Ever since the idea of becoming an entrepreneur came into my head, I’ve been fascinated with reading stories about and interviews with successful entrepreneurs.
I’m a big believer in modeling what works, so I would prowl every word looking for clues as to what made these entrepreneurs successful, picking up clues and trying to piece together the puzzle over time.
After reading countless interview and listening to countless speeches, I noticed that a favorite interview questions was:
“What book had the most impact on you as an entrepreneur?”
Usually, whatever the answer was, I would hustle out and buy the book, figuring it had to contain some gems. And they always did.
One book stood out over time as the most recommended book – Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
A fiction book? No thanks.
A handful of months ago, my stubbornness finally wore down and I bought the book. It took me several months to finish it (it’s almost 1200 pages long and I am almost always reading a few books at a time), but I finally did this last month.
And let me tell you…it is the most important book I have ever read.
That statement deserves an explanation…I will try to give one.
As an entrepreneur and a person very interested in personal development, I think I’ve always struggled to find what I would describe as a “personal philosophy”; a set of rules by which I should live my life.
The beauty of entrepreneurship is that there are no rules. You make your own rules. But that can leave a person with a sense of ambiguity and isolation; sometimes it’s nice to just have someone lay out a path for you and tell you what you are doing is the right thing.
You won’t get that as an entrepreneur; you have to find your own way. If you are lucky, you find a role model early in life that takes the time to really teach you what they’ve learned. If not, you have to find it yourself. By reading books, experimenting, failing, making mistakes, seeking advice from others – it’s not a straight road.
I think Atlas Shrugged lays out the best “personal philosophy” I have ever found. It is captured over the 1200 pages of the book in a fascinating story about the fall of America as we know it due to a lack of personal accountability from our citizens, and then it is summed up briefly in the “About the author” section at the end of the book.
In Ayn Rand’s words:
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
Why is it my favorite business book, as the title of this post suggests?
Because it so clearly lays out what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur – the absolute refusal to give anything less than your best every day; the personal accountability to deal with reality as it exists, not as you wish it existed; and the idea that you are 100% responsible for the quality of your life, as opposed to expecting handouts from the government, your parents, or your employer.
If everyone thought that way, the world would be a better place. If you were able to only hire employees that thought that way, your company would run itself.
I really encourage you to buy and read this book. It will be 250 pages or so into it before you start getting any momentum, so don’t give up too early.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with him, Perry Marshall is an internet marketing expert that writes some great material on internet marketing and marketing in general.
A recent email from him touched on something that I think is so important and powerful right now: honoring the role of the entrepreneur.
I am a huge believer in the ability of entrepreneurs to change the world for the better. I think that being an entrepreneur brings out the best in people, and that entrepreneurship is the most efficient and effective way to move ideas forward to fruition.
Considering how large of a role the government is starting to play in the lives of every American, it is critically important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that it was entrepreneurs that built this country, and it’s entrepreneurs that will continue to make it strong and healthy. Not bailouts from the government.
I think Perry’s message has some great points about the value of entrepreneurs to change lives for the better. If you are an entrepreneur, take a few minutes when you read this to give yourself a rare pat on the back. If you aren’t an entrepreneur but you know one, take a few minutes to recognize their accomplishments and the risks they are willing to take.
Perry’s message is posted below.
MRC
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Mike,
I just came home from a seminar by Paul Manwaring called “A Culture of Honor.” As he spoke about how carelessly people criticize each other on TV and in daily life – and how uplifting it is to receive words of affirmation – I was struck by how little appreciation most entrepreneurs get from… well, anybody.
The evening news is no celebration of business people, that’s for sure.
The government ain’t doing much to make your job easier.
So… why would you risk everything, endure multiple bankruptcies, work 17 hours a day for weeks and months at a time, to be the first to be taxed and the last to get paid in a game that offers no guarantee of success whatsoever?
It takes a very special kind of person.
It takes a person who is driven from the inside by passion and vision and a bit of eccentricity. It requires you to be so dissatisfied with the status quo that you feel like you can endure anything so long as it’s not the present mediocrity.
You’re one of those people who just can’t stand following the car ahead of you on the expressway to some cubicle for the rest of your life.
Or maybe you have this idea for a product or a way of doing something and you’re convicted to your very soul that the world needs to see things *your* way for once.
In any case, I doubt it’s because you’re just some greedy, money-grubbing over-achiever who needs to take a chill pill. No, that popular depiction is deeply misleading.
I just want to say… Wherever you are in your journey, I’m proud of you, I HONOR you, and I cheer you on in your effort. Any honest business is a noble and honorable thing.
I’ll never forget my 2nd trip to Africa. I’m somewhere southwest of Nairobi Kenya, visiting George Karanga and his wife Jane, two very special people who run a foster program for AIDS orphans.
I’m meeting a woman whose husband is dying of AIDS, he’s down to 66 pounds… all kinds of kids who’ve lost both parents to HIV and now live with aunts, uncles or grandparents… people who are deathly sick for lack of $1.00 for a bus ticket to go to a medical clinic… a woman who’s 8 years a paraplegic, living under a tin roof in a dark mud hut, her sole entertainment her radio, her cat, and her kind neighbors who look after her.
Not a cheery scene.
But the epiphany occurs when I meet a fellow named Paul Mungai, who runs a cobbler shop. Paul, ironically, is crippled, but he knows how to make and fix shoes. And he knows how to run a business.
He started with just $50.00 of seed money and now has, by Kenyan standards, a sound business. He’s feeding his family, he’s paying his rent, his kids have uniforms to wear to school, and everyone in his care has enough to live on.
There’s a gleam in his eye. We exchange a few words and share our mutual understanding: There is one and only one path out of poverty. The one and only path out of poverty is entrepreneurship and business success.
It ain’t government. It’s not social programs. It’s not charity. It’s not even jobs or technology. It’s entrepreneurship.
The message was loud and clear: What you and I do may be daring, crazy, irrational and largely misunderstood. Condescending do-gooders may tell you you’re greedy or too successful. Your brother-in-law may think you’ve got your head stuffed in a cloud.
The government may think it has the right to confiscate your profits and give them to “education” or other well-intentioned social programs. You might cater to some strange market, doing something that most people consider frivolous.
But the fact remains: What you and I do is profoundly important. You and I pave the road that leads from poverty to success. We create the ingenuity and jobs and wealth that makes good medical care possible.
We create the world that has enough to eat, the world where even welfare kids in housing projects get three square meals a day.
So don’t ever apologize to anyone for doing what you do. If it wasn’t for you, me and the rest of us entrepreneurs, “they” would still be sleeping on dirt floors.
That conversation with Paul in Kenya sparkled with the mutual awareness of what I just described to you.
And as George took me to see other recipients of Micro-Enterprise seed funding – a lady selling sardines and tomatoes on a nailed-together stand on the side of the road, several women selling fruits and vegetables in the local markets, I thought of the entrepreneurs I meet in the US, Canada and Australia.
I thought of those rah-rah Amway rallies I was going to years ago, and the easily-exploited naivet? that’s so characteristic of the “Biz Op” market as it’s sometimes called.
And like it or not, it’s that raw enthusiasm and independent spirit that drives the prosperity of the West.
Where that drive, imagination and ingenuity are lacking, people starve – literally.
So yes, some business people are too greedy. Some entrepreneurs don’t care about their fellow man. Some people do make their money by dishonest means. But remember, the character quotient is no better on the poor side of the fence.
So if you’re prospering by means of an honest enterprise – or if you’re struggling to put one together – then you are a hero. The bards and minstrels may not sing songs about you, and your handsome face may never appear on The Apprentice, but what you do every day when you get out of bed is a worthwhile and indeed necessary thing.
Don’t ever forget it. What you do matters. A lot. It’s worth celebrating and it’s HONORABLE.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Dan Kennedy - you should be. Dan is one of the leading direct marketing experts in America, and is quite the personality. He is also a prolific writer on the subjects of entrepreneurship, sales, management of people – and just about everything he writes is worth reading.
On his blog today, he has a post about taking chances and understanding risks and what you can and can’t control. I thought a particular section of the post was worth sharing here:
Here is what I know: The changes we make will be more important than the changes that occur around us. I know you win by focusing on what you can control. I know that money never really dries up; in different circumstances, it moves differently. There’s always plenty available. So, we’ll prosper. Period. I know that, in microcosm, Halbert was right; there’s hardly a problem that can’t be solved with a great sales letter – the macro version, most problems can be solved with better marketing. You can sell your way out of just about any set of adverse circumstances. (And a whole lot of problems persist purely because of lack of good salesmanship.) I know that we actually do have more to fear than fear itself, but that most decisions made based on fear turn out badly. I know that Pollyanna positivism, whistling in the dark graveyard is dumb, too; you have to create reasons to be optimistic, so you get to make decisions based on positive expectations. It’s foolish and dangerous to just be or act optimistic. There are a lot more things I don’t know. Like whether Gore’s right. So I focus on working with the comparatively short list of things I do know.
As you may be able to tell, Dan is all about personal accountability, and taking control of your own destiny to the greatest degree possible.
I can’t think of any more important message than this right now. When the economy sucks, it’s easy to throw your hands up in the air and lower your expectations of yourself, your customers, and your business.
Don’t do it!
Continue to invest in yourself and your business every day – approach your day with the right attitude, try new approaches to sticky problems, put in an extra hour of prospecting each day – and you will eventually reap the fruits of your labor.
Joe at MSPMentor wrote a great post on starting a business with a partner. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m an entrepreneurship nut, not an IT nut. I LOVE getting my hands on anything to do with business, and I studied entrepreneurship for my MBA at Babson College, which is consistently considered the top school on entrepreneurship. I don’t say this to boast, just to give some background and to let you know that this is my favorite subject.
I’m also a huge believer in continuing education, so I’m always putting a new book or website in front of my employees’ faces and hoping they’ll get just as excited about learning as I am.
So…that being said, I couldn’t pass up on this opportunity to point out my favorite resources on entrepreneurship. I’ve already mentioned most elsewhere on this site, but they are worth repeating! I get contaced by a lot of managed service providers that are just getting started; I hope this list will be helpful for you in particular.
The Kauffman Foundation – perhaps the best think tank on entrepreneurship.
Babson College – I can’t leave that one out! Rated #1 entrepreneurship program 13 years running. They have some great executive development programs you can attend if you don’t want to take the time off for a full degree.
I’m sure I left out some good ones – what do you have on your list?
