Six tips for being a successful entrepreneur

In a recent TED Talk which has attracted close to 700 views, London Business School’s Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship Dr John Mullins draws on two decades of research into what makes entrepreneurs ‘entrepreneurs’, and how they differ from the rest of us.

John begins his talk by acknowledging that many successful entrepreneurs exhibit one or more of what he terms ‘six break-the-rules mindsets’ that allow entrepreneurs to challenge assumptions, overcome obstacles, and mitigate risk to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along the entrepreneurial path.

Surprisingly, however, these mindsets run counter to the conventional wisdom that’s typically found in large and well-established companies. They fly in the face of what’s taught in business schools about strategy, core competencies, target marketing, financing and more.

One such individual is the founder of Lynda.com, Lynda Weinman.

“In 1995 a graphics design teacher and an aspiring entrepreneur, Lynda Weinman, decided to acquire the website, Lynda.com. Lynda was teaching graphic arts at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she was teaching students how to use tools like the then-new-fangled Photoshop, Illustrator, and other computer graphics software. She was looking for a web design book that she could assign to her students. Searching the bookstore, she grew more and more frustrated,” recounts John.

Finding only complicated technical guides that were impossible for the average person to understand and decided to write her own guide. Serially rejected by publishers, Weinman convinced a magazine publisher to let her publish her book chapters as a series of monthly columns. While researching one of the chapters, she came across a website called debbie.com, and wondered if lynda.com is available. It was, and for US$35 she bought it, using it as her sandbox to teach herself web design, and as a place where she could gather and post resources to which she could refer her students.

Lynda’s book, ‘Designing Web Graphics’ was eventually published, and the book quickly became the top-selling web design book in the world. The Lynda.com website, mentioned therein, got more and more popular, and before long it was ranked among the top 100 websites in the world. Weinman began getting teaching and speaking gigs about web design anywhere and everywhere. Eventually, Lynda.com became an online software training website, and it was acquired by online business network LinkedIn in April 2015 for $1.5bn.

“Lynda is the poster child for what I call the counter-conventional mindsets of entrepreneurs,” says Mullins. “It is Weinman's innate entrepreneurial mindset that made her journey so successful.”

Dr Mullins argues that entrepreneurs’ mindsets often cause them to reject the conventional wisdom that large, well-established companies tend to accept without question. Entrepreneurs often fly in the face of what’s taught in business schools about matters such as corporate strategy, finance and marketing.

Codifying these qualities and attributes into six rule-breaking entrepreneurial mindsets, Dr Mullins describes these traits with the following illustrations:

#1 Saying “yes, we can”. When asked by a prospective customer whether they can do something promising that’s entirely unfamiliar to them, entrepreneurs say “yes” first, and then figure out the details later.

#2 Applying a problem-first, not product-first, logic. Entrepreneurs know that their businesses will thrive if they solve their customers’ genuine problems.

#3 Asking for cash; riding the float. By getting customers to pay them in advance and paying their suppliers later, entrepreneurs put that spare cash into growing their businesses. Elon Musk is a notable exponent of this approach.

#4 Thinking narrowly, not broadly. Once they have successfully established themselves in a small market, entrepreneurs know that they can learn from that experience and expand their businesses.

#5 Begging and borrowing (but not stealing). Borrowing the resources necessary to start something new beats investing in those resources’ hands-down.

#6 Seeking forgiveness later, not permission beforehand. When the regulatory landscape is uncertain, entrepreneurs simply plough ahead.

Knowing what these mindsets are and doing things differently in consonance with your business objectives will be challenging, observes Mullins, but it is possible for you and your team to adopt them.

“So,” concludes Dr Mullins, “ask yourself which of these mindsets are embodied in you today; are they learnable, and can they be taught?”

If you embody some or all of these characteristics, “Maybe,” challenges John, “you too can change the world”.

John Mullins is an internationally recognised thought leader on entrepreneurship, professor of management practice at London Business School, and a best-selling author of new book Break the Rules! The 6 Counter–Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World (Wiley).

To listen to Dr Mullins’ recent TED Talk, click here