10 Ways Entrepreneurs Limit Their Creative Potential
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 4, 2020
Every entrepreneur believes in their heart that their startup is more innovative and creative than their competitors. Yet none knows exactly.
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Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 4, 2020
Every entrepreneur believes in their heart that their startup is more innovative and creative than their competitors. Yet none knows exactly.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
Most successful sales of businesses, again especially in the technology arena, enrich younger entrepreneurs and stock-option holders who are under fifty years of age. I followed many of these stated retirees, and very few if any retiring entrepreneurs stay that way for long. The post Entrepreneurs do not easily retire.
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Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 18, 2021
The message I hear publicly from most entrepreneurs is that you have to think outside the box and take big risks to ever beat the odds and be among the less than ten percent that experience real success. Serious entrepreneurs will privately admit the business is first, and the family second. All risks are not the same.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 1, 2022
Every entrepreneur I know is dismayed by the number of friends who approach them with a line such as “I have an even better idea that will change the world, and one of these days I’m going to get around to starting my own business.” Focus” is the key to success as an entrepreneur. Irrational fear of failure or embarrassment.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 26, 2023
Entrepreneurs seem more quickly frustrated these days when their “million-dollar idea” doesn’t turn into a sustainable business overnight. So why do entrepreneurs think that building a business is intuitively obvious, and should happen overnight?
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 27, 2022
Most entrepreneurs believe they are “different,” but they can’t quite understand how. The classic book, “ Hunting in a Farmer's World: Celebrating the Mind of an Entrepreneur ,” by serial entrepreneur and business coach John F. Dini makes the case that entrepreneurs are hunters, while the rest of us (large majority) are farmers.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 5, 2023
According to most definitions, an entrepreneur is one who envisions a new and different business, meaning one that is not a copy of an existing business model. Many entrepreneurs have a passion and an idea, or even invent a new product, but are never able to execute to the point of creating a startup. Startup and development stage.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 4, 2021
An entrepreneur lifestyle that continues to gain in popularity these days is being a “social entrepreneur.” Whether the objective is to generate profits or social capital, the common element for all entrepreneurs is the recognition that there is a problem which needs solving, or there is an opportunity to improve the status quo.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 20, 2020
As I was watching the investor show, Shark Tank , on TV the other night, I was struck by how quickly and how extensively the sharks focused on the background and character of the entrepreneurs, compared to time spent evaluating their products. Today’s world of business is highly driven by social issues and environmental concerns.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 4, 2022
As a startup advisor and investor, I’ve met many aspiring entrepreneurs, and I often get asked the question, “I have a great idea for a startup – do you agree that it real potential?” If you are dreaming of an opportunity to get rich quick, the entrepreneur route is not for you. You enjoy building relationships as well as products.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 15, 2023
As an advisor to entrepreneurs and active angel investor, I often get questions about the realism of the Shark Tank TV series, compared to professional investor negotiations. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons. There is no substitute for knowing your business.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 1, 2021
The best part of being an entrepreneur is having the independence to make your own decisions, the flexibility for a better work/life balance, and personal satisfaction from driving change. The road to business success is filled with challenges and frustrations that most aspiring entrepreneurs never even imagined.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 19, 2022
As a startup advisor, I see many aspiring entrepreneurs whose primary motivation seems to be to work part time, or get rich quick, or avoid anyone else telling them what to do. Yet, for those with more realistic expectations and the right motivation, the entrepreneur lifestyle can be the dream life you envisioned. Marty Zwilling.
Berkonomics
MARCH 18, 2021
Here’s the ultimate thing about entrepreneurism. The post Entrepreneurism is all about personal risk. If you don’t directly engage the potential customer at the right time, place and mood, you are at a disadvantage from the start. If you don’t choose to enter the fight, it is impossible to win it. first appeared on BERKONOMICS.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 27, 2023
Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors. Access to intellectual property and current research.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
Being called a lifestyle entrepreneur should be a point of pride, not an insult. Of course, even lifestyle entrepreneurs want to be happy, and want their business to be “successful.” I’m told that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook started out as a lifestyle entrepreneur. It seems that more people are focused on money today.
socalTECH
SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
So, to help other female entrepreneurs, they founded TuesdayNights (www.tuesdaynights.org), a group in LA which helps female entrepreneurs connect with capital and each other to improve their access to capital. What is the most difficult challenge that women entrepreneurs face? They have to be able to lean in on raising money.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 12, 2021
Sometimes entrepreneurs are so focused on making change happen for customers that they forget that continually changing themselves and their company is equally important. Negative advice on an unknown is easy and safe to give, so every entrepreneur hears it over and over. In his classic book “ Invent, Reinvent, Thrive ,” Lloyd E.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 11, 2021
Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs probably have long searched for that special idea that will catapult you and your startup to success. True entrepreneurs are born, not made. It’s true that some people are natural risk-takers, but these often do not make the best entrepreneurs. Every inventor is an entrepreneur by default.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 19, 2023
Every entrepreneur has an idea for transforming a market with innovative new technology, or transforming society with a new process. Entrepreneurs who have been really transformative, like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney, seemed to know how to deal with all the right elements. Seek innovation that begets invention. Failure is an option.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 10, 2023
Most of the time, I’m all about providing encouragement and inspiration to entrepreneurs. They need it and they deserve it, because entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy. The question of defensibility is one of the toughest for an entrepreneur to answer. A good answer is not to stop moving. The reality of doing good.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 11, 2022
After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. For seed stage funding, entrepreneurs should be looking to friends and family, crowd funding, and relevant institutions.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 2, 2021
New entrepreneurs routinely jump into a startup with a full charge of passion and energy, but often find themselves drained of both after a few months by the workload and challenges. Of course, this same challenge extends well beyond the entrepreneur, into all walks of life and work. These keys are meaning, interactions, and energy.
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 10, 2024
I cannot tell you how many times I have seen executive summaries of business plans in which the entrepreneur seeks $5,000,000 to build the business. The investors want a motivated entrepreneur, and it is certainly more difficult to motivate a twenty percent owner than a sixty percent owner. Four reasons you should reconsider.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 28, 2021
As an angel investor in early-stage startups, I’ve long noticed my peers apparent bias toward the strength and character of the founding entrepreneurs, often overriding a strong solution to a painful problem with a big opportunity. The return on character in business is well worth the investment.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 9, 2021
As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 5, 2023
Technology is so key to every business these days that experienced business-smart but non-tech entrepreneurs are feeling deeper and deeper in the hole. Only one component of running a business is managing technology, but it is a critical component, so no entrepreneur can afford to ignore it or totally delegate it.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 18, 2022
Here are some key insights that I and others have collected for mature company leaders, as well as serial entrepreneurs. The current geopolitical tensions and the pandemic have and will continue to upset markets that were thought to be golden by many entrepreneurs and business owners. Overlooking the impact of global market forces.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 10, 2022
By most definitions of the term, an entrepreneur is someone who starts a new business, incorporating innovative changes to existing products, services, business models, and creating new markets. One way of identifying the right characteristics and approaches is to take a hard look at entrepreneurs who have done it.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 2, 2023
People with a victim mentality should never be entrepreneurs. This victim mentality is not a good thing under any circumstances, but it’s particularly lethal when applied to an entrepreneur. If you would like to be an entrepreneur, remember that you don't have to be a victim. Take a hard look in the mirror.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 28, 2023
As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, and having graduated from a big company myself, I talk to many people who have spent years struggling up the corporate ladder who dream of jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs must be the model of personal empowerment in their new venture. Marty Zwilling
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 7, 2023
As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. More than one smart entrepreneur has been caught in the lofty lifestyle of big money investors, viral growth, and movie star status. A smart entrepreneur learns to embrace failure as a badge of learning that provides a competitive edge.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 8, 2022
Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. In the classic book “ The Entrepreneur Mind ,” from serial entrepreneur Kevin D. Johnson, he outlines 100 essential beliefs, insights, and habits of serious entrepreneurs.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020
A continuing question I hear from young entrepreneurs is whether a university degree is important to startup success, or just a distraction in achieving their purpose in the world. Both provide entrepreneurial “head start” programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, free legal guidance, and access to experienced staff members.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 6, 2018
People argue over whether an entrepreneur with a sense of fairness, a desire for collegiality, a want to share the profits can succeed in the long run within a business world full of lions and tigers that eat timid entrepreneurs for lunch. Stories of the selfish entrepreneur. Does a “good heart” diminish the chances of success?
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 13, 2021
In my role as mentor to many of you aspiring entrepreneurs, I often find you convinced that all you need to start is a unique innovation or idea , and now you are ready to jump in with both feet and enjoy the ride. Remember that being an entrepreneur is all about starting and running a business, after the initial invention.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 11, 2022
Some people are not cut out to be entrepreneurs. I’ve hit this before, but I still hear from too many unhappy entrepreneurs. I’ve hit this before, but I still hear from too many unhappy entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs do not function well in traditional organizations and do not like being in the conventional management hierarchy.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 9, 2021
Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant. In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 4, 2022
It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential, and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 30, 2021
Therefore, the least you can do is take advantage of some of the self-assessment tools and guides around, like the classic book “ The Entrepreneur Equation ,” by Carol Roth, which highlights personal characteristics and skills required. That should indicate that a lot of entrepreneurs get more than they bargained for.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 16, 2023
The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2021, from 280 to 360 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 26, 2021
As an entrepreneur mentor, my mission is to foster the attributes in you as a startup founder that I believe will lead to success. For example, I worked with an entrepreneur a while back who was clearly intelligent, had a great idea, and communicated well. I sometimes find entrepreneurs who highlight that their strength is “ideas.”
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 13, 2021
Many years ago, John Hamm published some definitive work on this subject in " Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale " in the Harvard Business Review. This is generally a required quality for a successful entrepreneur, but it can turn into an unhealthy stubbornness during the scaling stage.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 12, 2023
As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Investors and strategic partners look for entrepreneurs who can execute.
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