An Entrepreneur’s Checklist

Over the course of the years, I have been blessed to be approached by many self-professed entrepreneurs who have great ideas they would like me to partner on. 

While the ideas are often great, my primary interest is in the person behind the idea.  After all, there are many great ideas out there waiting for the right collaboration of minds to execute.

The right minds that can create success from such collaboration are rare.

And with that, I was musing about an entrepreneur evaluation checklist that would include but not be limited to the following criteria.

 

Be …	Don’t Be …
Humble	Filled with low self esteem
Audacious	Arrogant
Aggressive	Reckless
A collaborator	A one-man-band
Patient when needed	Complacent
Transparent	Mysterious
A visionary	A dreamer
Strategic	Paralyzed by excessive analysis
Tactical	Chaotic
Someone who perseveres	Someone who doesn’t know when to change direction or stop altogether
Proud	Too proud
Data / fact-based	Wishful thinking-based
Outcome-based	Luck-based
A communicator	Vague
Someone who understands one’s strengths	Someone who doesn’t understand or accept their weaknesses
Someone who will do what it takes	Someone who doesn’t know when to pull back
An educated risk-taker	A misinformed one
Confident	Uncertain
Focused	Random or all-over-the-map
Innovative	Regressive
Direct	Evasive
Passionate	Wide-eyed and scary
Proactive	Passive
Respectful	Wimpy
Flexible when required	Too flexible or inflexible
Stalwart	Cocky
Values / character-based	Wishy-washy or unpredictable
Authentic	What everyone else wants you to be
Gracious with accolades	Needing all the credit

 

Yes, these are obvious, common sense concepts.  However, I wonder why they are not commonly held by entrepreneurs given the fact that they are such common sense.

A great idea is obviously critical to a successful venture. 

Equally critical to a successful venture is the nature of the minds behind the idea.

It is because of this simple fact that so many brilliant ideas that should have been successful have failed while some seemingly innocuous ideas have propelled to greatness.

Knowing the nature of the minds behind the ideas will help identify the difference between failure, success or entertainment for others.

Understanding the mind of the entrepreneur will also help you to know whether you are about to make a leap towards success for yourself and others or you are about to waste your time, energy, talent and possibly money.

Be audacious in your evaluation – you’re worth it.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My detailed blog entry for “An Entrepreneur’s Checklist” is the same as this one and can be found here.

Addendum – March 30, 2011

Maybe this is not just an entrepreneur’s checklist. As I absorb the emails being sent to me about this blog, I wonder if this is a checklist for how to engage with and collaborate with others.

Maybe ……………………

I have also received a lot of comments about the importance of faith.  I deliberately didn’t mention it here as faith is a very personal choice.  I will say that for those who make their faith an important part of their Life (as I do), may they use it to find wisdom, strength, courage and insight and not use it as a hammer to wield power over others or as an excuse to execute poorly with the belief that “Someone Else” will bail them out constantly from their own ignorance, stupidity or slothfulness.