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Seize the American Dream: 10 Entrepreneurial Success Strategies 3rd Edition
224Overview
Houtz started this company in 1967 with $1500 and ten shares of IBM stock and sold it in 1998 for $270million. His experience with CyCare was a proving ground for what did and did not work. Companies using the successful strategies Houtz developed are achieving similar results today.
The American Dream is no longer the life blood of just America. The American Dream has inspired a worldwide movement. The American Dream has become the Entrepreneurial Dream. And no matter where you start your business, the strategies in this book hold true. Follow them and you can build a solid and effective organization, realize financial freedom in the process and make your mark on the world.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780971701212 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | JaGrand Ventures, LLC. |
| Publication date: | 01/05/2018 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.47(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Entrepreneur
Do your best in all endeavors,
Entrepreneurs are special. That's a big statement, but one that is founded when we consider even for a moment just how impactful their efforts have been on our world. From Steve Jobs, who brought us the notion of personal computing, to David Smith and Mortimer Mendelsohn, who initiated the Human Genome Project, each of these special people and the many more yet to come will leave an indelible mark on our society. In business, for example, the efforts of entrepreneurs have filtered through every industry. Everywhere you look, an entrepreneur has created some meaningful product, service, or process that has made our lives better, lowered the prices of the things we consume, and enhanced our workplace productivity.
The first entrepreneurial wave happened at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Henry Ford set into motion a new way to build a car, the assembly line, which not only produced a better product but also made that product affordable to the masses. He changed the way we build things forever and went on to lead one of America's biggest companies.
Today, we are in the midst of the Information Revolution. Entrepreneurs like Larry Page and Sergey Brin have revolutionized the way we communicate and share information; they are not done yet. Way back in 1998, they founded Google, a company that seemed on the outside horribly inadequate compared to other search engines of the day, but that today not only dominate Internet searching, but are continuing to challenge Apple, Microsoft, and others in application development. Come tomorrow, entrepreneurs will develop new products, services, and processes that our imaginations cannot even begin to conceive today. They'll go on to lead companies that rise to even greater heights than Ford and Microsoft.
However, they won't do it alone. In each case, successful entrepreneurs will have wingmen (or wingwomen) by their sides. What are wingmen? To fighter pilots, they are the difference between life and death, constantly protecting the leader and communicating threats and opportunities. Every good business leader has a wingman, sometimes more than one. Bill Gates had Steve Ballmer, Ross Perot had Mort Myerson, and Warren Buffett has Charlie Munger. Even small or emerging company leaders have wingmen. Jim Houtz had Dick Burgmeier as his first wingman at CyCare.
Every industry, except those that are eliminated, will find ways to solve their biggest three or four problems and a major portion of the rest in the next ten years. Coming up with the products and services that make these solutions possible will be the easy part. Surrounding those products with a sound business strategy and infrastructure will be the bigger challenge. It will be preserving the entrepreneurial spirit within leaders and their wingmen that will make the difference. Just imagine the possibilities and the potential! For example:
• Imagine a healthcare industry that stores every patient's medical records electronically, allowing automatic updating and retrieval of information anytime. Think of the convenience when access to a physician via email is the norm, and electronic pharmaceutical prescription records are commonplace. Picture worldwide access to the latest medical research, nurses who nurse patients back to health rather than focus on paperwork, and the top ten diseases eradicated.
• Imagine an educational system where every child has his or her own personal computer, where learning at home three days per week and attending school two days per week is the norm. Picture gifted students taking college courses as a regular part of the curriculum in grades one through 12, and schools where every qualified student has access to fast-track courses. Envision schools that are safe from the threat of violence thanks to automatic scanners connected to school security systems.
Imagine, imagine, imagine — that's what entrepreneurs do. They also do one other important thing: they act. Ideas are a dime a dozen, so the saying goes. It's the actions behind the ideas that require work and effort. Entrepreneurs understand that essential concept, and they go for it anyway. In the years ahead, just like in the years past, the entrepreneurs will be the catalysts of global change. They will see things not as they are but as they could be. They will see opportunities where others see problems. Their inspiration and aspiration will overcome adversity, if not the first time, then for certain on the second, third, or fourth try. The entrepreneur is not deterred by difficulty. A different approach or a more intense effort will certainly bring success. Failure is not an option.
Entrepreneurial enthusiasm and focus inspires people and performance. Pity the underachiever who strolls into an entrepreneur's path. This high-energy environment only has room for commitment and results. Entrepreneurs challenge the best, discard the rest, and build organizations that are held in awe by competitors and loved by customers. Why? Because the organizations and the people within them perform.
Don't misunderstand; entrepreneurs are not perfect. On the downside, they can be so singularly focused that other important subjects can seem meaningless to them. Entrepreneurs think a lot about their businesses, how to make them grow faster, how to build better products, and how to improve sales. They also can be espousing the next idea long before those around them have grasped the first one.
No doubt, entrepreneurs are different than most other people, but they are an easily definable group that possesses a startling array of similar characteristics. How many of these common entrepreneurial traits do you find in yourself?
* Entrepreneurs do what they do because they are trying to prove or build something; very few are doing it for the money.
* Entrepreneurs usually have above average or super intelligence.
* Behind every successful entrepreneur is a supportive spouse or family and a surprised in-law.
* Fear of failure is the force that drives many entrepreneurs.
* Entrepreneurs don't concern themselves with what others think of them; their satisfaction comes from a job well done, not from a pat on the back.
* They treat employees better than most employers do.
* They are short on planning and fierce on execution.
* For them, rules are not etched in stone; they are written to be modified when necessary.
* They spend little time on small talk and gossip.
* They work harder and longer than any group of people you will ever meet.
* Many people consider entrepreneurs risk takers. They are not. In fact, entrepreneurs are simply betting on what they believe to be a sure thing: themselves.
* They are singularly threaded and focused on their specific businesses.
* Entrepreneurs want to run their companies for the long term; they don't believe the myth that they can't.
* Their community activities are usually limited, but entrepreneurs tend to donate generously to worthy causes.
* Entrepreneurs can be reasonable in business dealings unless an associate attempts to take advantage of one of their employees; then, an entrepreneur can turn ferocious.
* When an entrepreneur goes up against three or four professional managers, the entrepreneur will win every time.
* Entrepreneurs are not big on socials, cocktail parties, and networking; if someone needs to be contacted, they make the call.
* They frustrate other competitors by pricing differently, thinking differently, and focusing on execution.
* When their dream is sold, they will usually start again. When asked why, the usual answer will be a smirk. They know if you have to ask, you probably will not understand the answer.
There's something endearing about an entrepreneur. No other group will try as hard, risk as much, create as much excitement, and do as much good. They are people with ideas who act on those ideas, surround themselves with great people and, in the process, build a better tomorrow. If you fit this profile, you're in for an exhilarating experience.
CHAPTER 2
Opportunity
Opportunity knocks more than once.
Everyone knows a few people who always seem to be at the right place at the right time. They take on projects, start new jobs, and begin businesses just as a market gets hot. When asked how things are going, they spout out success after success, achievement after achievement. They are the people who leave all the regular folks thinking, "Man, are they lucky. How do I get myself some of that luck?"
Well, for most of these people, save the few who hit the jackpot by winning the lottery, luck has had little or nothing to do with their success. It's not even their knack for being at the right place at the right time. What separates the successful few from the rest of the world is that these people know how to make the most out of any situation that presents itself to them. Are they at the right place at the right time? Of course they are, but so is everyone else. The difference is they are at the right place at the right time, prepared to seize an opportunity.
Clearly, opportunity is as much about circumstance as it is about preparedness. Our ability to recognize opportunities comes from five important sources: education, work experience, industry knowledge, curiosity, and intuition. Each of these, to a varying degree, defines our ability to recognize and be prepared to capitalize on opportunities. Let's look at each of these factors in a bit more detail.
Education
Formal education provides the theoretical base that helps us see how tangible objects, intangible ideas, and people interact. It provides a big-picture perspective and teaches us how to learn what we need to know to be more aware of the opportunities around us. It also helps us discover those subjects that we find interesting outside of our everyday world, and opens our minds to new kinds of applied thinking.
The best educational background for an entrepreneur includes a college major in a selected course of study, along with a broader educational focus, either as a minor or electives, in the following areas of study:
* Speech communications
* Psychology
* Management
* Accounting
* Marketing
* Statistics
* Anatomy
* Computer science
A formal education that is both specialized and yet broad is a great starting point for entrepreneurial success, but it alone is not enough. Many business experts recommend college graduates work for several years before embarking on advanced degrees. Education alone provides information and theory, but it doesn't necessarily provide perspective. Perspective can only come from work experience.
Work Experience
No matter on which rung of the proverbial ladder you begin your career, every job provides valuable work experience in the mind of a true entrepreneur. Every work experience gives the employee a paid opportunity to learn how things really work. At a real job, you discover that working is not just about getting the job done; it's about interacting with people, solving problems, fitting in and, perhaps most importantly, learning about your own work habits and skills. These are the internal factors of any entrepreneurial environment.
Young college graduates entering the workplace have an enormous learning curve during their first year of employment. Learning a company's basic procedures takes time, and there is no rushing it, despite the demands of our current, fast-paced business environment. New workers need to learn and understand more than the company's product line and key customers. They need to learn and understand the company's language, dress code, business procedures, standards of behavior, performance expectations — in short, the culture of the company. Learning of this type typically doesn't even get mentioned in the classroom environment, let alone taught. These lessons are learned by doing. It is this kind of learning experience — job after job — that provides us with a baseline level of knowledge about the internal work environment with which we can contrast subsequent workplace cultures, processes, products, etc. It is often this subconscious contrast between work environments that sparks ideas for improvement and leads to opportunities. Even if you have a well-rounded education and plenty of work experience, it also takes knowledge of the industry — the external environment — to thrive as an entrepreneur.
Industry Knowledge
Education and work experience paint two-thirds of the picture when it comes to preparing for and recognizing opportunity. However, unless you have all three elements, you are missing a vital part of the image. Picture a seascape with a sky but no water and no beach, or with a beach and water but no sky. It would be difficult for the observer to gain a realistic perspective on what he is seeing. Just as in this simple example, it takes formal education, internal work experience, and a solid understanding of the external industry to be prepared for opportunity or even recognize it at all.
Industry knowledge is important to a company's success, so it makes sense that it is critical to recognizing new business opportunities at the entrepreneurial level. Entrepreneurs, just like business people in general, need to understand the external factors that are weighing on an industry. Things like government regulation, consumer activism, labor issues, resource shortages, and competition issues are all important factors when gaining a big picture perspective. There are numerous other external factors unique to specific industries. When seeking to uncover opportunities, there is value in taking a step back and looking at the total image to gain a true perspective. In some cases, it is the only way to see the opportunity before you.
Curiosity
Curiosity, as a human trait, suggests a person who likes to understand why things work the way they do. Many technical people share stories of their childhoods and how they "played" with a new toy. One entrepreneur recounts that when he got a new toy at Christmas, he would take it apart before he ever played with it "just to see how it worked." That was also true for his mother's toaster, blender, and any other electrical appliance he could get his hands on. He didn't always figure out how to put it back together, but that's another story.
As much as entrepreneurs love to discover why things work the way they do, entrepreneurial curiosity goes even further. An entrepreneur's type of curiosity asks, "What if ..." It is the asking of this question, after fully understanding "why," that opens our minds to opportunity. Think about it. Asking, "what if rather than doing it this way, we do it that way?" automatically assumes you have knowledge about the current state of things. The "what if" is the result of our applied knowledge to the situation at hand. These "what if" questions are the beginnings of opportunities.
Unfortunately, no entrepreneur has all the answers to these questions. For that reason, the curiosity must extend to a willingness to seek out and find answers to a multitude of questions: How can we apply technology to make mundane processes easier or disappear? What information is available to help us make better decisions? Who says this way is the only way?
It is through increased knowledge and curiosity that we become less accepting of the status quo. We begin to question why things are the way they are more, and we speculate on ways to make them better. Ideas are plentiful at this stage, but it takes intuition to ferret out the most viable "what ifs."
Intuition
An incredible gift we all have, intuition is our ability to know when things are or aren't right. It's the "gut feeling" we have about a situation or person. The most important thing you can learn about your intuition is to listen to it and understand what it is telling you.
However, don't confuse intuition with that voice inside your head that tells you why something can't be done. Intuition is not that voice of doubt; rather, it is the voice of knowledge that questions an approach, not your abilities as a whole.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Seize the American Dream"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Jim H. Houtz.
Excerpted by permission of JaGrand Ventures, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Dedication With Enough Effort, 3,
The Entrepreneurial Creed, 9,
Preface Dare to Dream, 11,
Introduction In the Arena, 15,
In the Beginning,
1 The Entrepreneur, 21,
2 Opportunity, 27,
3 The Business Plan, 37,
4 Financing the Business, 45,
The Success Strategies,
1 Ten Entrepreneurial Success Strategies, 61,
6 A Differentiated Marketing Plan, 67,
7 An Integrity-Driven Sales Process, 81,
8 A Results-Oriented Management System, 103,
9 A Motivational Human Resources System, 117,
10 A Resource-Oriented Accounting System, 129,
11 A Zero Defects Product Development Program, 143,
12 An Empowered Customer Service Department, 161,
13 An Employee-Based Strategic Planning System, 169,
14 Customer-Oriented Quality Control, 181,
15 Constantly Improving Operations Performance, 191,
Selling Your Dream,
16 Selling Your Dream Three Times, 203,
Bibliography, 207,
Index, 209,
Acknowledgments, 215,
Customer Reviews
