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What are your best traits, Arkansas entrepreneurs?
Patience? Perseverence? Rugged good looks?
Mediabistro.com writer Devon Glenn offers up openness, “fluid intelligence” and age as the top three traits of successful entrepreneurs.
Take a look and let us know what you think; what your experience tells you are the top three traits of a successful entrepreneur. (Other than, of course, association with Innovate Arkansas. That goes without saying…) Be sure to check out the interesting comment as well.
And while you’re at it, explain to us exactly what fluid intelligence is. INOV8 has a feeling its is more stagnant than fluid…
Matt
Good inputs and right on. Web-based businesses can get to market quicker than nearly any other and have comparatively low capital structures.
The growth of businesses of this ilk is in both Central an Northwest. You might consider getting to know Dr. John James at Acumen Holdings. They have an incredibly efficient ecommerce model and may well be looking to license their engine to others.
Here’ the website – take a look:
http://www.acumenholdings.com
John and his partner Terry Turpin are two of the best around in terms of understanding conversion rate and monetization. Their Ruby developer literally wrote the book.
John and Terry are outstanding serial entrepreneurs with several successful exits in this space.
Jeff
@Jamerine I completely agree with your list of req. traits for entrepreneurs. I think my point (not to include arlton in this) is there are two significant issues with the current startup situation in Arkansas.
1) lack of smart *known* money
2) no organic community around smart developers, and to Arltons point, Barcamp and ConwayCowork are really the first steps in this direction
I also believe that there is a little too much weight given to university research projects turned businesses, locally. Granted this is due to the lack of no. 2 on my list.
I believe that tech/web should be the bigger focus for startups everywhere. Cost for the whole process is low, low cost of customer acquisition, low cost of marketing, low cost of scale. Also the time to pivot is much faster.
Having been involved in the startup community in central Arkansas for the past two years I can say that Innovate Arkansas has been a fantastic asset for great advice, connections etc. but this is just the first step. The next step has to be an organic startup community focused on lean tech startups, and it’s clear to me that Conway is taking the lead on that. IA has limited resources and restrictions due to their funding source, but I think we should all embrace and support an organic community.
Highly developed frontal lobe with anomalously high concentrations of gray matter.
Some great comments have been provided for this post! I’d like to challenge Arlton and Matt to send me some specific examples of what you guys have in mind. I am always looking for new content to cover in the techpreneurship blog and I would love some specific suggestions. Here’s my email: jeff@innovatearkansas.org
Give me some ideas for what you have in mind in terms of support, etc? No guarantees that we can do anything but I’d like to hear what you all believe the gaps to be in more detail.
Back on the specific traits of entrepreneur. Mine three picks are:
1. Tenacity
2. No long-term memory of pain and suffering
3. Unwaivering commitment to their own integrity
All I can say for “fluid intelligence” – is that’s beautiful, wish I had thought of it. Here we have yet another made up 50 center phrase without apparent meaning…
I think Arlton makes a good point, IA needs more technical resources and technical leaders talking about emerging web tech stuff unfortunately they are a state program.
I would have to say 1.) perseverance, 2.) setting high expectations out of yourself, and 3.) (in the same direction as what Mark mentioned) the ability to accept & welcome failure and adversity and move forward.
Mark brings up an excellent point about how you must be able to understand & recognize hardship but instead of running the other way, run straight into it and keep on “keeping on”. Almost every entrepreneur will face a time when it would just seem easier to most people to take a step back, get a normal job, and live a regular life without all the risks & stress associated with start-up businesses or entrepreneurship. And that is totally fine for most people. But then there are those of us that will work 20 hours a day to avoid getting a “real” job. But remember, there IS such a thing as good stress. You must be able to fight through the hard times, accept (or even welcome) failure, and not dwell on that failure for any longer than a few days. Sure, dwell on it for a couple hours but then take the time to learn from it and realize that it is now an experience that will help in the future. As an entrepreneur, there might never be someone there telling you “it’s okay! you’ll be fine!” so you must be able to do this yourself.
As far as “fluid intelligence”, I would say that this is the ability to process information quickly and let your perception and understanding of that intelligence change as time goes on and as new aspects of that intelligence come up and are learned, and contrary to popular belief not always get caught in the little details at first.
Self-generated morale
Don’t disagree with the traits mentioned but believe another quality needed is self-generated morale. There comes a time in many (probably most) startups where you’re faced with the valley of death that is difficult to survive. At this stage, many individuals give up and go back to the comforts of regular life. It appears that entrepreneurs that can generate the morale (morale that defies logic in many cases) needed to overcome this period are able to make it across to the other side and give their startups a chance.
Sadly, IA can’t be a sponsor, but we’ll sure help promote it.
A thought.
For you guys to be touting how supportive you are about entrepreneurs, it surprises me that you would turn down an opportunity to support entrepreneurship in Central Arkansas. It’s really disappointing. I’m referring to the BarCamp Conway event that’s taking place next month. It’s an event that’s to help Arkansas innovate, yet Innovate Arkansas is not supporting it.
You guys should really rethink your priorities.
Cheers!
Arlton