Entrepreneurship

The Quest For The Essence Of Entrepreneurship

October 29, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Ever wonder what’s behind an entrepreneur’s decision to take a risk? There is a spectrum for this, with the calculation and reasoning of due diligence on one end, foolhardy on the other, and a variable called faith that lives in the middle.

We’ve all heard stories about the legendary entrepreneur’s hunch. But without some foundation of facts and reasoned assumptions supporting a financial projection, a hunch is the equivalent of a belt without loops. And everybody knows what you call trying to hold up pants with a belt that’s not connected to anything – foolhardy.

Still, that foundation you seek is challenged by the truth that the most important decisions are powered by their own urgency. The time will come – usually sooner than later – when an entrepreneur must take action without the benefit of all the answers; when the fog hasn’t yet lifted on your quest for clarity. And in that moment of not knowing, but going forward anyway, we find the quark of entrepreneurship, identified by the paradoxical twin emotions of apprehension and exhilaration.

These emotions presage possibility: [Continue Reading]

The Archenemy of Fear Is Performance

October 15, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Anyone who has contemplated forsaking the perceived, if not real, security of employment to start a small business has come face-to-face with and overcome the greatest of all business challenges: the fear of failure. Countless would-be entrepreneurs have discontinued their self-employment pursuits for fear of losing too much – the risk being just too great. Everybody knows that.

But if you pushed through these trepidations and, against all odds, became a business owner anyway, you know that wasn’t the last time you experienced fear. Indeed, fear is so much a part of being a business owner that, in time, we recognize and accept fear as something that can be quite handy.

Not paralyzing fear, like when you’re ignorant of how to prevent or recover from danger. But rather the kind of fear that helps you seek excellence. The kind that motivates you to become more aware, knowledgeable, capable, prepared, decisive, and effective.

Remember these two things about fear: 1) it’s a shape-shifter, capable of appearing in many forms; and 2) successful entrepreneurs learn how to recognize and deal with fear in all its shapes. Let’s look at some of the manifestations of fear, followed by what each one might sound like. [Continue Reading]

Why Not An Official Day For Small Business Owners?

September 5, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Labor Day began as an idea in the mind of a 19th-century labor leader – some say Matthew Maguire, others say Peter McGuire – who cared greatly for a very important segment of the marketplace, its workers.

Regardless of paternity, such a day was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, when members of the CLU took an unpaid day off to demonstrate solidarity and, of course, have picnics. And ever since 1884, when President Grover Cleveland’s signature designated the first Monday in September as Labor Day, it’s been an official federal holiday.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, then head of the American Federation of Labor, called Labor Day, “the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed…that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”

Alas, entrepreneurs aren’t organized like our union brethren – probably because we’re too busy making payroll. [Continue Reading]

Awareness and Consciousness: The Secrets of Success of Highly Effective People

August 11, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Ever wonder why some people are more effective than others? Life just seems to be easier for them, right?

The answer to this mystery is likely found in one of the most obvious traits that separate us from other members of the kingdom Animalia: humans are self-aware.

Human’s self-awareness looks like modesty, shame, empathy, fairness, greed, selfishness, selflessness, and ambition … just to name a few traits from our awareness inventory. But the most self-aware among us – those highly effective people – are informed by a bigger picture perspective regarding the impact of their behavior and actions on the world around them, especially with other humans.

As students of Newton’s 3rd Law – for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction – highly effective people are not surprised when and how the world reacts to them, because they’ve already role-played at least some level of that potential response in their minds. And members of this special cohort of effectiveness fashioned all this awareness into something that looks like a practice, a behavior, a skill, and/or a tool, but is called self-analysis. Intuitively named, self-analysis helps regulate future behavior for maximum effectiveness. More on self-analysis in a minute. [Continue Reading]

Dispelling The Myths Of Ownership

July 26, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Since hope truly does spring eternal, on any given day you’re likely to meet a starry-eyed human babbling on about becoming a business owner.

Probing for the object of this person’s entrepreneurial infatuation will precipitate what, where, how, and when questions and, finally, the most important question: Why do you want to own a business? Answers to this last one, unfortunately, often produce what I call “The Myths of Small Business Ownership.” Here are the four most prominent: [Continue Reading]

How a Small Business Is Like a Tour de France Team

July 12, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

If it’s July, one of the most amazing athletic competitions in the world is being staged. Since 1903, the Tour de France has been the pinnacle of professional bicycle races, and arguably the most grueling of all sporting competitions.

Contested over 23 days, with the 21 stages averaging more than 110 miles each, there are only two days of rest in the middle. These super-athletes from all over the world navigate diverse road conditions, rain, wind, heat, and legendary mountain ranges – no less than the Alps and Pyrenees – that God surely made for us to ski down, not pedal up.

If the sun’s coming up on Main Street, millions of small business owners also mount one of the most grueling competitions in the business world merely by opening up. Against all odds, they start, run and grow their operations in conditions few corporate America CEOs would be willing to face. But unlike the Tour de France, small business owners run their race every day of the year.

Combining my admiration for both of these types of super-humans, I’ve identified four required elements to successfully compete in the Tour de France or the marketplace. [Continue Reading]