How to Build an American Business Success Story
“How’d you do it?” This is easily the most asked question of any successful entrepreneur. While the standard answer ranges from hard work and dedication to great timing and good luck, I suggest that success is the result of one simple act.
If you have the courage to risk everything to launch a business, in the face of the undeniable fact that 80 percent will ultimately fail, then you have the courage to embrace risk every day thereafter. And it is by this act, of embracing risk every day, that you gain an edge that ultimately puts you in a position to win – to be successful.
Most of the time when people talk about business and risk, the focus is on how to avoid it. To me, risk isn’t negative; it is, in reality, the cost of opportunity and nothing of value comes without cost. The spirit of risk has driven me, and my partners, to start and grow several businesses.
And businesses that thrive have leadership that takes risks throughout the life of the enterprise. You may feel uncomfortable running a business this way, but the rewards are far greater than any unease you experience. The spirit of risk is the unexpected edge for every business – it is the "risk advantage."
Now I would be negligent if my explanation for success ended by simply stating that all you had to do was embrace risk, and that was it. The concept of the risk advantage is much deeper and requires leaders to act, rather than react. To gain the risk advantage, in addition to embracing risk, you must also adhere to these seven principles to build your American business success story:
1. I want to win.
The foundation of the risk advantage is a winner’s mindset, an “I want to win” attitude that has one doing the things necessary to put themselves in a position to win. This may seem obvious but the truth is human nature pulls us in the opposite direction – the desire NOT to lose -- and this is a diametrically opposed philosophy.
When we play not to lose, we compromise, hedge, and avoid in an effort to minimize our risk. When we play to win, our objectives are to continue moving forward and welcome risk because it is connected to opportunity. And opportunity is what we really desire.
2. It’s all about value.
There are two sides to the value proposition: value for your customer, and a sometimes forgotten value, believe it or not, value for the business. The value proposition for the customer is easy to grasp; your product or service must provide customers with real value. Problems arise if too many entrepreneurs create a business that sounds unique and innovative, and has plenty of great technology, yet it provides no definitive means to generate sufficient revenue.
Revenue (that has a potential to grow) and profit are the value for businesses. We see this far too often in the world of web sites and apps -- terrific, neat ideas with cool technology but no way to generate revenue. The sole purpose of a business is to generate revenue and make a profit; otherwise, there is no business.
3. Essential risks: decide and change.
Just as the human body needs essential nutrients and vitamins to stay healthy and strong, a business must also maintain a steady diet of the two essential risks: decision-making and change.
Indecision is the mental paralysis that prevents one from moving forward. Decision-making is a key component of execution, and execution is what transforms a plan into reality. What holds business leaders back from embracing the risk of decision-making is the fear of a bad outcome as a result of a decision.
Change is never easy, yet is necessary for the long-term health of a business. But change holds the risk of failure, and like decision-making, this is a risk many would rather avoid. However, without change, forward progress comes to a screeching halt, and a slow descent toward irrelevance is set in motion.
The successful entrepreneur never avoids the act of decision-making or the idea of change. Without these two essential risks, we deprive our business of innovation, creativity, and progress.
4. Never become a prisoner of hope.
An entrepreneur who has closed the door on the essential risks, and has ceased to execute, but lives in a false reality based on hope is a "prisoner of hope." Resistance to change in an evolving marketplace, hoping that past successes will miraculously resuscitate a flatlining business, is a sign that the entrepreneur is trapped in a deceptive world where reality is masked by a desperate desire to succeed by avoiding risk.
Their hollow pleading of “if I only had . . ." further signals they have failed to face the reality of self-responsibility and self-reliance. To free the prisoner of hope, the entrepreneur must forgo the idea of ideal conditions and just make something happen.
5. Simple plans: aggressive execution.
Too often, entrepreneurs get too complicated in their planning, trying to account for every possibility, contingency, or potentiality looking for certainty. But certainty is unnecessary -- we need only clarity, guidelines so we know where we want to go, how we are going to get there, who is going to do what, when we want to accomplish it, and how to know when we get there.
That is all a simple business strategy needs to be workable. The key is the execution of the plan. Without aggressive execution, plans are nothing more than theory, and a competitive marketplace is reality.
6. He who markets most wins.
Without question, one of the keys to success for me was our total commitment to marketing. While competitors only dabbled with occasional marketing campaigns, we were committed to marketing, beginning the day we opened our doors and continuing every day thereafter. We dominated our market space for over 20 years because we out-marketed the competition.
Was it expensive? Not a chance. It was the best investment we made in our business. Every dollar spent provided us a definitive return on our investment. We were willing to embrace the risk of marketing because we knew how powerful it was and the kind of return it would provide. And just like any investment that has a good return, there was always risk.
7. Stand in your own line.
Most business leaders have never stood in their own line, which means personally going through your customers' experience. If you don’t know what your customers experience doing business with your company, how do you know if it’s good?
A great product with a poor customer experience is a disaster waiting to happen. Competition demands that whenever a customer engages your company, the whole experience must be positive. The customer experience is an all-encompassing experience.
When I say customer experience, I am not only taking about customer service; good customer service is only a part of the customer experience. To understand each customer’s experience, a business leader must undertake a comprehensive evaluation, one that is not limited to the customer-facing areas of the business.
When we set out on an entrepreneurial journey, our objective is success. But to reach this elusive goal we must have an edge, an advantage over our competition. Those who embrace risk as just another challenge when opportunity presents itself are the ones who put themselves in a position to win.
Opportunities are always there for you to grab. If you want to build an American business success story, you must be willing to embrace risk, everyday, as well as follow these seven principles.
