An innocent entrepreneur
I’m full of admiration for people who build and start businesses on their own. Whilst we built a good business here at innocent, I’ve done it with my two best friends and we’re doing it together. I think we make a fantastic team and I certainly couldn’t have done this on my own. I don’t know if the other guys could have but I think we compliment each other really well. Together we have all the skills needed to be entrepreneurs but we don’t have them individually. So I think it’s really interesting when Richard and others start a business on their own where quite simply they are the man! I hold people like that in hugely high esteem.
So what do you need to be an entrepreneur? You need a huge amount of tenacity in order to get things off the ground. Whatever you’re trying to do there are always a million things going wrong, people saying no, people saying it’s impossible. To have resilience and that tenacity is absolutely critical.
When the three of us were putting innocent together there might have been two of us feeling absolutely down in the dumps and one of us saying ‘this is going to work because of x,y and z’. We manage to play off of each other and when two are down, one is up and vice versa. If you’re doing it on your own that’s all going on in your own head. Pretty damn tough I think.
Secondly, you’ve got to be able to get people to do stuff for you. You’ve got to be hugely persuasive because you’re often starting out with very limited resources, even nothing, and creating something out if it. It means getting other people to do stuff for you, not necessarily for monetary reasons, but because they believe in where you’re going, they want to be involved and they’re excited.
Thirdly, people say it’s all about risk taking but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. If you’re taking risks for the hell of it you might come unstuck. If you’re playing everything ultra-safe you won’t ever get anywhere. There may be a few people for whom it is all about risk but I think that the majority of entrepreneurs would say: ‘You know what – this is risky but I reckon this is how I’m going to cover the downside’. So I‘m not subscribing to the romantic notion about taking risks in order to succeed as I suspect that you’d get unstuck pretty quickly.
10 Responses to “An innocent entrepreneur”
Ben Young - December 21st, 2008
Whats Innocent? and who was this post written by?
I assumed this blog was from Richard and his book unless stated otherwise.
If you have a multi-author blog you need to specify as your just going to confuse readers.
Stevieboy66 - December 22nd, 2008
Quite agree!
tanangachi - December 22nd, 2008
Hi
I have just finished reading Screw it, lets do it what a marvelous book by Ritch.It has just given me the desire to stay strong on my goals,well done .
Dr. Wright - December 23rd, 2008
That is the great thing about having a partner! Solo entrepreneurs do not have this luxury and must make sure they keep their heads together to reach their goals.
Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
http://www.wrightplacetv.com
http://www.twitter.com/drwright1
Jason Bell - December 26th, 2008
@Ben, there’s a few different folk posting on this blog but I would say that’s to be expected when you are dealing with organisations of this size. If you look at the main page it does mention who posted the piece. Innocent is a drinks company in the UK and my daughter can’t get enough of them.
Bruno - January 1st, 2009
One comment about being alone and having people do stuff for you. The word “persuasive” was used - I don’t think this is the exact word - if you are a true leader - inspiring, honest, have a vision, you don’t need to persuade other people to follow you - people simply want to follow you, and do things for you - I’ve seen stories of people simply dropping jobs and following (with no pay) a friend/colleague/etc, who have started up a new company - and succeeded.
Hans - January 18th, 2009
Hi Adam,
great post. I’m in the process of pulling a start-up up by myself. It is very tough, but I don’t really think that anyone can pull big things together alone. You always have to inspire. I started with no money, and I went into manufacturing which needs huge amounts of resources. I do think that I carry the responsibility, but I still need to find a great team (which I have note quite yet). I’m very sure that Richard uses the power of inspiring people to work with him on his visions. Certainly in his early years (according to his auto-biography) Richard was always relying on a small but very strong group of people. He took risks, but never seemed to have done anything alone.
Anyways, thanks again for this great post. I need to read those things, because they are very uplifting.
Cheers, Hans
BethAnn Lederer - January 25th, 2009
Being a solo entrepreneur, I’d say you have a good handle on the experience…except the risk piece. I started Working Wonders (ww) at the beginning of 2006 and expected to create all the infrastructure within a year and a half. It took until August 2008. We formally launched and all hell has broken out in the economy. As a green company it is weird to be the right concept at both the right time and the wrong time at the same time. Right now, I’m facing a downside personally that I never would have willingly chosen. It is so demoralizing to be all dressed up with nowhere to go…except, to the great ecommerce graveyard, unless a miracle occurs to keep us “floating”. My team of dedicated and talented design professionals and I are praying for a miracle everyday!
BethAnn, CEO, Working Wonders LLC
Justin - February 3rd, 2009
“…there are always a million things going wrong, people saying no, people saying it’s impossible. To have resilience and that tenacity is absolutely critical.”
I find it helpful to consider the source when people say no or it’s impossible. If you asked your taylor if it is possible to fix your car, despite his answer you will get your mechanic to look at it. Business and new ideas are very similar. Don’t expose your ideas to the self proclaimed “expert” who always has a knee jerk reaction which is, “that will never work.”
chris b @ thecodeclub - March 31st, 2009
good-
i like innocent-
& the virgin media package -
luv ~ the 4th paragraph - cool ^^
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