The entrepreneurial approach is greatly helped by finding attractive problems, those to which you and others are irresistibly drawn..
Many people make the mistake of choosing problems to solve that are of interest only because of the potential financial gain that might result from the solutions. Others make a different mistake: choosing problems that bore them.
If you make either mistake, you’ll lose interest, not pay enough attention, and become complacent. He’ll soon be doing the bare minimum to get ahead instead of moving on to create the best…and then bettering himself. It is the latter approach that creates the healthiest companies.
In fact, if you are not more passionate about what you do than anyone else, you are vulnerable to someone who is more passionate..
Consider great runners. At the end of world-class races, the differences between the winner and those who also ran are often measured in fractions of a second. No matter how talented someone is as a runner, those with less talent, but more passion, can outtrain the most talented person and overcome the talent disadvantage to overcome such a narrow gap.
Keep in mind that, in business, your own passion only goes so far in creating and delivering superior solutions. You must also be able to inflame such a passion in millions of people who will become your devoted stakeholders.(including customers, beneficiaries, end users, partners, colleagues, suppliers, distributors, lenders, owners, and the communities you serve).
Otherwise, you’ll be acting like Don Quixote while he was with Sancho Panza in imaginary chivalrous adventures in Cervantes’s novel, instead of having a good time making your way along the path to achieve your goals.
Passion starts the process..Curiosity opens new doors to achievement through the continuous identification of more than is possible.. After you help open the hearts and minds of stakeholders to the excitement of solving the problem, they should become just as curious as you are..
The inspiration of the heart then unites the actions of all in a satisfactory way to serve others.Without coming from the heart, solutions can be delivered in inauthentic and indifferent ways that undermine your benefits. I often remember that when a service person recites a memorized response that they want to be service, but does so with averted eyes and a grimace indicating the opposite intent.
Begin your quest for the passion, curiosity, and heartfelt inspiration you need by examining three topics that have sparked and harnessed such qualities among many who have built successful businesses from the ground up: Encouraging the underdog, Helping families raise the most successful children, and add resources and knowledge that allow people to help themselves.
This theme works best as a source of inspiration when you’ve been one of those underdogs and identify deeply with overcoming your challenging circumstances. In terms of inspiration and opportunity, the more underdogs there are who need urgent help, the better!
Here is an example that will probably look familiar to you. Let’s say he belongs to or has been part of a minority group in a culture and believes that he has had fewer opportunities as a result. After such experiences, helping people like you to be more successful than most can be particularly satisfying.
Ethnic Chinese people outside of China, for example, have found that preferences of others for Chinese food can provide great financially rewarding opportunities to develop businesses that provide a good income, employ many family members, and attract positive interest. of the majority groups in the communities. where they live. In such businesses, some entrepreneurs have built significant companies based on providing more authentic access to Chinese cuisine, a passion they share with other Chinese.
The poor, the less educated, and small business owners are examples of other underdogs. Many people dismiss them, believing they have few opportunities and even fewer resources. Yet profitable multi-billion dollar companies have been built catering to the needs of these often unappreciated underdogs. Examples include furniture and appliance rental companies, private schools that provide vocational training, and specialized services such as buying cooperatives.
Some people who seek to serve the underprivileged have combined public and private purposes to achieve faster progress. In India, for example, Aravind Eye Care System has created the world standard for eliminating the causes of blindness both in terms of quality and cost. Please note that the British healthcare system regularly takes UK patients to India for treatment at Aravind, where they receive better and less expensive care than is available in the UK. Aravind’s costs are so low that the organization can use profits of $45 to $331 from cataract surgeries to cover all costs of treating thousands of indigent patients. The passion, curiosity and poignant aspects of such care are propelling the people of Aravind to even more amazing levels of excellence and success. To learn more about the organization’s inspiring beginnings, read pages 265-286 of Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (Wharton School Publication, 2005) by CK Prahalad.
It’s hard to find people who don’t mind helping families. Habitat for Humanity International co-founders Millard and Linda Fuller felt that every family deserved to live in a decent home in a safe neighborhood. While many people agreed with them, the Fullers did something about their feelings. In the process, they helped create one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing homebuilders.
Such family-related needs can be easily identified. Many poor families still need housing. Other families need decent schools. Still other families lack cheap drinking water. In other places, vaccinations are needed. Elsewhere, due to a lack of information about HIV/AIDS, millions are likely to experience unexpected and unpleasant deaths and leave stunned orphans.
Provide such staples in a higher-quality, lower-cost manner, and pent-up demand sees your business thrive. Consider two examples: Cemex and the Grameen Bank have made important strides in finding ways for poor people to use small amounts of savings to build one-room houses at a time, start profitable small businesses, and improve subsistence farms. Similar opportunities for profitable growth lie fallow in many other parts of the world that Cemex and Grameen Bank do not serve.
Many of those who are not thriving at their potential don’t know what they need to know to achieve more. When you fill in those information gaps and coach people on what to do next, you will ignite tremendous energies and improvements among those who are not yet performing to their potential.
Many people are surprised to learn that venture capital investment is concentrated in a few industries based in the most developed countries. Such investments have proven to be a huge source of profit. It is not uncommon for long-term portfolio gains to exceed 20 percent per year.
However, in most industries in most countries, new companies cannot borrow or attract risk-oriented capital at a reasonable cost. Create a way to provide such funds to those who are serving and capable of success, and you will have established win-win relationships that could generate trillions in value and greatly expand employment. All that’s missing now is an effective business model to provide that large-scale venture capital investment for small businesses.
Most entry-level entrepreneurs also need basic education, such as engaging in entrepreneurship, eliminating positions, and creating and applying 2000 percent solutions. Think Bangladesh. Grameen Bank has found it cost effective to provide these educational basics to its borrowers, along with the bank’s small, reasonably priced loans.
Those who want to help poorly prepared and indigent entrepreneurs can often find all the knowledge and financial resources that are missing among successful entrepreneurs in the same communities who already want to help others. Take a look around your community to see what untapped people and resources you can find.