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Lacking Experience as a Young Entrepreneur
As a young entrepreneur, I am seriously disadvantaged when comes to the area of experience in comparison to my more seasoned veterans. Although I do not believe that lack of experience will hold me back (I'm too damned determined for that), I do believe it is a weakness that I must address and overcome. I believe that the best way overcome this is through listening and observation.Listening is key for myself and all other young entrepreneurs. We certainly do not know it all, and there is more than one opportunity for each of us to fall on our asses. Everytime I have the opportunity to talk to a more experienced businessperson, I don't say too much. Rather I open myself to what they have to teach me, the roads good and bad that they have been down. What I have to say is much less important than what they have to say. Hopefully I learn from both their triumphs and defeats in order to prepare for my own.
Another key area where observation and listening are key is when we are being told no. Being an entrepreneur and working with my clients, I've been politely told no or "We don't do that" more times than previous in my life. For while, my ego didn't want to bare the brunt of those no's. Rather I would console myself with notions of "I'll show them" or "I'll succeed in spite" etc. Although my ego felt better, my business suffered because of it. When I had opportunties to honestly learn, I turned them away. Rather now my focus is to intently listen on WHY I am being told no. That is the key problem to tackle. I listen, and then I adapt. Things have gone much better that way for me.
The point I am making is that being less experienced means we have to listen more not less. Although determination, zeal, thinking-outside-of-the-box, ect. are touted as the strengths of young entrepreneurs, we still must face our weakness, a lack of experience.
- Steven Jones
1 Comments:
I agree that it is important to know when to pretty much shut up and try and learn from those with more experience. However, as you correctly acknowledged, there's something to be said about determination, zeal and creativity - and, to be honest, I think - or, at least, I like to believe - that there are many experienced enterpreneurs out there who can appreciate a new kid on the block with a creative thinking and a passion for what he does. So while I agree that listening to the more experience people is crucial, I think one should be very careful not to humble themselves too much, because, from what I understand, a lot of investors (and enterpreneurs) really look at whether the chap asking for money believes in what he does (because that often determines if he'd still persevere with the idea when the going gets tough).
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