Bill Zipp’s Blog

Entrepreneurial Virtues: Building Business from the Inside Out

Posted on by

It’s not very often that you see the word “entrepreneurial” used in the same sentence with the word “virtue.” Entrepreneurs are usually seen as bare-knuckled business brawlers who’ll stop at nothing to make a buck. To be sure there are entrepreneurs like that, as there are bottom-feeders everywhere. Most, however, are honest, hardworking individuals uniquely wired for the adventure of starting and growing a business.

For these daring souls I offer the following advice. Build your business from the inside out. Pay just as much attention to personal character as you would to market conditions. In doing so you’ll build your business on a solid foundation and ensure that this business will not destroy your soul in the process.

Here, then, are three character qualities, or virtues as I have called them, to attend to as an entrepreneur.

1. The Entrepreneurial Ethic: Integrity

Building one’s business from the inside out begins here: basic human decency and fundamental honesty. Integrity has been defined as what you do when no one is watching. And, for most entrepreneurs, no one is watching. So do what’s right for its own sake. When you don’t, for whatever reason, take responsibility for it, apologize, and make things right. For integrity is not perfection–that state is unattainable this side of eternity–it’s the commitment to act in another’s best interests. Always.

2. The Entrepreneurial Mind: Wisdom

Nothing is more challenging than the ever changing demands of the marketplace. Meeting these demands well requires immense amounts of wisdom. I define this virtue as the intersection of knowledge and insight. Knowledge provides me with the information I need to address the issues at hand, and insight provides me with the best ways to apply that information to the issues at hand. One without the other is useless. A successful entrepreneur, then, constantly seeks to expand their mind in both theoretical and practical domains. Embracing both makes one wise.

3. The Entrepreneurial Heart: Courage

This third virtue has to do with action. Action, however, in the face of opposition and in the headwinds of adversity. The entrepreneurial path is not an easy one, for it always seems to lead uphill. Or, when it leads downhill, it’s usually into dark valley. And that’s where courage comes in. The rock solid belief in oneself and the unwavering determination to persevere no matter the obstacles in the way. Courage is not the lack of fear, as integrity is not the lack of making mistakes, it’s the acknowledgment of one’s fears and moving forward anyway.

I’m sure there are more virtues that could be added to this list. But here are three that should be at the very top. Without strength of character at the center of one’s business efforts, those efforts will ultimately collapse like a sinkhole in Florida. And that’s not very entrepreneurial.

Share

You Gotta Lose to Win

Posted on by

I was watching a roundtable discussion on the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. One of the commentators said something that struck me as profound, “Well,” he said, “you gotta lose to win.” He went on to explain that any candidate that tells people only what they want to hear is destined for failure. A successful candidate takes a stand, inevitably alienating some, but rallying others to his side because they know what he stands for. In other words, losing to win, something Governor Romney doesn’t seem to be doing (from their analysis).

I’ve turned this phrase over and over in my head since hearing it and suggest the following ways we can lose to win in business and in life:

1. Time

Yes, we all live crazy-busy lives with an endlessly long list of things to do. Losing to win with our time involves pruning that list of everything that doesn’t contribute to bearing fruit. This means making as much use of a “stop doing” list as a “to do” list and investing our limited resources in only those things that are our highest priorities, both personally and professionally.

2. Media

Along with our endlessly long task list, we have an equally expanding list of media options: from TV, to video, to books, to magazines, to apps, to email, to text, to Facebook, to Twitter, to Yelp, to whatever the next big thing will be. And all of this stuff is great, except. Except when we treat them like an all-you-can-eat buffet and ingest every item in aisle. Losing to win means going on a media diet and consuming those few alternatives that allow us to stay informed, eliminating the rest from our lives.

3. Customers

A common problem I address with the business leaders I coach is their trying to be all things to all people. These well-intentioned entrepreneurs do one thing for one kind of customer one day and an entirely different thing for an entirely different kind of customer the next. This inch-deep, mile-wide approach to the marketplace never works. Losing to win here means finding your focus (inch-wide, mile-deep) by knowing exactly who your core customer is and exactly how to meet their needs with the depth and intensity that builds a lifelong stream of business.

4. Pride

There’s a short proverb that’s repeated in the Christian scriptures, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Losing to win spiritually means recognizing him as the author and sustainer of human life. Humility lives with the constant awareness that someone greater and wiser than oneself is at the center of the universe. Simply stated, humility understands its place in the world. From that understanding, then, flows acts of love, service, and generosity.

There’s something I’d like to see in someone running for president from either party. Wouldn’t you?

Share

Break Through the Wall or the Wall Breaks You

Posted on by

Most marathon runners hit the wall. It’s not a specific miler-marker, per se, but a stage in the race where every muscle in a runner’s body seems to shut down and an inner voice screams, “Quit running now!” Runners who break through the wall often finish the race on an endorphin high. Runners who don’t rarely run in a marathon again.

We face our own walls personally and professionally. A sales goal we never seem to be able to break. A product that has a seemingly insurmountable flaw. A relationship that has reached an impasse. And the same choice faces us: break through the wall or have the wall break us.

Here’s how to do the former and not the latter.

First, become utterly convinced that the accomplishment on the other side of the wall is worth the work. Embrace the vision of finishing the race and pursue that vision with abandon. Second, keep moving forward. When that inner voice screams at you to quit, take the next step anyway. Then take the next step. And the next.

It’s the combination of these two things, a powerful vision for the future and consistent progress in the present, that breaks through the wall. The one keeping your eyes on the horizon and the other keeping your feet moving no matter the obstacles in your way. This makes persistence one of the most prized possessions you can have in business (and in life), fueled by passion and forged in adversity.

Share

We Become What We Believe about Adversity

Posted on by

In the course of conducting business, adversity comes our way. It’s inevitable. Markets we’ve dominated disappear. Techniques we’ve mastered become irrelevant. People we’ve trusted turn their backs on us. But this is not what hurts our business. It’s how we interpret these events that does.

Human beings at their core seek to extract meaning from the things that happen to them. We are sapient creatures and do this instinctively. When an event takes place in our life, we try to understand why it happened and explain its existence in some way.

When we do this with a belief system that sees adversity as a negative development, we slide into discouragement and despair. The opposite brings hope and opportunity. This is the fundamental difference between optimism and pessimism. Not the denial that bad things happen, but the rock solid belief that even when bad things happen, good things can come from them and that every problem has a solution.

And this is the fundamental difference between moving on in business in the face of opposition and giving up. What we believe about it determines how we act, and, ultimately, how we feel. In this way, adversity doesn’t define us but our response to it. Overcoming obstacles, then, begins between our ears with an inner conviction that no matter what we face, a better future awaits us. Positive action and new opportunity flow from that central belief, and so does a successful business.

Share

Stop Making These Super Bowl Blunders

Posted on by

The craziness is over for another year. What started out as a simple football game has become a cultural phenomenon. From the crazy commercials, to the over-the-top half-time show, to the media frenzy leading up to the event, the Super Bowl now stands for super-hype. This annual exercise in excess seeps into our business mindset and tempts us to make these marketing mistakes.

Super Bowl Blunder One: The Big Splash

Even though a 30-second commercial in this year’s Super Bowl broadcast cost $3.5 million–an obscene amount of money–we cling to the myth that successful marketing is about making a big splash. Those of us who can’t afford $3.5 million, try to make our own big splash by buying a full page ad in the local newspaper or by sponsoring a big event.

Here’s the truth: the big splash doesn’t work.

Why? Because people forget even the biggest of splashes and move on with their lives. Remember any of last year’s Super Bowl commercials? I didn’t think so. Repetition is the key to marketing success. Especially today in the crazy-busy world in which we live, marketing that works takes place over time with an ongoing series of personal connections. Instead of making a big splash, today’s successful marketers are building real relationships with real people.

Super Bowl Blunder Two: The Power of Persuasion

For years marketing and sales has been about persuasion. Marketers have tried to be as powerful as possible, presenting their point of view in bold, even brazen tones. With the rise of the internet and social media, a seismic shift has taken place from the power of persuasion to the power of conversation.

People don’t want to to be shouted at any more with gotta-get-it-now deals and lower-than-low discount pricing. They want to be talked to. And they just don’t want to talk to you. They want to talk to your customers about you in a open and honest way. So create a forum for people to freely share their opinions and don’t scrub your bad reviews. The public is smart enough to know when someone’s begin a crank; but if you remove the crank’s posts, you look deceptive.

Super Bowl Blunder Three: Selling Too Soon

And then there’s the mistake of selling too soon. A, B, C: Always Be Closing is just a pile of foolish nonsense. People don’t like being closed, they like buying and want to do it on their own terms. Which means we can actually teach our prospects to say no to us by pushing hard to close. We push too hard to close, of course, when we spend a lot of money making a big splash (and want to get that money back in sales) and ply the old-school media powers of persuasion.

When we take our time to build relationships and have authentic conversations, trust emerges. From that basis of trust, agreements are reached that benefit both the buyer and the seller. Agreements that result in increased sales with decreased cost of client acquisition. That’s a recipe for success in marketing, and in business, today.

Share

An 8-Point Gut Check for Grit

Posted on by

The first month of 2012 is over, and the goals you’ve set for the year have now met the hard road of reality. How’s that going?

It’s a common misconception that the trajectory of goal fulfillment travels in a straight line. People are actually surprised when the cause they believe in so deeply and the targets they thought through so keenly meet repeated frustration and delay. But that’s not the way goals work.

Here’s the truth about goal fulfillment: it doesn’t really happen on the mountaintop, but in the valley. It doesn’t take place in the light, but in the darkness. It’s forged in adversity. To fulfill any worthwhile, meaningful goal one must possess a drive and determination to overcome obstacles in the way.

In short, you must have grit.

Not the grit of a gunslinger that the young Mattie Ross found in an aging “Rooster” Cogburn in the recent Coen brothers’ re-make, True Grit. But the grit that researcher Dr. Angela Duckworth defines as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” According to her research, this kind of grit outperforms both talent and intelligence in activities as diverse as graduating from military school and competing in the National Spelling Bee.

So here’s a series of questions for you, an eight-point gut-check for grit. Honesty answer each:

1. Do you seek out greater and greater challenges, always pressing the edges of the envelope?

2. Do you welcome adversity as a way to make you stronger? Do you “embrace the beast” as ultra-marathoner Lisa Smith-Batchen would put it?

3. Do you declare your goals to family and friends, colleagues and coworkers, creating public accountability for your actions?

4. Do you maintain internal emotional equilibrium in spite of the external circumstances of your life?

5. Do you look within for the solutions to pressing problems, refusing to blame those problems on others?

6. Do you keep yourself from always starting new things, changing goals before you’ve had a chance to see them through?

7. Do you remind yourself of the meaningful cause, the deeper purpose that fuels the passion for each goal you’re pursuing?

8. Do you celebrate, and celebrate well, when a challenging goal has been fulfilled?

Every question in this list is important, and every question should have an affirmative answer. Work on the no’s until they become yeses. It’s then that grit, true grit, will take root in your soul and the goals you’ve set for this year will actually get done.

Share

How Do You Measure a Year?

Posted on by

525,600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year? That’s the question the Tony award-winning musical RENT asks in the opening scene of the second act. And that’s the question we ask ourselves as well at the beginning of every year. Twelve months, 52 weeks, 365 days, and 525,600 minutes. How do we make them matter most?

We make them matter most by doing this: Instead of asking ourselves what kind of year we want, we first ask ourselves what kind of life we want. Our days must be an extension of our drive to achieve what matters most.

The problem we have as human beings is that we assume because we are so busy that we are getting things done. That would be like assuming that if we are driving a car at 100 miles per hour that we are headed in the right direction. Not a very safe assumption. Never confuse activity with accomplishment.

“The consequence of living our lives at warp speed,” write John Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement, “is that we rarely take time to reflect on what we value most deeply or to keep these priorities front and center. Most of us spend more time reacting to immediate crises and responding to the expectations of others than we do making considered choices guided by a clear sense of what matters most.”

Take the time to complete this exercise before the week is up. Write a one sentence answer to each of the following questions:

    1. What kind of person do you want to be? How are you staying healthy and strong mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually?
    2. What kind of relationships do you want to have? How are you investing in the lives of those whom you love the most?
    3. What kind of work do you want to do? What’s the best use of the gifts and abilities that God has given you?
    4. How are you giving back? What causes are you supporting with your time, talent, and treasure?

This is how you can measure this year differently.

Share

You Are Your First Priority

Posted on by

Yes, I know it sounds selfish, but it’s true. You are your first priority. And that’s where a lot of business leaders have got it wrong. Everything else, from minute-by-minute text interruptions to late night spreadsheet updates, gets their attention instead of taking care of themselves.

But let me ask you, why do airlines tell passengers traveling with children to put their oxygen mask on first in the event of an emergency? Because they want parents in a crisis to be supremely selfish? No. They do it because if a parent gets the oxygen they need to breathe, they’ll be able to ensure the same for the child traveling with them. In this way, their oxygen is top priority.

And so is your oxygen. If you don’t attend to the very important task of being healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, you’ll have nothing to give to those who are traveling with you: from colleagues to coworkers, family to friends.

This is not to say, of course, that you are your only priority. That would be like putting an oxygen mask on yourself and not the child traveling with you. Not only is that selfish, it’s criminal. Our own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, then, is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The end being to care for the other priorities of our life, both personally and professionally.

So let me ask you these questions:

  • Are you taking care of your body, eating right, exercising regularly, and sleeping well?
  • Are you taking care of you mind, learning new things, keeping it sharp and alert?
  • Are you maintaining emotional equilibrium, leaving enough margin in your days to rest and relax?
  • Are you attending to the deeper things in life, honestly seeking God in faith?

If you’re lax in any of these areas, not only will you pay a personal price, those traveling with you will pay a price as well, because, ultimately, you’ll have nothing to give them. You can’t pump water from an empty well. And if your well is empty, or nearly empty, it’s time to take care of a top priority: yourself. “Watch over your heart with all diligence,” the ancient proverb advises, “for from it flow the springs of life.”

Share

To Thine Own Tribe Be True

Posted on by

I’m part of few tribes. As an independent consultant, I’m part of a tribe of solo practitioners, “free agent nation” as we have been called, intently pursuing the American dream. As a father with all three of his children now in college or just out of college, I’m a new member of the empty-nester’s tribe. And as a man in my 50′s, having watched the demon of dementia ravage my father, I’m part of a growing tribe of middle-aged men seeking to get in the best physical shape of their lives.

So I’m on the alert. Anyone who can give me useful information on how to successfully build my consulting practice, to turn my house into the home of my dreams without having to move, and to get in shape without mortally wounding myself has my attention. My undivided attention.

Why?

Because they’re addressing the pressing needs of the tribes I belong to. They’re talking to me about the things I care about most deeply right now. And the more they do that well, the more I’ll follow them, trust them, spend money with them, and recommend my friends do the same.

This is the key to marketing today in the fragmented media world in which we live: narrowcasting versus broadcasting. Before there were hundreds of television stations, before there was satellite and internet radio, and before newspapers were killed by the web and the Yellow Pages by Google, all a person had to do to get new business was place an ad. The bigger the ad or the longer the run (or both), the more business you got. Those days are long gone. Gone, too, are the days of building a web site or starting a blog and having customers flock to you. Welcome to the post-web world.

To market effectively today you must first find your focus. You must know exactly who want to reach, you must know what tribe they belong to. Then you must know exactly what’s going on in that tribe. You must be able to answer this question with absolute clarity, “What does your tribe care about most deeply?” And finally, you must repeatedly address the things your tribe cares about most deeply, building a relationship where they begin to know, then like, then trust you.

To thine own tribe be true means this: consistently talk to your community in a way that meets their pressing needs, and your community will follow you anywhere. And that includes buying your products and services and recommending others do the same.

Share