How Do You Know If You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?

If you’ve worked in a business before, you have surely heard the stat that 80% of new companies fail in the first 3 years. Wow, what a daunting figure! A 20% success rate sure makes you want to go out on your own and try, doesn’t it? WOOF! Well, I promised to give it to you REAL in this blog series, so here it goes. The biggest reason that 80% of businesses fail is not that they have an undesirable product/service (no one actually starts a company for which they don’t believe there will be interest). It is also not that the individuals starting the business don’t have the intellect or skills necessary to succeed. In fact, some of the smartest and most skilled people I know have had the most miserable business failures. So, what is it that makes the vast majority of new companies fail? I’ll tell you, it is because the founders/owners simply don’t have “it” in them.

Sorry, that might sound harsh if you’ve ever had a failed business endeavor, but I’m not sorry for saying it. Failing is an essential part of succeeding; it is not an essential part of giving up. If you’ve ever failed in your own business and went back to a day job and never tried again, then unfortunately you don’t have “it”.  So, what the hell is “it”? IT is knowing that the odds are stacked against you and going for it anyway. IT is knowing that failure is inevitable while at the same time knowing that it won’t stop you from accomplishing your goals. IT is sacrificing everything for your dream or vision regardless of how many times you fail or are told “No” or “This won’t work”. IT is the visceral feeling of angst over not doing what you were put on this earth to do and feeling like you’re wasting your life doing anything else. IT puts you in the 20%. Unfortunately, 80% of people that try don’t have what it takes to stick it out through the failures, be consistent enough for years on end or fail enough times to ever get in the success zone (however one defines that). 

Here is the positive counterpoint, the silver lining, the pot of gold. Amongst the people that are held back by that dreaded 80% stat are a wealth of individuals that do have IT. They just haven’t made the leap yet. This was me for years! I was scared, I had self-doubt, I was insecure, I didn’t think I was good enough, smart enough, experienced enough. I was also miserable, depressed, anxious, and felt as if I had very little purpose and was not making any impact on the world. It was hard to find support. My friends couldn’t relate; I didn’t have a good network of other entrepreneurs from whom to draw motivation, and at times, my family thought I was crazy for wanting to stray from the “safe” path (of course they were coming from a place of wanting what was best for me). What I knew, that they didn’t, was that the best thing for me was to be the author of my own story — the director of my own movie. And, so, eventually, I made the leap.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you’re not busy building your own kingdom, you’re probably busy building someone else’s”?  If you have IT, this thought drives you insane.

So, do you think you have IT? If you do, I believe in you and I will be your support if you don’t have it anywhere else. What do you do next? Follow along next week and I’ll provide some tips on getting started. Until then….LEAP!