The Concentric Circles of Entrepreneurial Commitment: Persuading Yourself Before Persuading Customers

A senior colleague just asked what harsh words I had used to shake up an entrepreneurial team. All I had said was that starting a business requires ‘thinking it through.’ Entrepreneurship also follows concentric circles: persuade yourself first, then your family, before moving outward to employees, shareholders, and customers. 1. Persuade yourself first: are you, a university professor, willing to commit full-time? Have you convinced yourself? Your business plan looks wonderful and its financial projections are so optimistic. Would you quit your job—a professorship?—to commit full-time, invest the money set aside for a home down payment, and even borrow another two million through a youth entrepreneurship loan? Have you convinced yourself that this business really has the prospects you claim? If you cannot convince yourself, how will you convince anyone else? 2. Persuade your partner You have convinced yourself, resigned from a stable job, and borrowed heavily. Can you convince your partner that, for a long time—perhaps five or seven years—you may bring home nothing, need further borrowing, have no time for family or children, and miss many of the most precious moments of their childhood? 3. Persuade your family to support you You have convinced yourself and your partner—and children. Can you persuade your retired parents to support the business with their precious retirement savings? Can you convince the parents who have been there for you for thirty or forty years that their own child is dependable and the venture promising enough to entrust their remaining savings to it? If you cannot—or dare not—convince your parents, how can you expect a stranger to give you money after a two-hour conversation? 4. Persuade highly capable people to join Can you convince someone outstanding to join at 30% of their salary? Jack Ma persuaded Joe Tsai to take an enormous pay cut to join Alibaba. Your university classmate earns two million a year: can you convince them to leave and accept a basic monthly salary of 25,000, plus stock options in your startup? If you cannot convince high-school or university classmates, how will you persuade truly exceptional people to join? 5. Persuade customers to buy Your target customer already has a solution. Can you convince them to replace something that works and take a risk on yours? Entrepreneurship is a continuous process of persuasion. You are only at the first step, but before taking it, you must think through all these questions. The team then said they really needed to think carefully about why—and whether—they wanted to start a business... And I had not even reached the feasibility of the business model...