Erika Andersen Contributor
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/... I’ve read a great many posts and articles by and about entrepreneurs: how to be an entrepreneur; how to know whether you’re suited for the entrepreneurial life; the pitfalls of being an entrepreneur; the rewards of entrepreneurship; the impact of entrepreneurs on the economy. I’ve even written some posts about the topic myself.
Then there’s the fact that I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost 25 years – and still consider myself one, though Proteus is pretty well established at this point. I’ve also been working with some start-ups and stage 2 entrepreneurial companies over the past year as clients.
So, suffice it to say, I spend a good deal of time thinking about entrepreneurs. In all my wandering in this realm, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two basic, and quite different, entrepreneurial mindsets. There may well be more (and I’d love to hear your perspective, as well) but these two entrepreneurial types seem to cover most of the territory I’ve observed:
Flavor #1: The “make a killing” (MAK) entrepreneur. This kind of entrepreneur’s core motivation is to crack the code on becoming wealthy. He or she wants to build a better mousetrap not primarily to rid the world of disease-creating vermin, or give people a more humane mouse-removal option, but to win the mousetrap business lottery: to exit the mousetrap business altogether with a very fat check in hand, having created a company that some larger entity sees as having tremendous potential in the mousetrap innovation space, and retire with the proceeds to the South of France. They generally build a team and a company with an eye toward scalability and independence from them. In the process, these folks quite often create wonderful new things – but their focus, what they really want to do, is figure out how to build something that can be scaled up and sold.
Flavor #2: The “richard branson” (RB) entrepreneur. This entrepreneur is passionately committed to bringing a product or service to the world that’s better, faster, sleeker, simpler, more sustainable, more delightful, easier, etc. He or she wants to build a better mousetrap because he or she can see so clearly how much cooler it would be than anything that currently exists. And this person can’t wait to see how it’s going to happen – and can’t wait to make that new reality happen. They generally build a team and a company based primarily in their passion for the thing (service, product, capability) and their relentless movement toward manifesting it in the world. Now, this kind of entrepreneur quite often also gets rich (as witness the actual Richard Branson) and sometimes even buys a house in in the south of France – but then he or she probably keeps working on the next, even cooler version of “the thing” while sitting on his or her terasse. Getting rich is not the point – or not the main point.
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately because I’ve been realizing that I’m about 95% RB, and my business partner is about 65% RB and about 35% MAK (I haven’t run this by him yet – he might assess himself differently). And I see that his infusion of MAK-ness is very good for me and for the business. We have enough overlap in the RB space to operate comfortably together, but without his MAK predilections, the business wouldn’t be growing as quickly, and we wouldn’t be thinking as much (or as practically) about creating new business models and revenue streams that are more self- sustaining and scalable, less dependent on us.
I’m also seeing, though, that when partners in an enterprise are deeply different entrepreneurial flavors, it can make it nearly impossible to build something together. For instance, I’m watching my son – who is heavily weighted toward the RB side – having lots of difficulty finding an operating rhythm with his business partner, who is a pure, unadulterated, 100% MAK. They have these frustrating conversations where Ian focuses (passionately) on brand and how they can build a business and a reputation by giving their customers an experience that’s unique — attractive to a particular demographic in a very specific way. And his partner just wants to focus on reducing costs, increasing operational efficiencies and turning tables over quickly, so their restaurant will blow up and turn a big profit and they can ultimately exit. They’re speaking two different languages entirely, with almost no overlap, and I know that each thinks the other is…not wrong, exactly, but just not that appealing.
And it seems to me that if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s important to become aware of your primary flavor. It will help you get clear about what success looks like for you, and it will also help you make sure that your partners share enough of your mindset to speak the same language and be excited about the same future.
Which may very well include that house in the South of France, whatever your flavor.
Posted By: imma Barrera
Tuesday, August 13th 2013 at 10:53AM
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