Simple Principles of the ‘New Entrepreneurs’
In many ways, our entrepreneurial and business journeys are similar to what we experience growing from childhood to adulthood. Children start their life with an open heart and an open mind. Everything they see happens for the very first time. The discoveries, the celebrations, even the mistakes — — it is all equally new. When you open your first business, every article you read is a breakthrough, every meeting you go to feels like an opportunity, every offer you get seems helpful.
With time, children learn to distinguish true and false, good and bad intentions. Usually, it happens over the course of disappointments and unfulfilled expectations by people around them. It is similar to entrepreneurs: the first time a client did not pay the bill, an event turned into a sales show, the website you paid for never got built and the contact person disappeared.
At that point in the journey, entrepreneurs (and children) have a choice.
If those experiences hurt too much to keep faith that business can be different, they start to replicate what they saw, calling it the “rules of the game.” They go for personal gain and superficiality, saying what people want to hear in order to get what they want. For example, over-promising while knowing they cannot deliver; repeating the same words they see in other people’s promotions or saying anything it takes to close the sale fast.
We are faced with this every day. But that does not mean that it is the only way business world functions. There is an alternative. We can be and surround ourselves with genuine good-hearted entrepreneurs who share openly what they think without any agenda. That would mean to truly care about what we do and who we do it for, following up even if those hours were not paid for, taking actions that benefit people around.
This is what I call the New Entrepreneur — a person who believes in cooperation, partnerships, and trust. A person who does business for the good of people (not just money).
So how can you grow your business while following the key principles of the New Entrepreneur?
Please continue reading in the original publication on Entrepreneur.com
Copyright 2020 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
