Most people have a bee in their bonnet about an idea they have and they have noodled it around for ages, and I think you will find that with an entrepreneurial mindset when you encounter a problem, you eventually think yeah that's a no brainer that's going to work.
Sort of like Stephen Hawking, the physicist, as soon as he could not move, couldn't move a single thing, he actually says that he expanded his mind, he suddenly had to think outside of the physical limitations of writing his theories - he had to leap ahead and work it out and say "ah ha, it's that!"
But to get to the next part, Hawking's had to have many assistants and when you think the entrepreneurial type might not be that skilled in how to put a business together, that's not the essential thing. Many people might say you're a great business man - no, you're a great ideas person, someone who has sensitivity to what is going on around them in society. Then you have people who will try to put a business together around this central idea and they need help, they need help with how to get loans, how to present themselves, how to draw up a business plan, your not going to get investment unless you can go to a backer and say this is it, this is how it looks.
Such an entrepreneur may not have those sort of skills, so they get people around them to enable the idea, and they are the drive to enthuse people and show them where they are going. Then once they have people around them, the entrepreneur has to have the modesty to understand that he has to step back and allow someone in, to manage the business because often they are not very good managers. I can think of several guys in business who could be considered geniuses but who are just not very good at managing, scaling up the idea into a viable business.
Myself and a couple of mates set up this TV company which became successful overnight, going from two men and a dog to winning a big contract turning over several million, needing 100s of people, suddenly. The components of this group of people included an ideas person, a manager and so on. Some people just don't have those partnerships and that's where mentoring comes in and can help. Overnight success does not happen to everyone, it usually happens gradually... Branson is a perfect example. Not very great at school and a dyslexic, but gradually tries all these new ideas. Failure to an entrepreneur is meaningless, just another step to success, but you need people to help you and point out other options.
Britain needs to find out what it is we do as an economy. I personally think that we are in a great position, we have done away with the older style manufacturing, we have the service-based industry and the core excellence of the brands such as Rolls Royce, Aston Martins, Jaguars...
These brand names did not become great by chance, these brands were great machines that the British built, but are now copied with cheap labour. We now need to find out what's the next stage?
This country has been hyper-inventive, and that inventiveness has come out of the classic entrepreneurs. The Brits like eccentrics, individualism, take Vivienne Westwood for example.
I am giving a talk next month for the Rockstar Group, a business mentoring organisation and part of the government's Start-Up loan scheme.
Hopefully in that room in January, the attendees should be the bedrock, there should be great ideas floating about there. They might seem naff but you just don't know... and for sure 98% of those ideas will fail but so what? If you've got that entrepreneurial mindset you will just look at what's next! If you think it's great don't get hung up on it, park it to the side, move onto the next one, five years from now you might think oh now it's supposed to happen.
I like meeting people who have these bonkers things in their heads and are bonkers enough to stake everything on it...
The Rockstar Group founded by Jonathan Pfahl, are the UK's leading mentoring organisation and a delivery partner for the government's Start-Up loan scheme.
To apply for a Rockstar Start-Up loan of up to £10,000 and free mentoring for your business click here
On 18 January, aspiring entrepreneurs who apply for a Rockstar Group Start-Up loan and free mentoring to enable them to start or grow their business, will be invited to a business incubator in London where Sir Bob Geldof will deliver the key-note speech and explain why the most unlikely entrepreneurs are often the most successful.
Sort of like Stephen Hawking, the physicist, as soon as he could not move, couldn't move a single thing, he actually says that he expanded his mind, he suddenly had to think outside of the physical limitations of writing his theories - he had to leap ahead and work it out and say "ah ha, it's that!"
But to get to the next part, Hawking's had to have many assistants and when you think the entrepreneurial type might not be that skilled in how to put a business together, that's not the essential thing. Many people might say you're a great business man - no, you're a great ideas person, someone who has sensitivity to what is going on around them in society. Then you have people who will try to put a business together around this central idea and they need help, they need help with how to get loans, how to present themselves, how to draw up a business plan, your not going to get investment unless you can go to a backer and say this is it, this is how it looks.
Such an entrepreneur may not have those sort of skills, so they get people around them to enable the idea, and they are the drive to enthuse people and show them where they are going. Then once they have people around them, the entrepreneur has to have the modesty to understand that he has to step back and allow someone in, to manage the business because often they are not very good managers. I can think of several guys in business who could be considered geniuses but who are just not very good at managing, scaling up the idea into a viable business.
Myself and a couple of mates set up this TV company which became successful overnight, going from two men and a dog to winning a big contract turning over several million, needing 100s of people, suddenly. The components of this group of people included an ideas person, a manager and so on. Some people just don't have those partnerships and that's where mentoring comes in and can help. Overnight success does not happen to everyone, it usually happens gradually... Branson is a perfect example. Not very great at school and a dyslexic, but gradually tries all these new ideas. Failure to an entrepreneur is meaningless, just another step to success, but you need people to help you and point out other options.
Britain needs to find out what it is we do as an economy. I personally think that we are in a great position, we have done away with the older style manufacturing, we have the service-based industry and the core excellence of the brands such as Rolls Royce, Aston Martins, Jaguars...
These brand names did not become great by chance, these brands were great machines that the British built, but are now copied with cheap labour. We now need to find out what's the next stage?
This country has been hyper-inventive, and that inventiveness has come out of the classic entrepreneurs. The Brits like eccentrics, individualism, take Vivienne Westwood for example.
I am giving a talk next month for the Rockstar Group, a business mentoring organisation and part of the government's Start-Up loan scheme.
Hopefully in that room in January, the attendees should be the bedrock, there should be great ideas floating about there. They might seem naff but you just don't know... and for sure 98% of those ideas will fail but so what? If you've got that entrepreneurial mindset you will just look at what's next! If you think it's great don't get hung up on it, park it to the side, move onto the next one, five years from now you might think oh now it's supposed to happen.
I like meeting people who have these bonkers things in their heads and are bonkers enough to stake everything on it...
The Rockstar Group founded by Jonathan Pfahl, are the UK's leading mentoring organisation and a delivery partner for the government's Start-Up loan scheme.
To apply for a Rockstar Start-Up loan of up to £10,000 and free mentoring for your business click here
On 18 January, aspiring entrepreneurs who apply for a Rockstar Group Start-Up loan and free mentoring to enable them to start or grow their business, will be invited to a business incubator in London where Sir Bob Geldof will deliver the key-note speech and explain why the most unlikely entrepreneurs are often the most successful.