t.
You’re either born with certain traits, or you aren’t. To help you relate, traits are also known as characteristics, attributes, features, qualities, properties, and mannerisms. While we regard these terms as positive, traits are also known as idiosyncrasies, peculiarities, quirks, oddities, or foibles because these words are all synonyms of the word trait. They can be perceived positively or negatively, depending on who is doing the judging. Said another way, some people will consider your entrepreneurial traits odd and quirky. When they do, take it as a compliment, not a criticism.
Essential is defined as “absolutely necessary, extremely important.” These are essential traits. You have to have them if you’re going to become a true entrepreneur!
I know this book is going to break a few hearts. I take no pleasure in that, but when I help someone realize that they aren’t an entrepreneur, I’m doing them a service. I’m not only saving them years of pain. I’m moving them one step closer to figuring out their true calling.
This caution in no way is intended to fire up someone to become an entrepreneur. Anyone who has each one of these six essential traits will be self-motivated. You shouldn’t try to psyche yourself up to become someone you’re not. That’s not only counterproductive but also destructive. As an analogy, the late Jim Rohn, who was both an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, said, “Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate him, now you have a motivated idiot.” While that may be a bit harsh, hopefully, it makes the point.
So let’s dive into the six essential traits.
THE FIRST ESSENTIAL TRAIT: VISIONARY
This trait is sometimes hard to understand because it’s so broad, or you simply may not be comfortable saying you’re something as grand as a “visionary.” During an interview with one entrepreneur, he said humbly, “I really don’t think I’m a visionary.” This is a man who built a $40 million company from scratch. He absolutely is a visionary.
This trait is measured by your ability to connect the dots, see the big picture, and envision the future. Visionary is defined as being imaginative, creative, inventive, ingenious, enterprising, and innovative. You’re a dreamer. You have a sixth sense for resolving the problem you’re focused on. Simply put, you have ideas.
You have the intuitive ability to know how to make money and understand how economics work at a very high level. You have common sense, business sense, and street smarts. You’re able to see around corners, and you have a future-oriented mind-set.
Visionary doesn’t mean you have to be Thomas Edison or that you’ll invent the next iPhone. I teach entrepreneurs a tool called the “visionary spectrum,” which illustrates how much of a visionary a company needs—because not every company needs an Elon Musk. If you think about the spectrum’s high and low ends, the high end might be a high-tech company and the low end might be a property management company.
How much visionary a business needs is determined by the (1) type of industry, (2) growth aspirations, and (3) the degree of market dynamics (change, competition, or complexity) a company will encounter. When you combine these three factors, you’ll find where your business is on the visionary spectrum. If all these factors are red-lined, you might need to be an Elon Musk. If not, that level of visionary is probably not necessary.
David Allen had just the right amount of visionary to build The Allen Groupe into the premier private-jet cleaning business in the industry. He built it based on a chain of events that began when he was an entrepreneur-in-the-making at fifteen years old.
David started off by cleaning cars to make money. He quickly evolved to detailing cars. At sixteen, when he detailed his dad’s car, his father was so impressed that he agreed to buy David’s necessary supplies, equipment, and cleaning chemicals to go fully into auto detailing.
David was making a hefty $300–$400 per week during his teens when another opportunity presented itself. Because he lived near the Indianapolis Speedway, he received offers to clean motor homes for the drivers at the Indy race events, and that step evolved into cleaning large trucks and trailers. His work became so popular that he was invited to travel to other Indy car race events in other states to clean trucks and trailers. He continued this through college.
His big chance came when he was offered a further opportunity. One of his clients asked him to clean three jets for a private owner. He was trained on the intricacies of jet cleaning, and he applied some of his prior skills to the jet-cleaning business. He started getting referrals, and the jet-cleaning business grew.
He took the opportunity very seriously. He went above and beyond studying, learning, and getting certified in all aspects of cleaning. He built such a great reputation that he was approached by NetJets, a company that sells fractional ownership of private jets and has locations in many major cities. After he completed their audit process, they were so impressed that they immediately gave David the contract for their Orlando, Florida, location.
David then truly revolutionized the industry by creating systems and software to clean private jets better and faster than anyone else. Along the way, he raised the level of professionalism of his cleaning staff through training, uniforms, and increased morale, ultimately attaining the highest retention rate of cleaning employees in the industry.
David grew the company rapidly over the next fifteen years to thirty-seven locations with three hundred employees and $12 million in revenue.
Hopefully, you can see that “visionary” comes in all shapes and sizes. What’s needed is a mind-set that keeps looking for opportunities, discarding what doesn’t fit the evolving vision, and continuing to implement improvements as necessary.
Are you visionary?
THE SECOND ESSENTIAL TRAIT: PASSIONATE
The definition of passionate is “showing or caused by strong feelings or a strong belief.” Passionate people believe in something strongly; you can’t change their minds. Synonyms for passion are enthusiasm, love, mania, fascination, obsession, fanaticism, fixation, compulsion, appetite, and addiction.
Passionate entrepreneurs are energized by solving a problem in their industry, filling a void, fixing, helping, making a difference, building, or creating. Passion is an essential trait, because it gets an entrepreneur through tough times. You cannot survive failure without passion. Most people give up when faced with their first setback, because they’re just not passionate enough about their idea, business, product, service, or customers.
Passionate means that you have passion for your product or service, your idea or deliverable.
When you have passion for what you’re offering the world, you have superhuman strength that keeps your blood pumping and not only helps you endure tough times, but also motivates, persuades, inspires, and sells other people around you to act, move, and follow your lead. You simply cannot accomplish much without other people’s help, and people love to follow a passionate leader.
When building EOS Worldwide, to say that I was passionate about creating a system that would help entrepreneurs get everything they want from their businesses would be a gross understatement.
For the first five years of creating the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), I worked tirelessly. I obsessed every minute of every day honing, refining, and testing hundreds of ideas and options. I delivered over five hundred full-day sessions in those years, with entrepreneurs and their leadership teams, until I perfected the model. Until they loved it. Until I changed their lives.
I then spent three years writing my first book whenever I could find time, making sure that it was a complete how-to manual for anyone who wanted an operating system to run a better business. I constantly got feedback from my clients and the general public to make sure they loved it. And then spent the next ten years with my partner, Don Tinney, building a team of hundreds of EOS Implementers to spread the ideas to the world.
During this period, I definitely sacrificed family time, time with friends, and my health. Regardless, I was always driven by one overriding passion. To help those entrepreneurs have better quality of life, make more money, do what they love, and make an impact on the world.
Passionate means that you have such a strong belief that you’ll do almost anything to prove, create, or deliver your idea, product, or service to the world.
Are you passionate?
THE THIRD ESSENTIAL TRAIT: PROBLEM SOLVER
Being a problem solver is as much about new ideas, innovation, and creating things as it is about dealing with barriers, obstacles, and setbacks. A problem solver is an optimist by nature. You see solutions to everything, whether it’s a product or service you create to fill a need you saw, or a setback you experience when your product fails and you reinvent it. Your mind always sees solutions.
A problem solver is always figuring out how to make something smarter, faster, less expensive, better, or higher quality. They’re innovators and testers who love trial and error. When they hit a brick wall, they figure out how to go over it, around it, or through it.
A prime example of this would be the case of Bob Verdun, who overcame two major problems during the twenty years of building his business.
Bob started his company in 1990 after resigning from a lucrative job in tech because he didn’t like the way his boss treated people. He then became a contractor in the software industry, teaching resellers for a software company. As Bob was teaching these resellers, who were all entrepreneurs, he realized that he too was an entrepreneur.
He said to himself, “Are you kidding me? If they can do this, I can do this.” And he started his own business. With no business plan, with no outside money, he bootstrapped a software resale company. His company, CFI, started selling, servicing, and implementing computer-aided design (CAD) software for design companies, digitizing their old paper drawings and helping companies run the software and hardware. His company had a great record of success for five years, until the competition caught up and the business became commoditized. He could see the end was coming, so he had to reinvent the business. Major problem to solve number one.
Bob morphed CFI into a service business that focused on large-scale implementations of software outside of CAD. The shift worked, and the company grew into a $28 million company. And then, unfortunately, in 2000 when the dot-com crash hit, CFI plunged from $28 million in revenue to $4 million overnight. Major problem to solve number two.
Bob had to reinvent the company once again. First, he had to lay off many of his employees. He focused the company on generating recurring revenues through complicated software implementations for real estate companies that had multiple assets to manage. To protect the company from another downturn, he diversified the product lines and the geographical scope. The company rapidly grew again, became highly profitable, and seamlessly sailed through the great recession of 2008.
In 2015, Bob successfully sold his company.
A problem solver is someone who leans into problems, obsesses about them, and genuinely gets a high from solving them. That takes a special type of person. Most people run from their problems, avoid them, or hope they solve themselves or go away.
You have to want to solve problems. No matter how great your original vision is, bumps will appear in the road. Your industry can change, and your customers’ needs can change. If you can’t fix what’s holding your company back, it’s game over.
Are you a problem solver?
THE FOURTH ESSENTIAL TRAIT: DRIVEN
The definition of driven is “operated, moved, or controlled by a specific source of power.” Driven people have a strong sense of urgency. This trait is essential to success. Whether you’re trying to prove something to someone, trying to avoid the life you had growing up, or trying not to be a failure, these are some of the roots of an entrepreneur’s drive.
This trait is very different from the trait of passion. Whereas being passionate is about passion for your product or service, being driven is about an internal fire that you want to succeed, regardless of what the product or service is.
At a meeting of entrepreneurs, the host brought in four of his newest employees for a Q & A session. All were very driven, hardworking people in their early twenties. We peppered these young ambitious people with questions. I asked them where they got their strong work ethic and drive. While each answer was a little different, in every case they went back to a very young age—before they were ten years old—to recount where their drive came from. The point is that you’ve either had this trait for as long as you can remember—and have always exhibited it—or you don’t have it.
Driven people are tenacious, competitive, self-motivated, goal-oriented, growth-oriented, and never give up. They hustle. They want to succeed.
A good example of someone with drive is Zac Voss. In his final year of college at the University of Iowa while doing some marketing for bars and restaurants, he had his light bulb moment.
A friend of his came back from a trip to Spain and told him about the hottest drink going there. It was a new beverage called Red Bull.
They bought a case over the internet from Red Bull direct, at a cost of over fifty dollars per case with shipping. When Zac’s customer found out how expensive the product was, he refused to purchase more. Not willing to fail, Zac called the phone number on the website and asked how he could get it for less. He was informed, “You can’t, because there are no distributors in Iowa.”
So Zac said, “You’re talking to him. What do you need me to do?” Zac was given a name and a phone number, which happened to be the CEO of Red Bull North America.
He called countless times, to no avail and no return calls, until he finally got the CEO to take his call. He offered Zac the opportunity to participate in a “market-seeding program” where Zac would introduce the product into his marketplace with no guarantees, no contracts, and he had to follow their rules. If that worked out, there might be a distributor opportunity in the future.
Zac took the deal and went to work. He set up his friends to sell the product in four different cities across the state. He soon was outselling every other seeding program in the country. Zac was determined to get his distributorship. He wrote a business plan. He created a mock-up of a Red Bull can with his pitch and brand promise printed on the can. He then sent the package to the CEO asking for a distributorship in Iowa.
The CEO was so impressed. Zac’s persistence finally paid off. He officially owned his own distributor company. He now has a fleet of sixty vehicles and more than a hundred employees who sell to about five thousand retail outlets in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.
Driven means not settling for second best. You’re relentless. In order for your business to be successful, you have to want to win—because there will always be competing forces. If you only take what comes, you’ll find your company slipping backward. Only your drive to succeed will break down barriers to grow to the next level.
Are you driven?
THE FIFTH ESSENTIAL TRAIT: RISK TAKER
A risk taker is someone willing to take a leap and willing to fail. A risk taker is a rule breaker, change maker, disruptor. The status quo is not good enough. Entrepreneurs take risks: calculated risks. They’re willing to fail, try again, and adapt. When it comes time to take a leap, they understand the risk/reward equation and prefer to take a big risk for a big reward.
Looking at your past history, have you taken risks? Are you rebellious? This is why most people don’t take an entrepreneurial leap. They have all of the other essential traits—they have an idea, are passionate, and are decent problem solvers. They’re driven and responsible. But they’re just afraid to take that plunge into the unknown. They’re afraid of losing their shirt, afraid of failure, afraid of rocking the boat, afraid of being embarrassed in the eyes of others. When confronted with the thought of jumping out of a plane, they simply freeze.
Please be honest with yourself if this describes you.
A risk taker gets a high from changing things up, defying the norms. Risk takers are a little crazy. They’re willing to fall on their faces. They don’t plan or want to fail, but for them, the potential upside always outweighs the downside. As a worst case, a failure for them is a learning experience and a part of the process.
As the late Dr. David Viscott put it: “If you cannot risk, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot become your best. If you cannot become your best, you can’t be happy. If you cannot be happy, what else matters?”
One example of a risk taker is Clay Upton. In his second year of college, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to graduate without first completing four semesters of a foreign language.
Clay had always had a difficult time with learning languages, and it wasn’t getting any easier in college. He decided that, for him, it was counterproductive to study a language when he wasn’t passionate about it. He made the risky decision to stop pursuing a degree. He knew he was making a decision that would risk his future career opportunities and earning potential. And at the same time, it opened a world of opportunity as an entrepreneur.
Although he let go of the idea of graduating, Clay stayed in college all four years. Instead of following a course of study defined by the university, he registered for courses of his choosing. In his free time, he became acquainted with the start-up community, and he built and tested companies in the areas that were interesting to him. With each company, he learned valuable market lessons.
By the time he left college with no degree, he felt he was ready to take the leap. He founded Traction® Tools, a software platform helping entrepreneurs run better businesses. Without a degree, Clay’s only option was to succeed. He worked for no compensation and spent two years and all his money building the company’s infrastructure and original team. When he was down to his last $400, things turned around. Traction Tools found its momentum and has been profitable ever since.
Today, despite knowing only English, he has clients in thirty-six countries and employees across six time zones.
Taking big risks isn’t for most people. It petrifies them. That’s why so few take the entrepreneurial leap.
Are you a risk taker?
THE SIXTH ESSENTIAL TRAIT: RESPONSIBLE (BLAME NO ONE)
Entrepreneurs take total responsibility for the outcome. They don’t make excuses. They don’t complain. If you possess this trait, you accept the burden of becoming completely financially accountable. You don’t believe in entitlement. You never look for a handout. You’re self-sufficient and self-reliant. Above all, you blame no one else for things that go wrong.
Responsible is the ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization. Synonyms for responsible are accountable and answerable.
It’s one thing to be very independent. It’s quite another to be willing to assume total responsibility for the outcome of a decision. When responsible entrepreneurs make a bad decision, drop the ball, or don’t live up to an expectation, they’re the first to say, “My bad,” “That one is on me,” “I’m sorry.” Their default is looking in the mirror for blame, not looking at others.
Dan Sullivan, the creator of The Strategic Coach® Program, has trained thousands of entrepreneurs. He happens to be one of my mentors. His definition of an entrepreneur is someone who, first, decides they will depend on their own initiative, performance, and results to guarantee their financial security; and second, decides they won’t expect anyone to give them an opportunity until they’ve first created something that’s useful and valuable.
Responsible people know everyone is looking at them and are comfortable carrying that load.
Ted Bradshaw, a serial entrepreneur with multiple business successes, shares the following story. “I got into the custom home building business. My role was securing vacant lots in desirable, mature neighborhoods, and my business partner was responsible for building $1M+ custom homes on the land I secured. My partner went bankrupt due to some poor business dealings in another venture. I had a choice: sell the land portfolio and walk away relatively unscathed or find a way to help complete the builds for the half dozen clients that had already spent millions to have their homes built. Instead of cutting the losses and running, I spent two years making sure each of those clients found a way to get their homes built.”
A responsible person typically takes the high road and does the right thing, which is often the more difficult course. They take full accountability. Even when it’s sometimes easier to drop the ball and run. They grab the reins when the horses pulling the stagecoach are out of control. Just like in Greek mythology, they’re similar to Atlas and are able to carry the weight of the heavens on their shoulders.
A responsible person believes that their current state (whatever it is) is a culmination of their own decisions and choices, no one else’s. They default to “How do I solve my problem?” not “Look at what they did to me.”
Are you responsible?
SUMMARY
Let’s review the six essential traits that make up an entrepreneur’s genetic coding:
1.Visionary
2.Passionate
3.Problem solver
4.Driven
5.Risk taker
6.Responsible (blame no one)
Now it’s time for you to be very honest with yourself. You either answered yes to all six, or you didn’t. You either are an entrepreneur-in-the-making, or you aren’t.
If you are, the next three chapters will act as final filters, just to be absolutely sure. Then, in part II, we’ll give you a glimpse of what your life as an entrepreneur could look like.
If you aren’t an entrepreneur-in-the-making, that’s okay. There’s no shame in that. I hope these first chapters have given you the clarity to find your calling. In your search, please consider the words of Frederick Buechner on your calling being “where your deepest gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Know thyself.