This post continues the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center’s BizWiz student venture group‘s discussion about:
- “If you could hang out with any entrepreneur or leader, who would that be?”
- “Why did you choose that person – what quality do they have that you admire and would want to learn from him or her?”
Entrepreneur Quality Number 4 – Ability to Rebound
When you get knocked down, do you get up again? Are they never going to keep you down?
If so, you may have the makings of an entrepreneur. Yeah, we did say in earlier posts that decisiveness and holding strong opinions were admired qualities. But, you have to be willing to change.
Markets constantly change. Customers constantly change. A strong opinion that was spot on two years ago in any technology field would probably look silly and naive today. The facts upon which that opinion was formed will have changed dramatically.
Today’s buzzword seems to be “pivot”. The best entrepreneurs look for ways to test their business models (i.e. their opinions of how the world works viz. a viz. their business), and then pivot in response to the results. In the blogroll for this blog you’ll find a link to Steve Blank’s blog – the best (imho) advice about business models, testing, and pivoting.
One more thing. Sometimes stuff just happens. All of your assumptions may be right, your business model may be spot on – but some accident or event outside your control can happen (ask any shrimp fisherman on the Louisiana coast).
How you respond and rebound from adversity – and how you notice and respond to changes in your market - can make the difference between a resilient strong. growing venture, and one that gives up, fades away, and dies.