Why Entrepreneurs Are Made Not Born

Why Entrepreneurs

Are Made, Not Born

By Christan Hiscock

You either have it or you don

’t. How many times have you heard that? Or, a business owner said, “I was born to be an entrepreneur. ” But in business and life, things are rarely that black and white.

In my experience of launching Kardia and 14 other impactful companies over the last 4 years, I’ ve realized that the question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made goes a lot deeper than most people think. I’ ve found that it’ s not one or the other. Instead, it’ s actually a combination of developing your natural-born abilities and your habits, as well as your dedication and resilience muscles. That’ s what really makes an effective entrepreneur.

Natural Abilities vs. Learned Skills

It’ s true — the founders of today

’ s top companies were born with certain abilities that made it easier for them to take the entrepreneurial path. For example, some were born with the natural capacity to continually pick themselves up after they get knocked down, and they have the confidence to keep going in spite of it, no matter how many times it happens.

As an entrepreneur, both traits are must-haves because there will most likely be those people who ’ll shut down your business ideas or tell you that you ’ll never be able to bring your big vision to life. Skills, like resilience and confidence, aren ’t something you have or you don ’t the day you ’ re born. Both are like muscles — some people can naturally build them faster than others, but regardless of your natural ability at the start, if you dedicate yourself to it, anyone can make them stronger over time. It just takes commitment and practice.

In my experience, and that of the other business owners in my network, excelling at entrepreneurship is more about your ability to keep yourself focused on your mission than it is about being born to it. You must look deep inside yourself, decide what you really want, and then adapt your mindset to get the motivation, confidence, and momentum you need to reach your goals.

Entrepreneurship is a combination of continuously improving your natural abilities and a commitment to learning the skills that you don ’t have. Both are habits that all great business owners develop.

Entrepreneurs Are Made Through Building Habits

No matter what talents you

’ re born with, or which skills you decide to develop, you also have to create the habits that support your entrepreneurial journey, or you won ’t go far. That’ s why it’ s so important to decide which habits you personally need to put in place to move you forward faster as an entrepreneur. Because everyone has different strengths, talents, and skillsets, we all start in different places. Only you can decide which habits are the ones that’ll get you where you want to go.

Once you decide on the habits to put in place, it all comes down to your consistency and dedication to them. If you ’ re not all in, it' s unlikely that you ’ll make it.

The entrepreneurs who are at the top of their game are usually obsessed with bringing their big vision to life. They ’ll do almost anything it takes to go the distance. You have to be willing to do the same. That might mean waking up at 5 am every morning, starting work at 7 am, and scheduling time into your calendar for everything you need to do, including the time you spend with the people in your life who matter.

It will definitely mean regularly getting out of your comfort zone, trying new things, actively looking for ways to meet new people, developing your sales skills, and improving your communication skills, so you can connect with people on a deeper level. You just have to decide how you ’ re going to do it, and then keep doing it every day, until you reach your goal.

The best entrepreneurs don ’t hope they

’ll make it to the top; they do what it takes to get there. It’ s the level of determination and dedication to developing the habits to excel, and then following through on them, that sets the best entrepreneurs apart from the rest.

To Wrap It All Up

Anyone can become an outstanding entrepreneur if they ’ re willing to build on their natural-born abilities, be open to learning what they don ’t know, and develop the habits that will consistently keep them on track with their goals to bring their big vision to life. When you ’ re willing to do the work and stick to it no matter what obstacles you face, you will excel as an entrepreneur.

Christan Hiscock is on a personal mission to change the conversation in the business world, moving away from the pursuit of success, to focusing on fulfillment instead. Because if you’re fulfilled, success is a given, but not so much the other way around. He can often be heard saying, “You mean more than you know, ” because he believes that as people learn to understand their worth, their fears fade, and amazing feats become reality. He considers this the foundation for all his achievements as the Co-Founder and CEO of Kardia and leader of 14 thriving companies. Through Kardia, which means heart in Greek, Christan is determined to bring more heart into the business world. Heart in the form of kindness, compassion, and altruism. The heart that fuels, roots, and guides each company to do the right things for its team members, clients, and for the greater communities they serve. www.hellokardia.com

Entrepreneurs

NEED TO BE PREPARED FOR DISRUPTIONS IN THEIR INDUSTRIES

Dr. Valentina Fomenko

Founder and CEO at Strategy DNA, Inc.

Dr. Valentina Fomenko is a business strategist and expert in helping organizations respond to rapid change, including the myriad strategic, organizational, and regulatory challenges related to ESG. As founder and CEO of Strategy DNA, a decisionsupport company at the intersection of opportunity, sustainability, and impact, Valentina helps startups, enterprises, and investors identify points of growth, predict disruptions, and adapt to market shifts.

In addition to her work with Strategy DNA, she serves as a consultant for the World Bank on their environmental initiatives. Valentina has over 15 years of experience directing strategy and sustainability projects across over 20 industries, with a particular focus on environmental economics and policy, enterprise sustainability, energy, and cleantech. Valentina has a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University, an MBA from Duke University, and MSc from Central European University.

What was the inspiration and motivation behind the launch of Strategy DNA, and what are you trying to accomplish through the work that you do?

I come from a

“traditional” consulting background – MBA, working for a large, global consulting practice, and then an energy industry-focused boutique. It is quite common for experienced consultants at some point in their careers to begin thinking about going solo, and I was no exception.

What is less common is my methodological break from the mainstream consulting industry. Over the years, I grew increasingly frustrated about the expectation for consultants to specialize – most commonly, by serving a specific industry, such as, in my case, energy, and sometimes, by focusing on a particular corporate function like procurement, HR, etc. I wondered if this compartmentalization of managerial expertise and business acumen was actually serving our clients who needed help “ seeing around the corners ” in the rapidly changing market and competitive environments.

The corporate strategy development process typically draws insights and reference points from the same industry. As a result, the range of insights and possibilities considered is inherently limited. Particularly among strategy consultants, the process becomes backward-looking and consists of " repackaging " conclusions or compiling best available approaches, while still being confined by the boundaries of a single industry. The situation ultimately results in lower decision quality and slower growth and innovation, especially in established organizations. This is how we end up with 70% of corporate strategies failing to deliver (University of London) and only 10% being fully executed (IBM). And this is why the old joke about a consultant counting sheep has a kernel of truth to it.

It is common to think of a strategy

’ s failure to deliver results as a failure of execution, but in my experience, part of the challenge is that myopic, industry-focused strategies simply do not make sense. Think about some of the biggest strategic flops like Blockbuster refusing to buy Netflix back in 2000 or Groupon passing on the acquisition by Google, or EDS failing to appreciate the potential of the fledgling company called Microsoft. At the core of all these truly historic miscalculations lies the tunnel vision of industry-focused strategic thought.

This uber specialization also makes strategy inaccessible to smaller companies. Not only do they not have the resources to fund lengthy in-depth studies, but also need actionable insights a lot faster – and with a lot better sense of the sources of disruption in their market spaces, many of which come outside of their industries. As a result, they are often left to fly blind and waste time and money on marketing and business development initiatives that lead nowhere.

Strategy DNA is working to democratize strategy. We do it in three ways. First, in our work with small and midsize companies, we focus on injecting strategy into marketing and bridging the gap between business strategy and brand strategy, producing better market and competitive insights to enable rapid decision making. Second, we focus on producing cross industry insights to help companies

of all sizes see around the corners by leveraging case studies and best practices from previously untapped sources which are cross-sector, geographically diverse, and goal-specific. Finally, we insist on bringing a strategic lens to cross-cutting issues such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management and climate readiness.

We work with companies to help them pinpoint optimal market positioning, customize their strategies based on specific goals and most relevant experiences of others rather than industry stereotypes, and make sure they are not outmaneuvered by more open-minded competitors.

Just like amino acids combine in DNA to create the foundation of the multitude of life forms, there are strategic “building blocks ” that allow us to consider structural similarities among seemingly disparate market spaces. Helping clients – both large and small - capitalize on these insights is what we are all about.

Do entrepreneurs need to be prepared for disruptions in their industries? What is the one thing that every company needs to do in order to improve its chances of remaining viable?

Absolutely, and now more than ever. The need to prepare and adjust to industry disruptions has been so widely recognized that it has become a cliché even before the COVD-19 pandemic. Yet the last two years have demonstrated in very dramatic ways, that a rising tide doesn ’t lift all boats – and the receding tide doesn ’t sink all, either. There are structural transformations underway that can spell doom – or create tremendous opportunities for those paying attention. Unfortunately, many companies approach developing business strategies as an afterthought. The outputs of such “box-checking ” exercises are often formulated in ways that lack fluidity, so they become impossible to execute when there is a deviation from expectations. Will the future look like the past? The entire premise is laughable now in the wake of COVID-related disruptions, but it is still a common and rarely challenged assumption in strategic planning.

Staying agile is the single most important thing for companies interested in “ playing to win ” and not simply surviving tectonic market shifts. Agile approaches emphasize short cycles with feedback and evaluation to guide the next cycle. They may enable organizations to pivot or adjust more quickly and therefore achieve better traction. Agile companies and decision-makers adjust their strategy to incorporate the lessons learned from implementation and constantly scan the environment for new opportunities and threats. Agile strategists are data-driven yet not beholden to data blindly. They know how to ask the right questions, understand the difference between correlation and causation, and cultivate the business acumen to gut-check key assumptions. Now more than ever it is important for leaders at companies large – and small – to adopt this approach to developing and implementing strategy.

Given your expertise, what are the three things you need to do when attempting to identify threats or disruptions facing your strategy?

One tool that can help companies stay agile is scenario planning. It is the key to our ability to adapt to changing environments. Making the most out of it requires discipline to use it consistently to guide strategy. Here are the key steps to take:

To do this well, you need to have a very good understanding of your customers. Today, customer-centricity is a powerful source of competitive advantage. In my experience, most leaders in the small business space do not have a clear picture of what their customers truly want and need. Many get deterred by the exorbitant costs of customer research projects, others are understandably skeptical about their usefulness in cases when researchers failed to ask the right questions, and many believe that they already have a good sense of where their customers are. Yet every time Strategy DNA embarks on a customer research project, we uncover something that surprises our clients, helps them serve their customers better, and ultimately helps insulate them from disruption

Finally, cultivate diversity of thought, culture, and experience in your organization. In a world where business leaders are constantly challenged to pay attention to an everincreasing number of factors, you need your team to become the source of market and customer intelligence, bring different perspectives to the table, and think creatively about potential solutions. They will help you cast your net wider – and think bigger.

Begin by defining the key factors affecting your business model. What societal changes are likely to impact your customer base? What shifts in the economic and political environment are likely to impact your bottom line? What technologies hold the potential to upend your market? What stars, when aligned, can create disproportionate value for your customers?

oLook for similar patterns, trends, and solutions across industries, geographic boundaries, and time frames to learn from.

Bring in deep industry expertise to fine-tune and prioritize options and to plan implementation

Repeat often and make sure to question assumptions. Do not be afraid to rethink business models and market fundamentals. What are some growing technologies that will disrupt industries in the future? What predictions do you have for the future of this industry?

Innovation has been really speeding up over the past few years, and there are many exciting spaces to watch. But even more importantly, there are groundbreaking technological advances that have been with us for a while yet have not fully “ arrived” as we do not have a good sense of what their impacts on the entire world of business – and the fabric of society are yet.

For example, artificial intelligence and machine learning are now quickly spreading to power up new products across a wide range of industries. In the coming years, we will see a lot of value being derived from using AI – with a lot of disruption for companies that lag behind the pace of adoption. Homegrown AI solutions will become more affordable for many mid-size and perhaps even small businesses, and companies will have to be able to quickly reimagine their products or services to take advantage of this trend.

Blockchain also has the potential to impact virtually every aspect of the business. With the growth in cryptocurrency and the NFT market, despite taking some grotesque forms (remember the latest South Park: The Return of COVID special?), blockchain is something with a very broad range of potential applications and a source of disruption and growth across industries.

What will impact businesses in the future is not only the “ push” of new technologies, but also the “ pull” of societal changes, radically changing customer preferences, and regulatory shifts. Talent and skill shortages will continue leading to further automation and reshuffling of business models. Climate disruption will also continue to create new risks and regulatory pressures – but also new opportunities. Finally, social tensions and political polarization will continue having an outsized impact on brand perception, particularly around social impact. Staying agile and open-minded will become a matter of survival for many companies. What changes would you recommend investing in for this coming year to prepare yourself for the future?

Invest in strategy-driven marketing. Make sure you take time to analyze and fully understand the market you are in - and the markets you want to enter. Very often, I see companies focusing on boosting their marketing and sales without a clear understanding of their customer ' s needs or the markets in which they operate. Unfortunately, chasing “ shiny marketing objects ” often results in confusion, overwhelm, and wasted resources. This is why I recommend starting with the basics and developing a solid business strategy as the foundation of a marketing and sales strategy.