Entrepreneurship Ain't a Popularity Contest
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 10:24PM If you have a complex about needing to be liked by everyone and you want to pursue a career in entrepreneurship, then you may be in for a rude awakening. To be an entrepreneur means putting yourself on the line and out in front of people (Sometimes these people turn into a firing squad! Just ask the CEO of Whole Foods.). The problem is that there are many different types of people, each with their own perspective of you, your business, and your actions.
This effect is especially magnified when you do something noteworthy that involves myriad stakeholders. For example, a mentor of mine is a real estate developer that is responsible for a multi-hundred million dollar mixed-use project that is stalled because of the financial crisis. The stakeholders in a project as complex as this comprise several categories, each with different interests and agendas (E.g. partners, owners, tenants, community members residing in the development, community members residing in the surrounding community, politicians, home owner association members, etc...).
As the leader of such a project you are accountable to all stakeholders. Do you think it possible to please each one of the stakeholders ALL of the time? I think not and especially not during a catastrophic economic downturn that caused commercial financing (the lifeblood of such projects) to become nonexistent virtually overnight. How many real estate developers do you think are in similar situations all over the country? The answer is many.
But the reality my mentor must face head-on each day is that the stakeholders for his project don't care about what's happening in global financial markets or to other developers. They only care about his project and his performance. With such a massive project that is stalled, you can imagine that there are some inflammatory, and sometimes downright derogatory remarks being thrust upon my mentor. Is his response to curl into a little ball, beaten and disheveled because some of his stakeholders don't like him as much as they did prior to things going south? No, he keeps going because that is what a successful entrepreneur must do in times of crisis.
People show their true colors in times of hardship, not in boom times when everyone is fat and happy. I can't tell you how popular my mentor was among almost all stakeholders during the boom. But, things change...including people's emotions and it is part of the entrepreneurial experience to recognize this for what it is. Realities for many people changed overnight when the financial crisis hit. Emotions ranged from fear to anger to depression. The easiest target upon which to unleash such emotions? Why, the capitalists of course. The reality, however, is that everyone participated. It's just easier to blame those closer to the top.
Entrepreneurship 
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