Becoming a High-Performance Entrepreneur - Rich S. Pirrotta

The intensity of the effort to bring a product or service to the market, or the demands of the first large customer, are so great that you notice at times you can’t form rational thoughts. You are the definition of the multi-tasking, dawn to dusk, whatever it takes approach in being single focused in delivering on the entrepreneurial dream. Those who care about you are concerned about whether you’ll end up the hospital, but your mind keeps racing with more great ideas and sleep is anything but routine.

Been there or are there now? Congratulations – you are following in the footsteps of the risk takers and innovators that transform society. It’s a noble calling when you have a passion to innovate in a unique way, but it’s not well understood. By the time your product or service is mainstream, normal people forget the level of sacrifice and effort. We can’t live without the light bulb, but forget that Edison slept most nights on his lab bench in Menlo Park. We are thankful to be living in the US, but forget that earlier generations boarded a ship for America with little knowledge of life across the ocean. Their stories are known – what is your story going to be as a risk-taker, innovator, and entrepreneur?

I’d like to share a few thoughts that can direct your entrepreneurial experience into the high-performance mode, where success is more likely than failure. Rather than review the obvious concepts, based on being an entrepreneur and in helping entrepreneurs grow their organizations successfully, I’d like to share some second level ideas. There’s only three – because when we can’t even find the car keys in the intensity of life, we can’t remember more than three!

1 It takes a team. This may be counter-intuitive, as you chose the entrepreneurial path to push forward on your own, and you enjoy the freedom to make it happen as you see fit. Don’t change that drive. But you will need people around you who can provide guidance in the moment of doubt and who can help you execute more efficiently. A term that best describes these individuals is Trusted Adviser. These people should not be your employees or have a commercial relationship with you, and it’s probably best that they not serve in a role with fiduciary responsibility, as in a member of your Board of Directors.

I’ve served in a Trusted Adviser role with a fitness industry entrepreneur for the last several years. He’s had quite a journey as his business has gone through cycles of expansion and contraction. What my friend offers delivers amazing results – but he is often discouraged because of the unanticipated complexity of his business and the people, customer, and marketing challenges. Rather than just business issues, at times, I’ve become a sounding board for personal issues that he is wrestling with – and my role is to help him stay focused on the amazing vision he has. Occasionally, I provide valuable advice in helping him discern what professional service providers (legal, financial, marketing) are worth investing in, and which ones should be avoided. Having delivered these services throughout my career, I’m better positioned than my friend to identify who is really going to help, and who’s just planning to take advantage of the time-strapped entrepreneur.

You need a Trusted Adviser team to be high-performance. Unless you are omniscient, you won’t know everything as your organization grows. Where can you find these people? Chances are they are already part of your life – but perhaps you haven’t thought of them as Trusted Advisers. When you choose them, choose based on their high integrity, and ability to be transparent and truthful. If they can’t have a heart-to-heart with you and share things you might not want to hear – they’re not the right choice. If you don’t respect them or their point of view, they’re not the right choice. If they are genuinely interested in your success in this venture – then they are the right choice. Do your homework, pick two or three, and be open with them with the greatest concerns you have.

The innovator who roughed out the concept of gravity as a natural law understood the Trusted Adviser concept. Isaac Newton offered that “If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

2. Get centered. This isn’t work/life balance, being more efficient with time, or making sure you take your vacation. Getting centered is about maintaining your inner, spiritual life.

With the intensity of the journey as an entrepreneur, there will be times when you cannot carry the burden. A strong spiritual life enables you to discern when to keep pushing forward, and when to back off and let situations unfold in their own manner. As much as you may want to bend the world to your will as you push an amazing product or service – you do not and cannot control all the forces in play.

As an entrepreneur, I was the 5th person into a company that grew to 200 people in 18 months, and opened offices in five countries. It was a wild and intense ride! As we grew, different leaders responded in different ways to the intensity of the situation. Some sought to consolidate control as the organization grew beyond normal bounds. Others rode the wave graciously, being open-handed in opportunity and moving forward through the many mistakes that were made. Unfortunately, one of the key leaders didn’t deal well with the rapid rate of change, developed a Jekyll and Hyde personality, and ultimately cost the company significant value when we were sold.
What was the difference? The leaders that were centered had a much better grasp on what they could impact, sought truth versus what made them look best, and were gracious in reacting to unexpected challenges. These gifts of discernment, clarity, truth, and grace are hallmarks of the inner, spiritual life. Without it, cracks appear under intense pressure rather than the polishing of a rough diamond.

My spiritual center is my faith in Christ and remembering that God’s sovereign plan for my life is much better than my own. Your spiritual health and path are up to you – but it’s critical to your success as an entrepreneur. There are forces at play that at much bigger than just ourselves. Respect them – and you will be significantly healthier mentally and able to deliver on the tasks ahead.

3 The Blueprint starts on Day One. The culture of the organization you are creating starts on the first day you hire someone as an employee or contractor. Up to then, it’s just you – but when another is involved, the cultural blueprint of your organization becomes publicly established.
You may have observed when working for others the nuances of the organization’s culture. These cue cards, often unwritten, govern the behaviors that people learn are acceptable or unacceptable in working for the organization. As the owner, leader, or entrepreneur, your perception of behaviors will dominate the initial blueprint of the organization. What blueprint are you intentionally setting?

- If you value an open culture, where diverse opinions are expressed, what happens when someone voices an opinion different than your own? Do you take it as a challenge to your authority? Is your behavior different when these opinions arise publicly or in private?
- If you want to quickly learn when a major mistake occurs within the organization, does your team perceive that you are genuinely interested in resolving the issue as quickly as possible, or will the messenger of bad news be shot?
- What will get a person in your organization fired? Is it poor performance, lying on an expense report, or simply too much conflict with the leaders of the organization? I recently worked with an entrepreneur who went to lengths to ensure employees that if performance problems existed, management would work to remedy, and no one would be terminated quickly. Yet within a week of that statement, someone was terminated exactly in the manner they said would not happen! What type of message does that send about the cultural blueprint?

It’s not what you say about your culture – it’s what actually happens. Be intentional about the blueprint you want to create, keep it simple, and reinforce the blueprint over time. The best organizations have a limited, visible set of rules that are strictly enforced, and leaders that are able to not only share, but demonstrate the cultural values in how they work every day.
So get your team, get centered, and pay attention to the blueprint! Your passion and drive will take care of the rest. Go forth with amazing ideas! And the car keys? They’re under the dog collar in the hallway…

Rich S. Pirrotta serves as Managing Director of the Whitehall Group, with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing, technology, and restructuring. Rich has served in President, Vice-President, COO, and CFO roles as a line executive in entrepreneurial and Fortune 50 companies, and spent ten years with Deloitte in their Management Consulting and M&A practices. As a consultant and adviser, he has contributed significant value to companies such as Merck, General Motors, RJR Nabisco, United Technologies, and Chevron, and has helped raise over $35 million for smaller companies in various stages of growth. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State, and a MBA in Financial Management and Operations Management from Wharton. @richpirrotta

This article was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Leading Possibilities.