Yoda says: Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Nike says: Just do it.

I didn’t fully understand the meaning of these phrases until quite recently. And a conversation that I had last week has me dwelling on our willingness to do.

To me, doing is a commitment to an action. Trying gives me some room to wiggle out of that commitment – to admit defeat and to give up. I can say that I tried, but it just didn’t work out. It’s easy and provides a certain safety net. And it protects me from the hard work and dedication that I need to actually accomplish something meaningful in my life.

So, what does this have to do with entrepreneurship? I truly do believe that every entrepreneur has the potential to start, grow and realize a thriving company. But I also believe the most of us do not have real passion for the venture – the passion that is required to actually do it. We just don’t have the drive to spend years – or decades – on something that matters to us. We give up too early and don’t put in the effort to become the business experts we need to be.

Don’t get me wrong here. We do have the desire in the beginning, but it is often so much harder than we thought it would be. We expected a year or two of effort and then easy street. We thought that we could invent a product, take it to market, and have the money roll in. We believe that growing a company should be easy.

And we believe that our failure to fund our business and reach our customers is someone else’s fault. We blame everyone but ourselves. If we are really entrepreneurs, then we look for a group of customers who will value our help and we dedicate our companies to helping them. It is hard work, but we embrace that work with gusto and commitment.

So, if you want to be an entrepreneur and have a great company, do this:

  1. Focus your business on a group of people you actually care about
  2. Go and learn from them how you might be able to improve their lives
  3. Build your company and your business around helping them reach their goals
  4. Ignore the funders who have their own agenda – return on their investment in 3 – 7 years
  5. Learn your way forward. Work hard at understanding yourself, your business, your customer and how you make money.
  6. Devote years or decades to perfecting your craft – the craft of being a great business leader
  7. Stay the course – be a role model for others

What do you think? …

Until tomorrow, GUNG Ho friends!