#IamMainStreet — What I want to be when I grow
BusinessBlocks mission is to empower owners to live their American Dream.
When I was a venture capital investor, my favorite question to ask entrepreneurs and executives was “what did they want to be when they grow up”. There is so much to learn from the answer. You get to understand the candidate’s personal and professional passions; how big a dreamer they are; how large a skills gap they have to be able to achieve their dreams; and how confident they are in their ability to translate dreams into action. The question isn’t intended as an interesting but empty thought exercise but rather a specific question to measure a candidate’s ability to be self-aware, action oriented, and passionate. I found that the most impressive people were those who had spent time understanding not just what they didn’t want to do but what they love to do. Those people had a keen understanding that they had a finite time to pursue their goals so focused on goals for which they could have the biggest impact and would make them happiest. They connected that insight to their current situation and were thoughtful about how to acquire the skills and experiences necessary to build a path to their goals.
Invariably the people who most ably described what they wanted to be when they grew up were entrepreneurs. Most people think that being an entrepreneur is just another job, perhaps with some special features like equity ownership. This notion misses some of the most important aspects of being an entrepreneur. People who start businesses have to do so much more to achieve their goals. They have to obsess about the things that would make them happy. They have let that passion propel their action. They have back fill skill gaps out of necessity and hire people to complement real needs. They have to motivate themselves in the face of rejection, failure and doubt. They have to ruthlessly prioritize time — not only in the day to day — but by starting a new business they’ve told themselves that they are unwilling to spend their time pursuing professional achievements that don’t move them.
BusinessBlocks mission is to empower owners to live their American Dream. Entrepreneurs know what they want to be when they grow up but there are a lot of challenges along the way. BusinessBlocks exists to help them succeed. We want to celebrate the dreams, challenges and accomplishments of entrepreneurs so today we introduce the #IamMainStreet blog. Every founder, owner and entrepreneurs has unique successes challenges, and dreams about what makes them Main Street. If you are an entrepreneur we want to know you and your story and if you are not yet an entrepreneur, we want to inspire you by the amazing people who relentlessly pursue their dreams. We want to know all of the richness that comes along with being able to say #IamMainStreet.
Happy Monday!
