Entrepreneurial inertia
From the moment a business is launched, a phenomenon begins to take over. The anti-entrepreneurial inertia begins to set in.
Every business starts out entrepreneurial. Hungry and eager, innovative, open-minded and resourceful, all of its attention focused on finding and keeping customers.
Things start to happen and the business begins to grow.
Meanwhile, something sinister begins to occur. Slowly, subtly and insidiously, the anti-entrepreneurial inertia begins to creep in.
As the business continues to grow, we take on more and more responsibility. We hire other people, people who now need to be managed. We establish policies and procedures, routines and rituals as part of our success strategy.
Our focus has begun to shift. Without realizing it, we’ve grown a little less curious, a little less open-minded and a little less attentive to the needs of our customers.
Soon we become “experts†in our field. We’ve achieved success. We know all there is to know about our particular field of endeavor. We’ve established an identity or a culture within our organization.
Without realizing it, we’ve lost our entrepreneurial zeal. We’ve grown less open minded, now focused on protecting what we have rather than scouting the horizon, looking for what we don’t.
We stop listening. We stop learning. We ignore or deny the changes that are occurring all around us. (Think Maxwell House vs. Starbucks) Without realizing it we’ve moved to the other end of the spectrum. Without realizing it we’ve become complacent.
Without realizing it we’ve created an opportunity for the next eager and innovative, open-minded entrepreneur.
Insights, Exploits And Life-Lessons
