Savvy's Resolute Adventures

Step 10: Choosing the Time to Ascend

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Step 10: Choosing the time to ascend: Season, weather, politically, personal life. Are all the stars

aligned to maximize likelihood for success?

There is a time and place for everything. Is starting an intense adventure in the final years before your teenager goes to college the right time?  When you have a newborn that has not yet learned to sleep through the night? When newlywed? No time is easy from an impact on personal life perspective. Personal and professional life become can often become one.

Are you well calloused and trained to take on the rough terrain? Know your physical and emotional readiness.

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Step 9: Understanding the Media

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

 

Step 9: Understanding the media: Getting positive coverage will help you get support for your

next summit, helps you develop a reputation, can help you bring attention to another cause you

care about, can open up other doors of opportunity.

 

Thought leadership has always been critical.  Many of the vehicles have remained constant while the specific tactics have evolved. Channel proliferation is making media outreach a growing challenge.  Investing time in carefully crafting your story, corporate or expedition positioning, and key messages and then outreaching via multiple media outlets will exponentially expand your reach to your target audiences.

 

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Step 8: Avoiding Danger

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Step 8: Avoiding danger: Don’t do unethical things. Avoid toxic people. Be flexible and respond

to the right opportunities. Know when to innovate/take risk and when to follow. Know when to

take risky routes.

 

Unlike what one might think, entrepreneurs take researched, careful risk.  Knowing when to pull the trigger  is a skill that successful entrepreneurs possess.

 

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Step 7: Getting Sponsors & Advocates

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

 

Step 7: Getting sponsors/advocates: Relates to investors, supporters and others.

 

Whether your  business requires outside capital to achieve key milestones is an important decision to make early on.  Determine what sources of funding should be raised for working and growth capital.  Hire seasoned financial experts to help navigate this trail.  Understand your desire for control as the amount of control you retain is inversely related to the amount of venture capital you may need to raise.  If you are successful in raising money, it is important that you see eye to eye with the venture fund and have the appropriate level and type of involvement from them.  The popular complaint from entrepreneurs is that VCs,  who don't have true entrepreneurial operating experience rather a MBA and finance background,  want to tell them what to do.  Entrepreneurs need to be spending more time on managing their business, rather than managing their board and investors.

 

If your venture is self funded by the founding team/friends and family, a well chosen advisory board can be very valuable.   Proven and perhaps semi-retired entrepreneurs who have relevant experience and are interesting in mentoring the newer generation would be an ideal choice. Learn from those who have a healthy combination of failure and success under their belts as much can be learned through the combination.  While much can be learned by failure, they need to have reached levels of success in order to help guide you to yours.

 

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Step 6: Getting Correct Resources

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

 

Step 6: Getting correct resources: You need to have enough provisioning to weather the most treacherous and unexpected of wintry conditions. Have the right staff at base camp to keep foundation solid.

 

Hiring the right people to have on the team is absolutely critical.  Bad hires can cost the success of a venture just as the wrong teammate can keep a group from reaching the top.  Keen intuition in hiring is a talent successful entrepreneurs possess. The ideal situation is to have key players on your team that  have "been there, done that" with you  in  prior ventures.  But this is not always possible. Sometimes team mates get burnt out and need a break before ascending again.  Having the right mix of "fire in the belly" and experienced know-how is essential. A strong foundation is essential to providing the cornerstone for success.

 

One noted CEO that I worked for could pick out his key hire from a stack of resumes by optimizing on a particular trait he wanted that hire to possess.  Then, he would validate the hiring decision within a few minutes of the initial meeting.  I was shocked when he hired me so quickly, but then I learned he had done that with all of the executive team.

 

It always takes more resources and time to reach a milestone than you first thing.  Build in mini checkpoints and provision your rations wisely.  If you do raise outside capital, raise a bit more than you think you will need as marketing for funding can be a full time job and distracting to the real full time job.

 

Remember also that with few exceptions, you get what you pay for with your in-house team as well as external resources. Hire teammates that have the same passion for success that you do.  Share the vision with zeal.

 

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Step 5: Developing the Action Plan

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Step 5:  Developing the action plan: Relates to knowing “how things have been done.” Don’t reinvent where it’s not necessary. Must have explicit plan — route, camps, backup camps, how you will communicate, financing. Leverage best practices. Be able to be specific and tactical to reap resulting success.

 

One of the most important traits of a successful entrepreneur is the willingness and eagerness to learn from others.  Especially those who have traversed that path that they are about to set foot. Since time is of essence due to competition or the threat of running out of money, seeking advice from the experienced is always a wise move.  Entrepreneurs are often too tight fisted to spend money on counsel and  run out of time and money by learning on their own and failing the first few tries.  I have met many entrepreneurs who in their quest to gain only free advice don't get the right counsel and run out of time, so their grand vision is not realized. 

 

Another mistake entrepreneurs make is to ready, shoot, and aim and not have a plan of attack. While timely decision making is critical, making decisions without enough thought and linking back to an overall plan can be deadly.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

 

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Step 4: Understanding the True Goal

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

Step 4: Understanding the true goal: Agreement among key stakeholders, the team, each step along the way. When to turn back? What is the difference between a “successful exit” and

failure? Successful serial entrepreneurs and mountaineers know to focus on enjoying journey.

In one of my ventures over a decade ago, the management team wasn't getting along so well, so the CEO hired a facilitator who gave us Myers Briggs prework, took us offsite, and had us step way back to discuss our life goals.  If we could be anyone/have any career, what would we be?  I stated that I wanted to be a pop star - an Amy Grant  or Tina Turner. These sets of exercises were to help each of us understand each other better. We had been so stressed in working in a very fast moving category within a venture backed environment, we needed to step back plot our personality types to determine how this variety could coexist. Our CEO's goal was to have positive friction that would make 1+1 = 3 instead of -3.

 It was an eye opening experience....I remember on the way out, in the parking lot, telling the executive that I liked the least, that I now knew how best to work with him going forward.  We remain good friends to this day.

As the founder/CEO recruits, he or she needs to set the vision and rally the team around it which will ultimately lead to a successful exit. The most successful CEOs I've witnessed do a lot of listening and empowering. They trust their people enough to allow them to make mistakes.  They instill confidence that they will support them along the way.  That is when their leaders will dare to take a risk that can lead to the upside that can constitute success.

 I've also heard seasoned CEOs say time and time again to focus on the journey, after all, life is short.  Make the most of the ride.

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Step 3: Committing to Goals and Strategies

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....
How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  
http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

Step 3: Committing to goals and strategies:  Need to fully commit and understand what it’s going to take. Decide if team wants to attempt a “first route” — to traverse where no one else has yet set foot. Akin to a breakthrough invention.

 

When starting a venture, there is a point of no return.  All your life savings and often more are tied up in this venture that you must see through to reach the top.  While the sweat equity, savings, and opportunity cost you have poured into your venture make it practical to forge ahead to completion to reap a return, money is not necessarily the key driver.  True entrepreneurs  want to will each milestone to completion so that their innovation reaches the hands of the intended audience in order to make a difference. Those who attempt a "first route" also possess a trail blazing mentality innate in their blood.

 

The management team needs to be in agreement  what the end goal is and the strategies to get there.  Summit teams can be literally tethered at the hip in order to successfully ascend.  Founding teams are figuratively as well.

 

Why are entrepreneurs more often than not serial even when they could retire many times over with one success?  It's the drive to create, build, and grow toward an end goal.

 

Hiring people and making promises and the stress of payroll when product date slips and customers are awaiting can keep one working with little time to sleep.  Ascending the summit requires complete efficiency of energy in every step taken to preserve minimum sleep time and the fixed resources in the pack on your back.  Just as an entrepreneurial mantra is "DROOM - don't  run out of money ",  life provisions on a treacherous summit are critical to maintain and use with the strictest of conservation.

Understand that it will take every ounce of energy you can muster to battle the rough winds and unexpected mishaps in order to summit. Experiencing adversity builds character.

 

Successful entrepreneurs, like mountaineers who summit, will their adventure to its end goal.

 

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Step 2: Choosing Teammates

 Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial success  http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

 

Step 2: Choosing Teammates: Ones that fill the team from a critical skill set and personality standpoint. A quality group that supports the common vision, provides needed feedback, and implicitly trusts one another.

 

Choosing the right business partner is almost as difficult as finding one's true life partner. Many also choose to start a company without a co-founder. Regardless, in order to scale the summit to reach the top, the founder will need a management team just as a mountain ascender needs teammates. Share your venture's vision with all who consider joining and make sure they are on board for both the good times and the challenges of the adventure.

 

 Not everyone can be expert at all.  Know your strengths and supplement your opportunity areas.  Surround yourself with strong people. A team is only as strong as its weakest link.  

 

Feedback is a gift - make sure that each is open to giving and receiving the gift of feedback with an open and nurturing heart.

 

Finally, I cannot overemphasize the importance of trust.  Implicit trust is critical for teammates.  It is earned by validation over time.  True trust is priceless.

 

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Ascending the Summit: Step 1

Based on Resolute Adventures: Ascending the Summit....
How Mountaineering Prepares for Entrepreneurial Success http://tinyurl.com/yfhxfod

 

Can leadership on the mountain translate into business success? How, when and why do mountaineers go on to be successful entrepreneurs? Is it important to have reached the literal summit or is it the preparation and the journey that give rise to proven leaders?

 

Step 1: Visioning. Includes the recognition that a powerful vision is compelling. It energizes the visionary and enables them to excite others to participate. The group dream.

In working with companies, one of the first questions I ask is "What is your Vision and Mission?"   We are often asked to facilitate vision and mission messaging sessions for management teams. It is critical that your team can articulate this in order to keep in their mind daily as well as to be able to share with external key constituencies.

Companies often use the terms “vision” and “mission” interchangeably as starting points for the foundation of their enterprise – from which overall strategy, business and marketing planning including the unique selling proposition, category, and tagline are derived.

 

VISION: A vision statement is what the enterprise wants to become. THINK LONG TERM, BIG PICTURE.

 

MISSION: A mission statement concerns what an enterprise is all about. THINK HOW GOING ON A MISSION.

A mission statement answers three key questions:

• What do we do?
• For whom do we do it?
• What is the benefit?

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