Anniversaries
By Julie Meyer, CEO Ariadne Capital
Reprinted from NewMedia Age

So with these anniversaries swirling around in my mind, I have to step back and ask myself what I’ve learned.  Here are my ‘Top Ten Lessons to Learn’ before you decide to become an entrepreneur:

1.   Don’t project your value system on others.  One must trust but verify. Assume the worst case scenario at all times, and then act out of an “abundance mentality” protecting yourself from the downside.  

2.      You know more than you think you know.  There is no magic bullet. It’s not a question of choosing Door No: 1, 2 or 3. There are many ways to succeed or fail, and if you learn to depend on yourself, and realise that there is no security anywhere, then you have an ability to be an outstanding leader potentially. What gets you by is your judgment which is honed over time. Like a cat you learn to land on your feet no matter what gets thrown your way.

3.      Don’t confuse “knowing someone” with, “liking them” or “getting on with them”.  Try to see how a person acts under pressure or with a morally ambiguous situation before hiring them.    Offer ‘Consult to Hire’ positions so that the candidate must prove himself before you bestow them with a job.  I recently pulled my Office Manager from First Tuesday back to help me with Ariadne Capital, as I had seen her instincts and judgment under severe pressure and knew she can handle the pressure of start-up life.

4.  Clock speed is everything.  Some people operate at a certain intensity and efficiency that others will never achieve.  Key to being successful is to surround yourself with people who accept your leadership, and who can operate at your clock speed.  Start-up operational experience is critical.  Be very careful to bring someone senior into a growing business who has never worked in a start-up before. They will slow things down more than you will speed them up.

5.  Always always always follow your gut.  Be alive to the small indications that your business partner is dishonest, or your 23 year old associate is stealing.  If your sixth sense is telling you that something isn’t right, listen to the cognitive dissonance in your brain screaming, “Red Alert! Red Alert!”.  As you run about, people who lack integrity are counting on the fact that you won’t put them on the spot to ask about unusual behaviour or inexplicable events.  Put them on the spot!

6.  Don’t assume that people who have worked for blue-chip institutions know how to sell.  Start-ups are all about selling.  There just isn’t anything more basic than proving that people buy what you sell.  So beware those that may be very smart – smarter than you!, but they may have absolutely no idea how to sell a product or build a business if they have always worked for someone else.  Some people have always instinctively considered themselves to be the brand, and to be capable of building a brand.  Others look to attach themselves to an existing brand.  They get their confidence from the big brand behind them. You need the former.

7.      Watch how people spend their own money.  You want people on board who spend your money the way that they would spend their own. Are they disciplined, or spendthrifts?   

8.    Do aggressive reference checking, and not just through the references that the candidate gives you.  If even one person gives you a worry about the candidate, go no further.  It may be nothing, but the cost of having the wrong person on board is too great.

9.      Look for business partners and employees that want to change the world.  If they want a paycheck, send them away.   Communicate your vision of what you are building.   Connect with them first on that level, and then talk salary.  All great companies have a cause and also are highly profitable.  Without the cause, you don’t get the superhuman commitment.

10. Leadership is about creating the conditions of trust so that people can excel, innovate and be empowered.  Management is about the search for accountability. All great entrepreneurs have considerable doses of both.

Press on! Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. So few persist. As my non-executive Director, Lionel Anthony, said to me the other day, “if it were easy, then everyone would do it”.

Julie Meyer is the Founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital, and can be reached at: Julie@ariadnecapital.com

For more information about Julie, see: http://www.ariadnecapital.com

This article reproduced by permission of New Media Age.