“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” As an entrepreneur are you a dime collector or are your skills priceless? A tricky question for an entrepreneur who has started a business and is looking to build something meaningful and valuable. Starting a business is easy. Running a business is hard. Running a consistently profitable business that is growing in an intention manner is almost impossible. The ideas needed to fix problems and take advantage of opportunities can be easy to generate but the will and focus to execute can be hard to find.
Two years ago GM announced it was getting into the electric car game by announcing a plan to launch 20 new all-electric vehicles. Two years later GM has yet to get traction and hasn’t even come close to achieving its own goals. Moving a large organization is hard but the market doesn’t care. GM has a lot of smart and capable people working away at trying to capitalize on the latest consumer demand but they have yet to show signs of success. GM went out of their way to host an “EV Day” where they showcased their new ideas and strategy to more than 150 media folks and investors in an attempt to reset expectations and demonstrate that they have the plan to succeed.
Have ideas? Great. Write them down, prioritize them and develop a habit for executing. Executing often times means leading by example. If you are an entrepreneur looking for your team to capitalize on opportunity then start by doing it yourself. Demonstrate to your team and use them as the motivation for being focused and hitting your goals. As your team sees you putting forth the effort they will use your behaviour to model their own. Leadership is funny like that. People want to be lead and not everyone wants to be a leader. Take advantage of the advantage you have in your position to show people how to take an idea and execute on it. Your business will never be the same if you cultivate a culture of generating ideas and executing on them.
