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Self Evaluation The questions below are the kind that we suggest you ask yourself before trying to start a new venture. There are no right or wrong answers necessarily. Our intent is for you to think and plan before you jump into the abyss of venturing—a soft landing is vital. If our questions stimulate new thinking, they have served their purpose. For more on our thinking see note at the bottom of this page. Inventorship is as much art as science or business, and certainly involves more than just curiosity and resourcefulness. To be a successful entrepreneur also requires a temperament fit for the task in addition to the basic business skills. What follows are some questions we ask ourselves in trying to improve our own inventive processing. What motivates me? How do I motivate other people? What motivates just about everyone? How do I handle criticism? How do I criticize others? Do I shoot from the hip? Is my workplace How do I resolve conflicts? Am I risk averse? Am I an activist? How do I handle a dozen things at once? How do I avoid making enemies? Have I ever fired anyone? How would I handle a partner who is counterproductive? Am I a sharp negotiator? Should form ever come before substance? How energetic am I? What do I mean by multinational corporation? Would I like to run a multinational corporation? What makes teamwork work? If I could retire, what would I do with the rest of my life? Can most people be trusted? What is my leadership style? In a debate, do I ever close down discussion? What is generally meant by leadership from below? * Do I understand that term?* Describe the potential problems and benefits. What is creativity? Am I now employed? Is my name on any patent? Do I own any? Am I known by my friends and colleagues as a resource person? What kind of traits in a partner would I look for in a new venture? Have I ever started a business? In what ways does a new venture differ from an established business? Would I ever hire a relative to work for me? What are the most important rules for running a business?
What was my biggest mistake. How do I handle mistakes by others? What will the world be like in 2015? In a typical job situation, rank the importance of: skills, personality,
character, other attributes. Am I good at reading people I have just met? Would making a career out of my hobby ruin it?
What are the most important traits for successful entrepreneurship? Do I know any entrepreneurs? Have I ever personally dealt with financial institutions? How do (or would) I respond if a business I started failed? How do I identify people I who will help me start and run a business? NOTE: There is, of course, more to entrepreneurship than the above—like a need for independence, exploration or discovery--even dominance and desire to leave a mark. We do not deal with why we are driven here. Rather we review those aspects of entrepreneurship that lead to creativity, innovation and follow through. Your entrepreneurship can be summed up as the whole of your creative makeup, character, business skills, how you relate to people and to yourself (temperament), and how you interact with a market economy that permits the individual to innovate and be rewarded for same. No book of "solutions" arising from experience will compensate for lack of insight into these matters. In a similar vein, each personality is different, and how we deal with one is not necessarily best for all. Given that there are at least hundreds of traits of temperament, it follows that no one "bible" could possibly deal with all the possible situations and combinations that arise. Identifying and dealing with them effectively is often formidable and requires considerable experience with individual and group dynamics. Given that business is a dynamic situation, constantly changing, the lineup that is best tactically for today may be obsolete tomorrow. Startups require flexibility in personnel lineup. Strategically, as an organization, you also must stay in touch with where we are in the total scheme of things. Demographic and economic trends change the landscape by subtle drift or outright paradigm shifts. Tactics and strategy require similar thought processes but different foci and temperaments. To meet these certain eventualities, you need a learning organization, capable of fast foot work and change in a tumultuous sea. This challenge requires the best in everyone and the best from everyone. By your individual involvement, integrity, candor and trust you can develop a feeling of oneness with colleagues, a feeling where you, by nature, debate each challenge in open forum and proceed in the best way you collectively know how. This does not always mean consensus. It does mean acting in the wisdom born of trust in others who know best about certain things when necessary. If it becomes apparent that a mistake was made, it matters less that you made one than it does how you deal with it. You cannot change the fact that the mistake happened, but if you deal with it honestly and openly in effecting corrections if/as possible, you will gain much in goodwill from colleagues. To learn from a mistake requires the root cause be faced and examined. Repeating a mistake out of "pride" or "protecting an investment" thinking is anathema. Rather, you must learn and profit from mistakes made. That usually means finding the real underlying cause and effectively dealing with it. Involvement, integrity, candor and trust lead to free debate and wise decision-making in learning organizations. For a comprehensive check list see Exploring Entrepreneurship If you are really serious, see Startupnation
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