The Venture Edge

When you work with someone for a long time, you begin to get in synch on things you're thinking about.  Don't know how that happens, but once again Peter has posted a topic that I've been thinking about recently.  In his recent post A great big leap of fath, he talks about the importance of not losing your belief in what you're doing when you start to hit the obstacles that are sure to block your path.  One of the biggest obstacles I see in people who have decided on a quest to achieve something big like The New York Times bestseller list is the problem of getting traction.

When a business is really starting to take off, there are any number of potential obstacles blocking the way to success. As employees are hired, the money begins to come in, and things really start humming, it's easy to think that everything you touch will turn to gold. This is, of course, rarely the case. In reality, it's at just this critical point in the growth of your company that you've got to remain disciplined in your goals, and not overreach. This a lesson that Ken Wolf learned the hard way.

In the past week I have been frustrated by entrepreneur wannabes who are enjoying the planning phase just a little bit too much.  They figure that they can feel like they're real entrepreneurs by simply talking about their yet-to-be business without ever actually getting down to starting the business and making it real.  In fact, I know at least several of these wannabes who have been talking about their business for at least two years with nothing to show for it except a business plan.   Some of them have entered (and in some cases won) one or more of the ubiquitous business plan competitions that seem to be a mainstay of every university or college on the planet.  Still, they don't have a business.