Caution Aspiring Entrepreneurs: The Biggest Risk is the Bozone Cloud of ‘Just Do It’!

Dr. Rajiv Tandon
11 min readOct 22, 2015

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Just Do It :

As an entrepreneur and you are bombarded, from all around you, Just do it!

C’mon C’mon Jump in. Do it!

What are you waiting for JUST DO IT!!

Really! Just do it?

Imagine, for a second, a marathoner “Just Doing It”. Or, just doing Iron Man world Championship, Tour de France, Race Across America or any other high achievement endeavor without any preparation. Just getting up and doing it?

Predictable Consequences:

Image: 123rf.com

What do you think is the likelihood of achieving any great success if you have not done the substantial preparation, before jumping in?

Zilch!

On the other hand, the chances of getting really hurt badly are sky high!

This outcome is not hard to predict. You do not have to be a Brain Surgeon to reach this simple conclusion.

Yet, entrepreneurs are so mesmerized, by the act of doing it, that they often decide to ‘J’ust do it’ in a spell. Time is short and they are in a hurry. Who has time to prepare, do the hard work of strenuous training? So jump in because you have to ‘Just Do It’. Isn’t it what entrepreneurs do?

Is it any surprise that the failure rate of new ventures is so high? The statistic of 90% failure rate is commonly bandied about. It is not news to anyone.

Bozone Cloud:

Image: 123rf.com

— — — — — — — — — — — — — Bozone (New Word Definition: Washington Post’s Style Invitational)

The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — A Bozone cloud engulfs an entrepreneur.

Ironically, they know these “facts”; it is not news to them. But, they see that as a given. They are in heat; they have a business to build; time is running away. A real entrepreneur has to take a deep breath and just do it; screw those odds. Good counsel just does not penetrate their Bozone fog. They jump in and then try to learn to swim!

Or most likely sink.

Smarter Approach:

The smart way, as any athlete, their Coach, and even Nike will tell you, is to prepare hard and consistently for your goal before the actual event.

Image: Graphic Stock

Days, weeks and months of preparation for that singular moment of performance and glory!

The refrain, of Just Do It, is to get you going for the preparation for your lofty goal. It should not be misunderstood and short-circuited by just jumping in.

Risks are present in all of life. But yes, entrepreneurs are taking some more, and different, personal risks by starting their own business.

Entrepreneurial Risk:

I have listed 15 different risks that combine together into the one giant Entrepreneurial risk. This bundle continues to reinforce the poor statistic of a very high failure rate for entrepreneurs. Most of these risks can be, and should be, reduced substantially by preparing for them. The risk mitigation process must be a part of the preparation that should be done before jumping in the fray.

These 15 risks with their mitigation strategies, for each, are:

1. I want to be an Entrepreneur. It is cool and trendy. But is it truly for you? Don’t get sucked in by the hype. A true entrepreneur is a risk mitigator and not a risk seeker. They are willing to i. learn the process of success creation with the detailed steps, ii. has identified an idea, which is a potential opportunity for hir, and iii. they are willing to focus and pursue this opportunity with all their might. Unless you answer “Yes” to all 3 of these questions, you are not ready to “Just do it”. Wait and get ready before you jump. More on 3-q-self-administered-foolproof-test.

2. I have an idea, it must be an opportunity. Even if you have entrepreneurial traits, your idea may not be the opportunity specifically for you. There are numerous hidden risks that can spring up to sink your boat. Identify as many of them, as you can, so that you can reduce them one-by-one before you launch. More in Questions-to-answer-before-launching-your-boat.

3. Even experienced VCs accept a 10–20% success. So, nothing can be done about it. This risk is spawned by a big misunderstanding of the term “success’. For a VC, the “success” is when an invested company reaches Unicorn Status ($1 Billion in value). This definition is based upon their unique needs of fundraising, management, and governance. These one or two Unicorn successes pay far more, for their entire investment than 10 “hum-drum” successes.

Image: 123rf.com

Would you, as an entrepreneur, accept less than a Unicorn valuation as a success for your one (and only) venture? Or would you go for an all-or-nothing bet on becoming a Unicorn? Remember that even VCs do not know, a-priori, which of their bets is likely to be a Unicorn. If you are OK with a great company, but short of a Unicorn status, then screw the VC criteria and use your definition of success. Do your own thing, even if different than how a VC driven venture would do it.

God did not intend entrepreneurs to fail 90% of the time. You can prepare for a much higher rate of success by following a stepwise process of venture creation without betting the farm. If your venture begins to show signs that it could be a potential Unicorn, don’t worry there will be a line of VCs outside your door. You would not have missed that small probability. Otherwise, you have built a great company. More in Even-VCs-are-lamenting-that-the-pursuit-of-unicorns-is-screwing-up-entrepreneurs

4. Why should I start with many ideas, isn’t one good enough? If you start out with “one good” idea, it is most likely to be close to the same that is already in the marketplace. A real winner is likely to be an out-of-the-box idea that you may not even be looking for. When that disruptive idea occurs to you, at first blush, it may look absurd. Generating Good Ideas that could be real opportunities requires a two-step process. First, generate lots of ideas and the second, set aside the ones that are not opportunities for you now. That will yield a richer mother load of key ideas that are likely to be opportunities for you.

This two-step process may seem inefficient but it is a more effective method of solving knotty problems. More in Ideas-are-dime-a-dozen-opportunities-are-priceless.

5. All this process stuff is eating up valuable time on paperwork, while I could be building my business. Just like the athletes, jumping in without substantial preparation leads to failure and hurt. Every hour spent now in preparation will not only pay back in faster development but a higher probability of success.

A detailed project plan is commonly missing for startups. It is not enough to develop the plan, it also needs tremendous discipline to work the project plan and accomplish targets on a weekly basis. Even if it is a single person startup, one still needs to follow the rigor of a project plan and regular weekly reviews. More in Opportunity-identification-process

6. I must get started right away for time is short. Be patient. Haste makes waste. Go through the process. In the process, we learn to improve the quality of ideas that are in for consideration as well as for future enhancements.

We also spot flaws earlier and make well-balanced assessments at an earlier stage and avoid preventable failures. Instead of focusing our earliest efforts on selling the idea by pushing the most interesting aspects of the idea, it focuses our attention on the ideas weakest, least attractive points and helps us to strengthen them. The overall quality of opportunity is substantially enhanced by improving the weak points rather than polishing further the strong points.

The Idea to Opportunity process can end in one of two ways: a death sentence or a birth announcement. Either one of them is a positive outcome. When ideas fail on paper, we should extract whatever learning is worthwhile and feed it back to the modified ideas back into the system. More in Opportunity-identification.

7. I am very good at xxxxx. It will carry the day. Remember failure can come from doing any one of the things poorly. Success comes from doing a lot of things right. Any venture building process must keep 4 key elements in balance at all times. They are:

1. Opportunity: Identification of one, 2. The Team: that can exploit this opportunity, 3. The Plans and Strategy: for monetizing the opportunity, and 4. The Resources: needed to make it happen.

All 4 elements have to be in balance throughout the process. This process is a systematic reduction of risk all of these 4 elements to reach a higher probability of ultimate success.

More in Rubric-of-innovation-is-different

8. I have to learn everything as I go along. Do you? Can you use the experience and background of someone who has traversed the path before you? Find and use credible persons like that. It will fill in many holes in your knowledge gap as well as, provide an objective oversight. More in You-can see-farther-standing-on-shoulders .

9. There are so many things I do not know. I cannot afford to hire all those experts. If you are familiar with the Persian proverbHe who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child, teach him.”

If you have identified the gaps, either domain specific or discipline specific (Sales, Marketing, Tech, Finance, HR), you will be surprised that there are Mentors who will fit in and help fill these gaps for you. Find them. More in Who-wakes-you.

10. Experts are Often wrong, so how can I trust a Mentor? Mentors are role models who are interested in your personal and professional growth. A friend and confidant. They look like consultants but, often work for gratis! They are like a coach or an advisor but they co-develop the overall direction and add more experience to your plans. More in Why-trust-a-mentor?

11. I don’t have CEO experience, but I am the Boss. And you do not have a formal Board. But if you have the resources of a Mentor who can act as a Dutch Uncle in time of need, you are covered. More in Carefrontations: Dutch-uncle-approach as well as Mentor-support-when-events-get-you-down

12. I need the money quickly to get started. I’ll take whomever I can get. Your investor is one of the most critical decision you will make. Make that choice with the diligence it deserves. If you are desperate for money you are very vulnerable and can easily be taken advantage of by predators. Greed and fear are the two tools that investors will often use to trap you.

Spend 80 -90% of your time on the guts of the business — building a team, customer/product fit, etc. and the rest 10–20% implementing the plan, selling to the first set of paid customers, getting some positive reviews, finding flaws in your assumptions and pivoting, etc. Don’t even look at the investors before the MVP is out. Get into a position of strength before seeking money. And then, take time to find the right partner. More in Are-you-marrying-a-partner-or-a-rapist?

13. I cannot find anyone willing to fund my Idea. Other than a few hot spots on the coasts, the growth of new venture funding scene is dismal. I suggest you bootstrap and develop your idea as far as possible to a viable product. Also, reduce the cash outlay and follow the process to increase the probability of success.

I have several examples of entrepreneurs being able to reach a MVP with only 40% cash outlay of normal. The rest is of course equity to team members and internal supporters. At this stage, don’t be too pricey about your equity — share equity with right co-founders liberally, and engage mentors through some small % of sweat equity as well. Mentors with sweat equity are more motivated and thus more engaged.

The more strength you have built up before engaging with investors, the better off you will be. You won’t be changing your investor deck based on whom you are meeting because you will have a strong deck, thoroughly researched, and backed by your first-hand customer experiences. That way you will be true to your idea and communicate it well. You will eventually reach the right person! More on Alternatives.

14. I made a mistake and failed. I have to start with something completely different. For an entrepreneur, failure is rooted in every step of the process of building a business. There is real learning in what did not work. Failure is a step in the long journey. If you are building something of consequence, learn the art of trying, failing quickly, and pivoting until you find the new solution to that puzzle. Design small “experiments” to test various alternatives.

Successful is really a silly word. No one can ever be “full” of success. “Successful” is having many successes, that overshadow the many failures. More on 5-lessons-to-learn-when-you-fail

15. I am running away from a Bureaucratic setup. All this seems like I am getting sucked back in it. Bureaucracy and Efficiency are two progeny of the same parent — Process. The checklists and tools are essential tools to identify and reduce/eliminate potential areas of risk. It also clarifies your path forward. Call it an insurance policy or an efficient method- it is a success booster.

Not following it is a surer way of failing. It is your choice!

Conclusion:

Seasoned entrepreneurs and advisors are fully familiar with this entrepreneurial risk. They do it the right way.

Unfortunately, too many entrepreneurs do not get out of the fog of the Bozone cloud and let good practice penetrate in. Many times it is the 2 x 4 hit on the head, with a failure, that finally lets reason sink in.

The net message of this post is an alternative to getting hit by a 2 x 4. Entrepreneurial success is the outcome of a process that can be learned and followed. Following it, up front, is definitely work but it increases the probability of success for your venture for very little cash investment.

Request:

If you know someone, who is interested in starting a venture or is ready to take the plunge, do them a favor and share this post. Every failure prevented is a victory for Entrepreneurship (and Mentors)!

Tell them, “If you are foolish enough to be an entrepreneur, be smart enough to do it right!”

This is an updated version of a previous post.

I invite Minnesota based aspiring entrepreneurs to write to me at rajiv@mn-iie.org for support and help in accessing “free” resources to get them out of the Bozone cloud.

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Dr. Rajiv Tandon is an advocate for the future of entrepreneurship in Minnesota. He facilitates peer groups and runs programs for propelling ideas into ventures

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Dr. Rajiv Tandon
Dr. Rajiv Tandon

Written by Dr. Rajiv Tandon

Advocate for the future of entrepreneurship in Minnesota. Facilitates peer groups and runs programs for propelling ideas into ventures

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