03 Dec Defining The New Entrepreneur
Change Agent
You are a transformation master, healer or facilitator of profound shift
Thought Leader
You are ahead of the curve, provoking questions on the growing edge of your industry.
Coach/Teacher
Using your expertise, perspective and wisdom to guide your clients to new results.
Speaker/Autor
Using the written or spoken word to convey powerful insights which inspire fresh action.
“Entrepreneur is not a job title. It is the state of mind of people who want to alter the future.”~ Guy Kawasaki
Never before in history have we had the opportunities available to us today. We are in a new economy. Business has shifted as a result of globalization through technology. And, as a result, an emerging breed of entrepreneur is rising while the environment of entrepreneuring is being redefined.
The key to successful entrepreneuring now is more about the motivations behind it than the form of it. These ‘new’ entrepreneurs will change the world from within by having conscious insight about their motivations and then strategically applying their focused intensity in the game of business to make a meaningful difference.
This new breed of entrepreneur is one who feels the fire burning in their belly to change the world with significant positive impact, to express who they are and what they came to do at an essential and authentic level and get paid for it almost as a by-product. Money is fuel – not motivation.
Given the acceleration of learning, communication and business, entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of wasting time. Lack of focus is an opportunity cost without measure. That means it is vital to do good now by focusing your intensity on your motivations.
“Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have just one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into a life of action, and purpose.” ~ Lance Armstrong
The old paradigm of entrepreneuring was to make money.
The new paradigm of entrepreneuring is to change the world not out of altruism or fear or ignorance but, instead, to do good and money will come in easily with the alignment between personal motivation and focused action.
For this new breed of entrepreneur, the old way of entrepreneuring isn’t enough anymore. It’s not because you love business that you jump into the wonderful chaos of entrepreneuring – it’s because you feel the fire in your belly.
And that means the old models of business building are no longer supportive. You may have to create first and add proven practices later as they become apparently appropriate.
The question facing these new entrepreneurs is:
“what do I need to do to do what I want to do?”
The answer is not prefaced on where you are and where you want to go; rather, it’s about understanding and leveraging this new approach to entrepreneuring to optimize your reach and results.
By identifying your ‘secret sauce’ (aka, your motivations, natural talents, gifts and inclinations) and applying it strategically in business, you change the world and make a living at the same time.
“There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.” ~ Jim Morrison
Business is a symbol for the health of our collective community. It’s an accelerator of cultural evolution and individual expansion.
By allowing your personal motivation to come through your business, you are unifying your life and your livelihood. And that increases your ability to contribute in a more powerful and profound way to your growth, your legacy and the greater good.
“The key is to be clear about your business mission. In a world of flux, this becomes more important than ever.” ~ Robert Safian, Fast Company, Generation Flux
Entrepreneuring now requires an ability to adapt rapidly, innovate your own evolution and shift in a dynamic marketplace while meeting the needs of clients sometimes even before they are perceived. Quite often, the new entrepreneur is building their car while driving it at freeway speed to a destination that very well could change by the time they arrive at it.
Accordingly, the way to create and sustain significant transformation is to develop personal ‘constant’s, which include: a higher level of insight and a deep understanding of one’s personal motivations, a perceptive relationship with your marketplace, and a business vision to which a viable business model can be created.
“Great vision precedes great achievement. Every business needs a compelling vision to give it direction. Without a vision, the business becomes purposeless. When you embrace a vision, you become focused, energized and confident. You know where you’re headed and why you’re going there.” ~ Dr. John C. Maxwell
Howard Stevenson, Harvard Business School professor, said in Breakthrough Entrepreneurship that:
“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”
In other words, today’s emerging entrepreneur perceives opportunity and optimizes it without letting the seeming lack of resources hold them back. Instead, they move quickly, focus on what they’re building for a longer term, outsource with strategic alliances, work in teams and create the options they need to further their business.
They live their work in a way that is integrated with the rest of their lives, with a holistic, accessible approach to connecting with others. (All of this is about 180 degrees different from traditional entrepreneuring, by the way.)
“The fact- and it is fact – that the line between “work” and “play” is thoroughly blurred for the true entrepreneur and the corollary fact that the entrepreneur’s business life is often, frankly, bluntly, more important to him/her than his/her personal and social life are a huge source of befuddlement, annoyance and tension for those around him/her.” ~ Dan Kennedy
This entrepreneur knows the value of truth, clarity and choice. They are not only willing to change the way things have always been done, but they know their businesses can grow only as fast as they do.
The real source of power – and the most effective action – is that which comes from clearly and appropriately focused intensity.
Your intensity into a business is your motivation.
Motivation means everything.
Future fortunes won’t come from money – they’ll come from motivations.
“I have always found that my view of success has been iconoclastic: success to me is not about money or status or fame, it’s about finding a livelihood that brings me joy and self-sufficiency and a sense of contributing to the world.” ~ Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop
The new entrepreneur can come from any place – anywhere from a new graduate student to a corporate refugee to a seasoned business owner seeking greater meaning. It’s not about the experience that someone brings but, instead, it’s about their inner desire compelling them to go beyond what’s known, familiar or expected in providing solutions to people who need and want them.
Quite often, these entrepreneurs not only create successful businesses, but they create a movement that catches on throughout the greater public. They lead with doing good; they change the world first and then create a business based on that.
As a result, their reach transcends their clients and their market and their message becomes a phenomenon (think Zappo’s, Thom’s Shoes or Apple as examples).
And it all begins with their motivation, their secret sauce, the source of their personal intensity.
“A great revolution in just one single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind.” ~ Daisaku Ikeda
That’s not to say that this new entrepreneur isn’t someone quiet and focused on providing jobs for multiple employees and team members because that’s changing the world too for the people you touch. It’s less about extroversion or scale and more about deep commitment and personal drive.
Think of your ability to change the world as starting from the inside out, with ripples that touch outward ever further – those are the ripples of world change. And your ripple matters. Your personal clarity is paramount in business – and life! – today.
As a visual, think of a bull’s-eye as a metaphor for creating a business, with the center being the starting point for creating a business. In order of progression, following is a chart on the order of ‘ripples’ depending on the entrepreneur.
Traditional Entrepreneur | New Entrepreneur |
Money- how much they want to make | Who they are and what want to affect |
Research market needs (and potential buyers) | Create a right solution |
Create product to meet that need | Who is best served by their solution |
How they are affected personally (an optional step, in many cases) | Revenues |
You can see that these ripples of change are in opposite order, depending on the orientation of the entrepreneur.
The ‘new’ entrepreneur knows that revenues will come as a result of personal clarity, focused intensity and right actions.
“One ripple creates another. When enough ripples intersect, you have a revolution.” ~ Scott Dinsmore
Given that the ‘new’ entrepreneur defies being boxed by origin, location or venture, there is a unifying factor that runs beneath the surface that draws together this emerging community. And that factor is archetypal patterns.
An archetypal pattern is your unconscious energetic heritage and reflects a natural part of how you show up in the world. These patterns will affect the choices you make and the results you get in your experiences.
By decoding the shared archetypes of ‘new’ entrepreneurs, you can see the powerful common threads of inherent motivation.
For example, the new entrepreneur is the hero, the prophet, the teacher, the wayshower, the innovator, the maverick, the rebel. Regardless of actual personality traits, the new entrepreneur will be called to create a solution outside of apparent existing systems to meet a need or want of a buyer.
In fact, the new entrepreneur may predict the need or want before it is even known, thereby setting in motion the dynamics to desire the entrepreneur’s solution.
And this can happen through exploration, futuring, teaching, demonstrating, being outside the norm or even pushing against it… all are different archetypes that unite new entrepreneurs despite evident differences in age, education, geography, demeanor, funding, business approach, type of venture and more.
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” ~ Harold Whitman
Other characteristics of the ‘new’ entrepreneur include:
● a mindset that embraces instability and disruption ● enjoys redirection and recalibration ● open-minded ● adaptive ● creative ● motivated for self-achievement ● goal-setting ● desire for feedback on accomplishments ● strong initiative ● future focus ● relevancy ● likes solving ambiguous problems (not knowing what you don’t know) ● independence ● willingly confront change ● deep commitment to their work ● idealism ● enthusiasm ● optimism ● seeking a positive lifestyle ● being a thought leader ● a desire to learn ● active listening ● systems-oriented (to leverage time and effort) ● collaboration ● use agile development processes (that can adapt and replicate quickly) ● an internal locus of control ● creating win-win scenarios ● innovating on the go ● a high value on work that benefits from personal goals and achievement.
“Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. And 70% of today’s high schoolers intend to start their own companies, according to a Gallup poll.” ~ Michael Malone
Intensity moves mountains; intensity is power focalized. The release of power always follows the focalization of power. It’s important to know where to focus your intensity for maximum power (aka, impact, reach and ability to change the world).
It’s hard for these ‘new’ entrepreneurs to find exemplars who can guide them past what they don’t know they don’t know or where they are stuck in old mire or facilitate their conscious awareness of their secret sauce.
By definition, a mentor is someone who has done it the ‘new’ way and can share the shortcuts. Fortunately, I was on the leading edge of this phenomenon wayyyy ahead of the curve. Even more, my motivation is to share what I know and use my skills to literally pull an entrepreneur’s secret sauce out of them and then help focus it in the most valuable, profitable way.
As a business intuitive and catalyst for entrepreneurs, I create intentional intensity to and for a business that focuses on its own secret sauce that, in turn, changes the world. You can make a bigger difference by knowing how to connect the dots to your ‘best’ ambition.
That means that when you build your natural ambition for the greater good, you can change the world and get paid for doing good.
By knowing your secret sauce, and focusing it in the most profitable way, you change the world naturally without having to work so hard at it.
The formula for success and freedom for the ‘new’ entrepreneur (you): know your motivation, focus your personal intensity through business and change the world.
Then enjoy the by-products of abundant prosperity, personal fulfillment and living a great life.
“Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives… or it’s simply not worth doing.” ~ Richard Branson
“What you receive by accomplishing your goals is not nearly as important as what you become by accomplishing your goals.” ~ Zig Ziglar
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” ~ Charles Darwin
If this describes you, you’re one of the new breed of entrepreneur. Thank goodness! We’ve been waiting for you.
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