There is a swelling class of first-time entrepreneurs, and they need help.
This class includes, among others, mompreneurs (women who saw business-building as a way to bolster their retirement stash and waning self-esteem from being out of the workforce for years); homepreneurs (recently laid-off cubicle warriors, or just those fed up with their 90-minute commutes); and boomerpreneurs (50- to 70-year-old careerists driven to pursue lifelong dreams while they still have the health and gumption to do it).
Traditional entrepreneurs perceive a need in a marketplace, come up with an innovative solution and build a business around it. This new class--call them newpreneurs--are born of circumstance rather than ability, vision or just something to prove, and they tend to launch new ventures in a different way. That doesn't mean they won't succeed--it just means they need a different kind of guidance.
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It starts by understanding what separates entrepreneurs from the rest of the pack. Yes the moniker "entrepreneur" connotes innovation and indefatigability. But the special sauce here is that seemingly innate ability to smell a business opportunity and jump on it. Entrepreneurs are less agents of change than exquisitely sensitive opportunists. As Peter Drucker wrote, "The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity."
Contrast the entrepreneurial mindset with that of a corporate bureaucrat. Corporate types are those who, after seeing Noah hard at work building his ark, would write a "to-do" note to remember to clean their gutters. If an entrepreneur saw Noah building his ark, he would run to his garage and begin designing a low-cost, high-durability, self-inflating raft he could mass market like those "Sham Wow" sponges.
So how can newpreneurs act more like bona fide entrepreneurs? Here two important rules of thumb.
Get Alert
Economist Israel Kirzner said entrepreneurs have sensitivity to new information (rather than accumulated knowledge) that others don't. They are vigilant--hunting for disruptions in the market and capitalizing on disequilibrium when it occurs. We're not talking about quick fixes here, but solutions to longer-term economic shifts.
There are exercises that foster entrepreneurial alertness. Try reading daily business reports (newspapers or wire services) and developing back-of-the-napkin business plans inspired by the most common themes. This exercise forces successful men and women to ignore their over-learned reaction to news--as in, cope now--and adopt a more strategic perspective. For many this is a huge mental shift, but it's a fundamental key to entrepreneurial success.
Be Ready to Fail
Ironically, newpreneurs often suffer from past career success. Harvard professor emeritus Chris Argyris has devoted his career to explaining how intelligence and accumulated wisdom can hamstring successful people. A major reason old dogs are adamantly opposed to learning new tricks is that we are terrified by humiliation, embarrassment and suffering. Need a quick win? Go for the proven technique--even if it’s already dangerously out of date. In that sense, newpreneurs will shy away from the possibility of failure faster than real entrepreneurs. Indeed every newpreneur I have coached has suffered from this problem to varying degrees.
My advice to newpreneurs--even those heavily invested in their new ventures--is to really feel the pain that prompted them to go solo in the first place. If you still decide the venture is worth pursuing, based on a real business opportunity and not a knee-jerk reaction to your current situation, then go for it. If you fail (or at least stumble) and emerge intact, take comfort in knowing your ability to absorb new information and assess risk--essential for any successful entrepreneur--will only increase. Henry Ford had it right: "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."
Dr. Steven Berglas spent 25 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s department of psychiatry. Today he coaches entrepreneurs, executives and other high-achievers. He can be reached at drb@berglas.com.