If Entrepreneurship Is a Game, Here are the 5 Rules: A blog around the rules of entrepreneurship.

What does it take to be an entrepreneur and produce exceptional results? There are only 50,000 results for “Entrepreneurship” on the Amazon Bookstore. Unfortunately, our current lifespans probably wouldn’t get most of us past a few thousand books and by then you would be pretty fed up and quite likely to have missed many opportunities.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 10 years and what I’ve always wanted are just simple bitesize golden nuggets of wisdom that could make the world of a difference to my life and my businesses. If only it was that simple right?

Well, it is.

This won’t be a 30-minute read with strategy upon strategy which will require hours of your time to implement. What this will be is a short(ish), simple but hugely impactful article if you can implement the insights in your daily life.

Let's do a deep dive into the world of entrepreneurship challenges. See if you can find yourself in one of the places below…

• Want to be an entrepreneur but have no idea where to even start?
• Comparing yourself or your idea to another business that tried and failed?
• Worried if the industry is actually ready for what you have to offer?
• Feeling alone in the entrepreneurship journey?

The inspiration for this article actually came from the Netflix show — The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life. I initially thought this would be a thrilling sports movie of the typical underdog sports team with no hope who go on to become world champions. What in fact it turned out to be was some of the most valuable lessons by Championship winning coaches.

So what has this got to do with entrepreneurship? Everything!

One of the biggest challenges in the entrepreneurial journey is growth and development. What most of us end up doing is comparing ourselves and our progress to others and businesses that already don’t work or aren’t entrepreneurial in their very nature. We often fall into the same traps of comparison, bad advice, and trying to use someone else’s strategies.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

— Albert Einstein

How about looking elsewhere for inspiration and great advice?

That brings me to the world of Sports.

According to the World Players Association, there are 85,000 professional athletes in the world. In the USA it’s estimated that only 1 out of 250 college athletes go on to play professionally. There’s no doubt that being a professional athlete really takes something but what can we learn from these high-performers that could result in high-performance business environments?

Here’s what I learnt from Doc Rivers, a professional basketball coach, former player, Head Coach for the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and named the 2000 NBA Coach of the Year.

Pressure is a privilege

Far too often in the business world, we are sold on the idea that pressure is tough, should be avoided and is often the cause of distress and failure. Let’s flip this notion on its head for a moment and imagine if pressure is a privilege. What a refreshing way to look at pressure and to embrace it.

When launching my most recent business, Omvits (a nutritional supplements brand), there was an underlying pressure amongst the team on how we create an honest, transparent, and sustainable business in a category that was always linked to big pharma and big corporations — basically the exact opposite of what I’ve described. What I quickly learnt was moving towards pressure (going head-on) vs. running away from it, resulted in a great opportunity to build a business and use my life to make a difference in the world. That is “privilege”.

Pressure alone is often the very thing that causes action and in the world of both sports and entrepreneurship, the game is changing every second. Most of us have dealt with pressure at some point so keep reminding yourself of the great opportunities available when you run towards it.

Finish the race

Startup failure statistics are pretty mind-boggling. Here’s a few that alone would be enough to scare most people off going into business:

• Only 4 in 10 UK-based start-ups survive beyond 5 years in business (Business Comparison)
• 60% of new businesses will go-under within 3 years (Telegraph, 2019)
• 20% of new businesses will close their doors within just 12 months (Telegraph, 2019)

Now there’s a lot of reasons for these business failures; increased competition, lack of resources, poor marketing, lack of cash and the list goes on. What’s really important here is to dream REALLY big, take your time, pause, reassess, course correct and keep going. In the words of Doc, “dream big and see it through”.

It's going to be very easy and perhaps tempting at times to pack it all in and we humans have a great tendency to justify and find reasons for anything. Our ability to sell our dreams short has evolved powerfully over time and this is where it's absolutely critical to keep going beyond that little thought that could kill the dream. After all, no great success story happened without hard work and time.

You will not be a victim

Doc Rivers was fortunate to have the phrase “you will not be a victim” drilled into him from a young age. Without a doubt, it’s a mantra I’ll live by and teach my son.

It’s all too common in the business world to feel at the effect of the outside world. Government policies, large corporations and their economies of scale that just seem so difficult to compete against or pressure from family and friends to not give up the security of a 9–5. It’s important to catch yourself when those feelings of victimhood start to arise. Ask yourself, “what do I really want and what is this costing me and my entrepreneurial journey?”.

I’ve had my fair share of being a victim. Those moments of feeling sorry for myself and seeking sympathy from those unfortunate people around me who have to put up with my nonsense. We’re just human after all and this is predictable, but you don’t want to stay there for long. Particularly in such a fast-paced business world.

Surround yourself with straight-talking people who are more committed to your success as an entrepreneur than the world’s concerns and opinions about what you “should” be doing.

“Ubuntu” — I am, because we are

We’ve all heard that corny phrase, “there’s no ‘I’ in team”. Well, it’s true. Building a team and nurturing it is a real art. Get it right and you’ll be on cloud 9, get it wrong and…well let’s not go there.

Building a team isn’t just about getting more done. As an entrepreneur, you need to surround yourself with absolutely incredible people. There is a beautiful human connection that exists in small business teams which goes beyond simply trying to make more money. It is real human to human interaction and when that is nurtured and respected, results flow in the masses.

“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I’ve had some great ideas in my life (and some not so great which I won’t go into now), but what was a painstaking 10 years to figure out is I can’t do it alone. Team is everything and without them, I would just not be able to produce exceptional results.

My top 3 pieces of advice for building a team:

1. Find the gaps in your own skillset and bring those people on first
2. Find people who will challenge your mind and thinking
3. Find people who want to work for a meaningful purpose

Champions keep moving ahead

The phrase says it all. Pick a target, work out your path and keep going. It’s always important and wise to course-correct (we did this every few months in the first two years of the business) but measure your progress and keep moving forward.

I find that a few key KPI’s are the best way to get started and make sure that the entire team are on track. This coupled with regular reviews (monthly, quarterly and definitely annually) made the biggest difference in keeping me on track as a business owner and ensuring we produced consistent results.

It’s inevitable there will be setbacks. I mean, it would be pretty boring if there weren’t and everyone in the world would be an entrepreneur but that’s what makes this journey so unique. I can’t think of any sports team that has had some setback in their run for a Championship Trophy. Think of entrepreneurship in the same way. There will be days you score extra points and then more days when you won’t score any. The only thing you need to do here is simple…keep going, keep going, and then keep going.

Everything above might sound just like the things you need to put in place but how do you distil over a thousand words into actionable insights?

Well, keep it simple. Our brains can’t process a whole lot of information at the same time and as an Entrepreneur, you really can’t afford to be in a state of “analysis paralysis”.

Start with asking yourself these 3 questions everyday…

• What is my purpose for doing this?
• Where are the 3 key actions that will really forward my mission today?
• Who and what can I make a difference to today?

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

— Thomas A. Edison