Instinct: “An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a specific species…”

Entrepreneurs are a unique species. I wrote last month about some of the basic instincts of entrepreneurs when I introduced The Due Diligence Instinct and The Solution Instinct.

Here are two more to consider…

Youthful Genius Instinct: Most business owners have a story about how they started their first enterprise as a kid; selling lemonade, washing cars, or mowing lawns. My first business was in elementary school when I used to actually “trick-out” standard number two pencils. That’s right, first I would sand off the original yellow paint and then I’d use colored pencils and draw polka-dot, pin striped or Tye-dyed custom designs on the pencils. I’d pawn them off for $1 to my fellow 5th graders. Later, when I was a surf-obsessed teenager, and to my mom’s dismay, I decided to make surfboards in our garage. With my power-sander I would shape foam blanks leaving up to 10 inches of toxic foam layered throughout the garage…then, to make matters worse, I would spray paint designs on the boards and apply a fiberglass coat to the foam blanks. The marine resin coated our garage floor. She shut down my empire after selling only 3 boards. To this day; 20 years later, we still have surfboard paint and resin remnants in that garage.

Entrepreneurial Heritage: Entrepreneurial instincts definitely run in the family. The Trumps, Marriott’s, Romney’s, Murdoch’s and many other great entrepreneurial families pass-along the instincts of entrepreneurship to the next generation. Even among the unknown small business owners of America, the truth of entrepreneurial heritage is evident. My great, great grandfather started the business tradition by rounding-up wild horses and selling them to the US Government. My father operated a small company called Redi-Spuds, a produce company where my brother Greg and I would work together delivering french-fries, salad, and potatoes to restaurants in California. (Greg liked to toughen me up by locking me in the walk-in freezer and see if I could survive for an hour or so. Fun times.)

Tags: due diligence, Entrepreneurial Instincts, small business

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 4:00 am and is filed under Business, Entrepreneurship, Work Ethic, entrepreneur. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.