|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
How to Be Successful as a Creative Entrepreneur
| Guest post by: Stefan Doering |
Article Overview: Highly creative entrepreneurs are crucial in developing solutions to our social, environmental and economic challenges. Yet they are a special breed who warrant special structures to run a successful business.
 |
Free Download - Stuck Launching Your Business? By Stefan Doering |
How to Be Successful as a Creative Entrepreneur
Throughout his entire life he felt he fooled the world into thinking he was special. In fact he was dumbfounded that people actually cared anything about his personal life.
Even after he had received the Nobel Prize, was considered the second most popular and trustworthy man on the planet in the ‘30’s, a key creator of the State of Israel, facilitated the end of World War II, an inventor with many patents, and of course, was declared a genius, the father of modern physics, and labeled the most important scientist in history.
All this meant little to Albert Einstein.
In fact, he felt he was a failure because he was not able to develop a certain theory! It didn’t help that his colleagues thought he was wasting his time on it. Yet he ignored them and continued with his research.
For more that 20 years.
And towards the end of his life, he gave up. The Unified Field Theory(also known as the Theory of Everything) would have to be someone else’s discovery.
But Einstein didn’t hold back from trying.
He advanced the theory in an UnReasonable way so that today it is a hot topic in theoretical physics. Scientists are working to innovate and create an answer to what Einstein felt would advance our planet by understanding how the various forms of energy and physical elements all work together in one “field” (space between particles).
Innovators at any level, especially when they are entrepreneurs, are truly a special breed.
Highly innovative entrepreneurs (usually) are:
- allergic to dealing with details
- challenged with staying focused
- careless with managing time
- even worse with managing people
- love chasing the next “shiny object”
- stubborn and don’t give up easily… important in business.
- game changers when their innovations work.
- usually the most successful in business.
- crucial for solving today’s environmental, social and economic challenges.
- Have a vision—the “why you are doing what you do. This becomes crucial in bringing others to the game plus keeping you focused, yet creative in what you are building
- Build a team—for example, a business development person who can take your widget or service to market. He/she is great at managing details and people, can keep you focused and the project moving forward.
- Stay in the air—to continue creating. Give yourself the time and space to build, write, design, and create whenever possible.
- Keep current—stay on top of what is going on in the business and world. Creates more useful and effective innovations
- Balance tasks—know when you must come down to earth from the air to deal with things like staff challenges, marketing issues, pricing strategies, competition changes and so on. Create a system in your schedule to manage these items.
It is amazing what some of these guys are building.
For example here in NYC they’re creating UnReasonable solutions to rooftop farming, energy management of buildings and eliminating the use toxic chemicals in the large companies.
Yet like so many others, their key to success is in harvesting and channeling that creative energy in a focused and strategic way.
Just like Einstein had to do, and eventually became a master at.
Action Steps for the Week:
Concerned you have some or all the above-mentioned characteristics of a highly creative entrepreneur?
Don’t be.
Start by using your creativity to get crystal clear on your company’s purpose: the why. Build your company vision from this.
Next, leverage this vision to find someone to keep you focused, organized and managing the tasks at hand. This person should have strong skills in business development and if possible, people management skills.
Keep in mind, when you have a powerful vision it makes it much easier to find help on a limited budget.
Then find a routine to organize your time to be creative and “in the air” vs. “on the ground” dealing with daily important tasks at hand.
Last, remember to stay focused, stay engaged, and stay UnReasonable!
Related Articles
Entrepreneurial Qualities
Success: The Choice is Yours
Knowing The Entrepreneur Definition Will Help You Become A Successful Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship Is Very Closely Associated With Your Risk Taking Abilities
Do You Have What It Takes?
7 Key Qualities Of Successful Entrepreneurs
10 Qualities Of A Successful Entrepreneur
Characteristics of Successful Internet Entrepreneurs
TOP TIPS FOR SURVIVING IN BUSINESS
Market your Business like the Pros Do
Responsibilities of an Entrepreneur
Don’t know much about the internet, Can I be a Successful Entrepreneur?
Can You Become A Successful Entrepreneur?
Making The Shift From Entrepreneur To Business Person
How to Determine Your Future Success
Successful Entrepreneurs
Why Failure Is Essential To Online Entreprenurial Success
Entrepreneur? - What the Heck is that?
Being an Online Entrepreneur the Right Way
Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur
Article Tags: building an innovative business, getting innovations to market, innovation, Innovative entrepreneurs
|
About the Author: Stefan Doering RSS for Stefan's articles - Visit Stefan's website 1) Innovating powerful green business models, 2) Crafting and implementing marketing and positioning strategies for bringing green to mainstream, and 3) Creating a consistently profitable and sustainable business. Click here to visit Stefan's website   Environmental Entrepreneurialism The new wave of green business strategy The Importance of Consistency for Sucess Why Rapid Business Decisions is Crucial and How Enough Is Enough Strategies for Change 10 Ways to Amp Up Your EnergyWay Up |
Related Forum Posts
The Value of Mentoring
- Successful mentor pairings (in case there was any doubt as to the value of mentoring):
1. André Ouellet (President, Canada Post) mentor to Mark Whalen (Urban Organics and winner, Young Entrepreneur Award)
2. Marc Lefrançois (President, Via Rail Canada) mentor to Jeffrey Campbell (Core Networks, Inc. and winner, Young Entrepreneur Award)
3. Donald Kendall (former CEO of PepsiCo) mentor to John Scully (former CEO of Apple)
4. Harland Sanders (the Colonel) mentor to Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's)
5. Stuart Friend (KMart manager) mentor to Wayne Sales (CEO of Canadian Tire)
6. Jim Rohn (author, motivational speaker) mentor to Anthony Robbins (author, motivational speaker)
7. Robert Patterson (CEO, National Cash Register) mentor to Thomas Watson (founder of IBM)
8. Henri-Paul Rosseau (President, Laurentian Bank of Canada) mentor to isabel Rodriquez and Yves Besner (i4design and winners, Young Entrepreneur Award)
Re: What's 1 word to describe what your business will be in 2012
- Successful.
Happy Worker as of Dec 31 2007
- Here's mine... I'm now off to make an offering to the business planning gods for their help in getting to these goals & beyond.
To the combined success of Prophets 2 Profits!
-----------------------------------------
1) Corporate
a) Retail
- Sales reps covering all major markets (1M or more)
- Retail product launch plan
- 1 more retail release (TBD)
b) The Toy Agency
- Systems for:
o Creative process
o Pricing
o Manufacturing
o Logistics
- Marketing agency strategy in place
- 1 new customer every 2nd month (5 new customers); 1 of which will be rev of >= 500K/year
c) Business
- Creative talent pool management strategy & process
- Outsourced and/or weekly bookkeeping
- Monthly budgeting & forecasting
- Better banking organization (Line of Credit, CCs, automate billing for appropriate vendors)
- Team total of 5
- Larger office
d) Web site
- Daily updates
- Start of separation of Blog/TTA/Retail
2) Personal
- Most weekends “off”!
- Entirely separate personal finances; basic personal financing plan
- Family….?
Books for Women Entrepreneurs
- There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here.
It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new.
In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment!
1. The Old Girl's Network
2. Mother's Work
3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women
4. Pitch Like A Girl
5. Workplace Warrior
6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer
7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery
8. She Wins, You Win
9. Napoleon On Project Management
10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do
11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years
12. The One Minute Millionaire
13. Talking From 9 to 5
14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions
15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success
16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded
17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful
18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End
19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide
20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen
21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business
22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker
23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business
24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises
25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy
26. The Promotable Woman
27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it
28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home
29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Re: What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
- I would write a screenplay, and possibly be involved in making the movie. Creative writing is something that I love to do, but it is a bit of a leap from being an unpublished to a published author. If I knew I could not fail, I would write as often as I could.
Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.
Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
Featured Article
by: 
Best Automated Forex Trading Strategy
Build Your List with Joint Venture Giveaway Events
May 2012 Top 100 Social Media Experts to Follow on Twitter
What to measure to be phenomenally successful in business
10 mistakes of media relations
Newsletter
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Suggestions
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.