Do What You Were Built to Do

In this special article, Overdrive sat down with Joe Abraham, author of Entrepreneurial DNA, to talk about the importance of developing a game plan for business and how entrepreneurs can best leverage their strengths for business success.

  1. What are some tips entrepreneurs can follow to better leverage their strengths in business?
    The first and most important thing to do is to figure out what your strengths even are. As entrepreneurs, we are really good at overplaying (or significantly underplaying) our strengths because we seldom have an objective way to measure them. Using a third-party assessment tool like the basic and advanced BOSI Tests bring that objectivity to the table.”Next, align your key daily activities around those strengths. If business development is a strength, get out there and make sure most of your time is spent making the cash register ring rather than playing with the accounting system. The same is true on the other side. Don’t spend a ton of time ‘becoming’ a salesperson if that just isn’t an innate strength.”Finally, look at your team and make sure their strength/weakness balance aligns well with yours. The easiest way to find yourself in a world of hurt is to get caught in the trap of fitting round pegs in square holes. Make sure your team operates like a well-designed jigsaw puzzle with you at the center. In this day and age, you simply cannot afford misfits.”
  2. Briefly explain the BOSI system. How does it identify the strengths of business leaders, and how can it help entrepreneurs achieve success?
    The BOSI process is designed to identify your behavioral patterns as an entrepreneur and optimize your company around it. It looks for how you handle things like opportunity and risk. It takes a snapshot of who you are today and compares that to a massive database of other entrepreneurs. Our goal is to find which entrepreneurial ‘types’ you most align with. Each entrepreneurial type has a set of predisposed strengths, weaknesses and frustrations. So by showing you which type you are most like, we can give you insight into some potential opportunities and pitfalls ahead. The book, Entrepreneurial DNA, is all about taking you through that process from ‘Discovering your DNA’ to ‘Designing an optimized strategic plan’ and ‘Deploying it into the marketplace.'”
  3. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in business, and how has it made you a better entrepreneur?
    I’ve learned that the most important asset of a company (especially a small to mid-sized company) is the founder/CEO. Yes product innovation, great employees and fanatical customers are important, but they pale in comparison to the former. I would go so far as to say that those things are fairly irrelevant if the right (or wrong) person is at the helm. I found from having studied thousands of my peers that the single defining difference between the success and failure of a company is what is going on in the head of the founder/CEO and the quality of the decisions they make. That discovery helped me focus my time on what my most valuable business assets were and then building teams (and companies) around those assets.”
  4. What’s a common mistake you’ve seen entrepreneurs make when it comes to deploying game plans for their businesses?
    I call it the buffet of business strategy. We all walk up and load our plate full of ideas, strategies and “best practices” cooked up by our friends, competitors, consultants and gurus. We assume that if it worked for someone else, it should work for us. So we load up and chow down only to find our businesses running slow, lethargic and sleepy (just like we would feel after a big buffet meal).”We give little to no thought about whether the person cooking up the buffet item is anything like us. It’s a dangerous mistake entrepreneurs make that is costing billions of dollars in lost opportunity and a tremendous amount of stress and headaches. I truly believe it is the single biggest reason the systemic failure rate in entrepreneurship has not improved despite massive innovation in technology and access to information.”
  5. In a few words, what’s one thing an entrepreneur can do to truly tap into their strengths?
    Discover your BOSI Profile and then deploy strategy that is best suited for who you are. Forget about what your buddy, your competitor and the latest millionaire are doing. Do what you were built to do.”

For more information about Joe Abraham and his book, click here.

Categories: general

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