Dancing with ourselves
The 3 P’s of Entrepreneurship
I read and quite enjoyed Seth Godin’s “Dancing on the edge of finished” blog entry this week. He makes the point that today, as entrepreneurs, we are never quite finished our jobs. There is always one more thing to do, and that that’s okay. As he suggests, we are better off if we consider ourselves in a dance, rather than in an endless grind.
It reminded me of the three P’s of Entrepreneurship: Patience, Persistence, and a Plan.
Successful entrepreneurs seem to have an endless reservoir of the first two P’s. Without infinite patience and dogged perseverance, most great businesses would never have come to light. Long after most would have quit, true entrepreneurs continue to push, believing that the dance will produce an outcome that favors them.
The shortcut to entrepreneurial success, if there is one, is the third “P”, the Plan. In most cases, to really succeed, the entrepreneur needs a plan for each the six key areas of the typical business:
- Management
- Finance
- Production
- Marketing
- Sales
- Customer Service
Absence of a cohesive plan explains the bumpy path many entrepreneurs find themselves on. With tight resources, the entrepreneur often feels compelled to just wing it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Two ingredients can change the planning paradigm and the business outcome:
- Time to think.
- Access to those who know.
The first can be as simple as taking long, late-night (or early morning) walks. The second can be as simple as finding people who you trust in each area of expertise, and drawing from their experience. This last can be accomplished through person-to-person contact, or it can be through the immense resources available in books, publications, and on the web.
Once a plan exists, its execution becomes something that is achievable. And, arguably, any plan is better than no plan, because a plan leaves a trail which can be learned from.
So, as we do our dance, we need to be sure that we find the time to dance with ourselves. It may be awkward at times, but it also improves our chances of one day ending the dance on the right foot.
About Drew Williams
My name is Drew Williams. I’m an author and marketing entrepreneur. “A what?”, you say. I call someone who’s passionate about building businesses a marketing entrepreneur. So that’s me. Full Profile | Google+
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