Starting a business is not for the faint of heart and, unfortunately, many would-be entrepreneurs don't stop to question themselves before they make the leap. If things go well, the successful entrepreneur will often blindly dive into the next deal feeling like he or she is golden. That's what one billionaire entrepreneur I know did; in fact, after a huge sale of his very well-known company, he dove into three very diverse high-risk ventures believing that he couldn't lose--he had the Midas touch. And then last September happened, and all of his ventures started failing, not because of the economy but because be believed he was untouchable and he never asked the right questions before he started each venture.
So what are the right questions? The questions I'm talking about have nothing to do with the type of business you want to start. They have to do with you; in other words, they are a personal assessment of sorts to make sure that you're ready for the risk you're about to take. Here they are.
1. How confident are you in your ability to start and lead a new company? This is not just a yes or no question. Confidence is a function of experience, understanding the business, and having access to the resources you need. Simply saying "I can do this" is not enough; do you have evidence to prove you can?
2. How committed are you to becoming an entrepreneur? Are you willing to devote full-time to this? Give up your job? Give up anything?
3. How successful are you at achieving the goals you set? This question is really about persistence. I have a friend who never sets goals because he's afraid he won't achieve them and then he'll be considered a failure. Duh! This person is definitely risk averse and has no business starting a company--ever! Let's hope you're a little more persistent than that!
3. How successful are you at achieving the goals you set? This question is really about persistence. I have a friend who never sets goals because he's afraid he won't achieve them and then he'll be considered a failure. Duh! This person is definitely risk averse and has no business starting a company--ever! Let's hope you're a little more persistent than that!
4. How effective are you at persuading others? Let's face it, entrepreneurship is all about getting other people to do what you want to do, so if you can't get a date, it might be a red flag that entrepreneurship may not be for you.
5. How much staying power do you have when things are not going your way or are taking longer than you planned? Do you throw up your hands and stomp out of the room when you don't get what you want? If that's you, don't become an entrepreneur because you have to willing to accept some failure when you take risk.
There are many more questions I could have you ask yourselves, but this is a start. How did you do?
