What is the “Goat Test” for entrepreneurs?

Nathan Barnett
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

Having had the opportunity to meet many entrepreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs, I have always had a sense that there was a sign or something different that all of the entrepreneurs had and only some of the aspiring ones had. And it was my thought that if I could figure out exactly what this quality was or some way to determine these traits, then it would lend clarity both to me and others whether they are ready to take the leap and become an entrepreneur.

I started thinking about it in terms of what sort of conversation or questions would indicate whether a person was going to have a good shot at starting up a new venture. If they were ready for the ups and downs, fires, and failures that come along with creating a business from the ground up.

Many times it can feel like you are one of those plate spinners just trying to keep everything delicately balanced and in motion. It can feel like even one of those plates falling off will lead to business failure. That’s because early companies are much more fragile than mature ones. Gaining or losing a single customer matters when you only have 1 or 2 customers. Same thing applies to staff, where losing anyone can be like losing 10% of the entire company.

Keeping those plates spinning is no easy task and frequently requires things outside the bounds of anything you have faced before. You have to do whatever it takes to keep things on track until your fledgling business is stable enough to better weather disruptions.

How do you figure out if you are ready for this?

There is no list of tasks that can be written down that you can review and say, “Yep I can do all of those”, as the answer will be different for every business. It might be cooking homemade meals to keep staff fed and happy while working late, or it might be driving to help change a tire on your star employee’s car so they can get in to work and finish the customer proposal on time. What needs done is not identical, but you have to be willing to do “whatever”.

you have to be willing to do “whatever”

What does this have to do with a Goat?

The answer hit me one day. What could I ask a fledgling entrepreneur that would allow me to judge if they were ready? A simple request that I can make of anyone and be able to tell if they have what it takes.

The Goat Test

You have one week to bring a goat to the front door of our office so we can all take a picture with it

Of course I require that they must treat the animal humanely and not have stolen it or committed any felonies to get the goat to our location.

It’s a simple to understand challenge that is not easily done and has an almost limitless amount of solutions. But it very accurately resembles the types of challenges they will face daily as an entrepreneur. Solving new problems in creative ways is what its all about. And it can’t just be a thought exercise either as reality has a way of punching theory in the face.

“Reality has a way of punching theory in the face”

Your first, second, and third ideas might not pan out, but in the end do you get that goat to our front door within a week. That’s all that matters!

Now let’s see those goat selfies!

Added Note:

I had a couple of our staff read this in advance of publishing and their comments were enlightening. Both thought that a week was far too generous of an amount of time for the test. And on top of that suggested a spending cap of $20. One even said that he would be able to get a goat here in under 24 hours if I was interested.

This told me 2 things:

  • Our team is well equipped to continue building our business
  • Some of them have easy access to goats

In my experience with others, this would seem like a crazy task. It got me thinking that the “Goat Test” may be applicable to hiring as well. There is something about forcing a person to take on a task that requires a creative solution which gets to the core of whether they will be able to produce the results you need when starting out. Most of the answers are unknown and it is up to the entire team to solve problems every day in order to push the business forward.

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