The Two Traits You Need to Be a Successful Entrepreneur

I wish I knew This 40 Years Ago

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Many of us want to be entrepreneurs—to start our own businesses, be our own bosses, take no orders from anyone, and own the world. The reality is that only 7% or 8% of the North American population ever own a business that lasts at least 42 months.

Owning your own business or starting one means your life, as you know, is pretty much over. It’s work all the time, with no life balance, and often going without pay while you pay everyone else. It’s about dealing with different employees, government regulations and taxes. It’s pure hell to own your own business. It’s thankless. Governments don’t like you either. Taxes are skewed against you when compared to mega-corporations.

But let’s say you understand all the risks and more and are ready to take the plunge. What are the two most important traits you will need?

1. Hyper Focus. Nothing else matters but to narrow your focus on exactly what good or service the public is telling you they need.

2. Hyper Urgency. You set lofty goals and stay up at night to finish them. It’s about lightning execution. Very few things are as important as launching your business on time correctly.

 

I wish I had known this some 40 years ago. I was constantly bouncing from one business idea to the next. From the age of 65 to now 68, I have been able to accomplish as much as I had done business-wise in those previous 40 years. So, by learning from my mistakes and with hyperfocus and urgency, I melted it down to three years to achieve the same as I had accomplished over a lifetime.

The honeybees were a great deal of that hyperfocus and urgency. Learning from them helped me create a structure around business and investments.

The only problem with this is that even when you accomplish all your goals, you continue to work on the following important project with the same hyperfocus and urgency. I was up at 1:30 a.m. this morning working with my AI team from Pakistan, building our application to assess honeybee health from hive entrance videos. I am hyper-focused, and there is great urgency to have the platform ready on January 1st for beekeepers worldwide.

That’s the danger of being an entrepreneur. Once wired in, Urgency and Hyperfocus are the primary methods when any project or goal is on the table. Embrace it and tell the 93% or so of those who don’t get it to get out of your way.

 

 

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