If you're wondering why I'm rambling about off-the-wall entrepreneurs I've known, stay with me. There is a powerful similarity between launching a business and getting a job. You'd be giving your job search a jet assist by emulating the positive traits of high-performance entrepreneurs. In fact, it wouldn't hurt if you pretend you are one for the next few months. What do you have to lose? Every entrepreneur I've met or read about is a bundle of lessons. Read the biographies of entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Helena Rubenstein. You'll be inspired. More important, you'll learn from them.
EIGHT TRAITS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
Like every entrepreneur, you're working toward a goal. Achieving it means overcoming resistance and hurdling barriers in your way. Get my drift? You may not even realize you have entrepreneurial traits. What better time to get in touch with them than right now? Remember, these are traits that can help you snare jobs.
Here are eight of the most important.
1. Creativity.
As the Eastern mystics say, creative energy is a powerful life force. All of us are creative, some more so than others. Yet artists, writers, and composers don't have a lock and key on creativity. Creativity also spawned the machines and devices that run our world, not to mention mundane products we take for granted.
Successful entrepreneurs ooze creativity from their pores. It's not like the world is waiting to accept the products and services they're selling. They must convince people to buy.
Sounds familiar? Aren't you in the same boat? Don't delude your self-you're a product. Like the entrepreneur packaging a product for market acceptance, you must package yourself. But you must do it better than your competition, of which you have plenty. You're competing against people your own age as well as aggressive younger applicants. Overtaking them will require original, analytical, and independent thinking, which is part of the creative process.
Set up any analogy that pleases you. Put yourself on a playing field, on a battlefield, or in front of a chessboard. Winning takes creativity and original thinking that gets results.
2. Vision.
Entrepreneurs have a knack for seeing the big picture. They have a vision that gets them up at 5 every morning, keeping their adrenaline pumping at rocket speed all day. You ought to have a similar vision you're passionate about. No matter how tough things get, never give up on turning your vision into reality.
3. Productivity.
I don't know of any entrepreneur who had it easy. You've heard the clic hé thousands of times: "Nobody ever gave me anything. I had to slave for it myself." Entrepreneurs who've made it big love regurgitating lines like these. Can you blame them? They're proud of their accomplishments.
You should be proud of your experience as well. You don't have to launch a Microsoft or a Snapple to take well-deserved pride in your work. Your major accomplishment could be conquering an impossible sale or finding a solution to what seemed like an unsolvable computer problem. It could be anything that gave you heartfelt pleasure. Anything worth having takes work and sweat. Why should conquering a great job be different? As my father used to say to me when I cut school or refused to do my homework, "There are no free rides." Maybe the Puritans were right. There's real virtue in hard work.
4. Resourcefulness.
Right alongside hard work is to know how to get things done efficiently and quickly. Most entrepreneurs start out underfunded. Creative entrepreneurs, however, are so committed to reaching their goals that they practically beg, borrow, and steal to get the job done. That almost always means cutting corners and finding inventive ways to stretch limited resources. You may be in an identical boat. You may not have a hefty severance package to finance your job hunt, or you may estimate that your funds will run out in 6 weeks. Panicking won't help. Instead, tap available resources to find a way out of the dilemma. Maybe it means serious budgeting, selling the second car (you don't need that gas guzzler, anyway), getting a part-time or temporary job, or making your live-at-home 28-year-old daughter kick money into the pot to make your life easier.
5. Adaptability and flexibility.
Entrepreneurs abhor rules and routines. They enjoy mapping their own route and not knowing what's around the bend. They have an insatiable appetite for excitement. They love sailing off in a new direction when the entrepreneurial winds suddenly shift. Ross Perot said it's the individual's ability to deal with the unexpected that characterizes the difference between success and failure.
Don't get upset. I know you're not an entrepreneur and you enjoy the security of routines and order. That's fine for later. For now, get used to the idea that there is no divine order to your life. Every day will be different. As hard as you try to get things done in an orderly fashion, there'll be days when chaos reigns. Just as career changers must expect hellish days when nothing goes right, you must too. More important is finding ways to deal with them.
6. Unconventionality.
Entrepreneurs thrive on breaking the rules. Many are corporate refugees, organizational misfits who couldn't hold a job if their life depended upon it. They're like wild stallions that refuse to be herded. Give them an order and they'll do the opposite for spite. I'm not suggesting you antagonize interviewers or use abrasive tactics that turn people off. Yet no one says you can't use unconventional methods to get your foot in the door. One highly recommended nontraditional tactic is junking your resume and using a well-written letter instead.
7. Persistence.
Remember my pit bull analogy? It's true. The most committed entrepreneurs never give up. Put them in a labyrinth filled with moats, hidden mines, starving alligators, and charging rhinos and they'll find a way out and enjoy every minute. It's a basic: If you want something badly enough, you find a way to make it happen. Survival almost always takes unrelenting commitment, persistence, and refusal to accept failure.
Several entrepreneurs have spun elaborate theories about the relationship between persistence and the experience of failure.
Richard Worth, the freewheeling entrepreneur who runs the Chicago-based cookie company The Delicious Frookie Company, Inc., asserts, "Failure equals success." According to Worth, smart entrepreneurs learn more from their failures than from their successes. But it's persistence that keeps them slugging away no matter what obstacles block their path. Like committed entrepreneurs, you must master this trait. If you doubt me, think about the alternative. Slow down and someone will overtake you. Don't let it happen.
8. Courage.
I'm not talking about the kind of courage it takes to go 10 rounds with a mean-looking middleweight or the courage needed to march off to war. It takes a different kind of courage to create something and have enough confidence in it to try to convince others of its uniqueness and value. Entrepreneurs are forced to do this every day. Job searchers face equally forbidding barriers.
First is the hassle accompanying the job hunt itself; second is the unavoidable age bias. It takes courage to overcome these hurdles. Courage means believing in yourself enough to muster the emotional strength to cross all barriers. You'll also need stamina, self-assurance, and a cast-iron will.
BE SMART ENOUGH TO GET GOOD ADVICE
Smart entrepreneurs know their limitations. Early on, they discover they can't do it all. They need help and advice to make smart decisions. So they go out and find the best they can. I urge you to think along the same lines. There'll be times when you're stymied and need information. The go it alone often lose precious time stumbling along and making poor decisions. We're living in a sophisticated, complex world where we depend upon others. Don't be pigheaded, stubborn, or lazy. If you need help, ask for it. That's what family, friends, and your network are for.
