The Best Path to Entrepreneurial Success is to Do the Unexpected
If you have
a true, passionate desire to become an entrepreneurial leader, it may seem contradictory,
but the best path to exceptional success is to either reinvigorate a failing
company or start a new one in a business sector currently dominated by
established companies.
At first
blush such an approach may seem like business suicide, but this strategy offers
the most potential for success and because so few are willing to try it, there
is little competition.
Here are a
few tips on rebuilding or starting a company in a business sector dominated by
established companies:
1. Make
sure you understand and have experience in the selected industry.
2. Understand
that success will come easier by actually changing the industry rather than
trying to compete in it.
3. Position
your company to compete against rather then with
the established companies. Make sure you understand the difference.
4. Strive
to become a disrupter of the industry’s status quo by calling out
what the established companies are doing wrong. It’s not easy, but through
passion, innovation and force of will, it can be accomplished and lead to high
levels of success.
5. Offer
fresh, different and even radical solutions to the needs of the customers, even
if they don’t yet know they need a new approach.
6. Don’t
try to differentiate your company by trying to do better at what the other
companies are already doing. Rather, offer products or services that other
companies have not conceived of, can’t or won’t do.
7. Know
you are on the right path when others constantly offer the admonition, “You
can’t do that.”
8. Understand
you are making progress when the established companies begin to attack,
criticize or copy what you are doing.
9. Create
a spirit de corps in the psyche of those who join you in the venture by
making it a “we against them” environment.
Allow those who join your venture and add value to fully share in the value created.
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Robert MacDonald -- Former CEO of ITT Life, retired chairman and CEO of Allianz Life of North America, founder of LifeUSA; author of numerous books on business, management and leadership.
bobmac5201@gmail.com
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