One of my favorite entrepreneurial thought leaders, Guy Kawasaki, provides yet another extremely insightful article.  In a recent guest posting for Sun Microsystems, he spells out his 5 lessons of becoming a successful entrepreneur. I’ve summarized some of it here:

1. “Focus on cash flow”: Guy explains how P&L profitability is important, but that’s not specifically what pays the bills.  Cash on hand is what’s key. With cash you literally pay your employees, vendors, and all other overhead. Cash is king.

2. “Make a little progress everyday”: Guy is suggesting the value of small steps…it’s no longer about major marketing campaigns.  Instead, his focus has turned more toward closing another sale, focusing on a better product and even ensuring a website is just a little more user friendly.  These baby steps are essentially what’ll bring the big picture to life.

3. “Try stuff”: Guy Kawasaki explains that luck happens only to those who try new things – not those who wait for things to happen.  Some of us sit back and pass up opportunities only to see someone else take it and run. You became an entrepreneur to become adventurous, so don’t forget to go out on a limb and experiment every once in a while.

4. “Ignore schmexperts”: Sometimes our gut is screaming so loud that we can’t hear anything else.  When it does, listen to it and not those so called experts.  They’ll always say “I told you so” whether you succeed or fail. Your gut instinct is usually more reliable!

5. “Never ask anyone to something that you wouldn’t do”: Don’t ask your client, employee, or vendor to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.  This includes the small stuff—if you aren’t willing to do it yourself when it makes sense, you won’t have the respect of those you lead.  Sometimes we forget that we are dealing with people with busy and active lives… treat everyone as equally as possible.

I’ve given a summary, but go get it from the horse’s mouth!

Read Guy’s original post here: Lessons of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

Here are some related blog posts about this topic:

10 Myths of Entrepreneurship

What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur

Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs

Four Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

11 Killer Instincts of Entrepreneurship

I was talking with a friend last night about a billionaire entrepreneur who started two companies. He sold his first one for $600 million. He sold the other for $750 million.

That’s no coincidence. So called “serial entrepreneurs” have some common entrepreneurial instincts that set them apart from the average business owner.

These entrepreneurs assess business opportunities with a natural instinct.

Here are just two of these instincts (they’re closer to sicknesses, really!).

Compare yourself; do you possess them?:

The Due-Diligence Instinct: Natural, instinctive entrepreneurs have an innate tendency to assess businesses constantly. As customers or observers they’ll run random businesses through their own due-diligence tests. For example, in a restaurant, while silently looking interested in the dinner conversation, they’re actually calculating how much their meal cost. Then, they’re figuring an average plate price for the entire location and calculating how many patrons might dine on an average night. From there, they can guesstimate costs and a few other things about the success of the business. Once while waiting in line for the roller coaster atop of the New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas, I guesstimated that based on the $12 per ride charge and the amount of people still in line at 1am (about 100), the ride was bringing in at least $13 million a year. Not bad. Whether my figures were right or wrong isn’t the point…the point is…I was standing in line trying to figure out the business model–at 1am in Las Vegas!

The Solution Instinct: Natural, instinctive entrepreneurs have an innate tendency to think about how to solve problems. They are always looking while traveling or while they’re using some widget or service. They’re naturally thinking about how something can be done better or what might be lacking about a product, process, or system. Recently I read an article about a company that has come out with a new hanger to sell to dry cleaners. It’s sturdy, durable, cheap…and it’s made of paper. A high volume, environmentally friendly product with a highly targeted market. They’re eliminating waste and pollution by saving billions of metal hangers from being thrown in the trash each year. Their product is sweeping the nation. It’s a classic example of how an instinctive entrepreneur finds incredible new opportunities that are staring at millions of people every day–but it takes the solution instinct of a great entrepreneur to see it.