10 Tips to be a Successful EntrepreneurAdapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Join the Conversation:www.HowTheyDidItBook.com

How They Did It•This advice is adapted from the book

How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

•The 45 founders featured in the book launched, grew, and sold a company for approximately $100 million or more, or took their company public for $300 million or more in market valuation.

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Launch is always a leap. Avoiding failure doesn’t produce big results

“A lot of people go through life trying to avoid failure, and they never accomplish success.”

-Bill DeVille: Health Personnel Options

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Plan B is the plan that works. The original plan usually is not the big winner.

“I thought I just better cover my bases, so I had a Plan B. I didn’t think we would ever need it. I just thought it would be a good idea. It turned out that our Plan B saved the company.”

-Bill Gantz: Pathogenesis, Ovation Pharmaceuticals

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Look again. It’s usually not rocket science to discover the opportunity.

“I still hear people in all walks of life talk about the problems they have, but no one seems to be listening. If they did, they’d hear business opportunities.”

-Jim Dolan: The Dolan Company

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Success is never a solo act. Even so-called solo founders have key people who are vital to success.

“Pioneer, Intelliseek, and Ascendum worked because of the five or six people at the top. It’s not that the other people are not important, but those five make sure there are 25 people like them reporting to them, and those 25 make sure there are 125 underneath them like that.”

-Mahendra Vora: Pioneer Systems, SecureIT

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Need trumps passion & passion trumps skill. Skills can be acquired or hired.

“I am not the most visionary person in the world, but I’m very persistent. I’ll keep going at something until I get it right.

-Joe Mansueto: Morningstar

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Strike out more, not less. Champions strike out more than the average business person.

“My mantra at ChaCha is ‘fail fast’. So try things. What doesn’t work, throw it away, and what does work, run with it.”

-Scott Jones: Boston Technology, Gracenote, ChaCha

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Boredom is a blessing. Some of the most inspired actions come from unplanned, uninvited, sheer boredom.

“Our home and our office had no power. I had downtime and nothing to do, so I called a friend in Fort Wayne, an orthopedic surgeon, and said, “Hey, if I come over, would you put a piece of titanium in my arm?”

-Dane Miller: Biomet

Look in the mirror – longer. Champions are better at assessing their own skills.

“Delegate, delegate, delegate, which is phenomenally tough to do when it’s your vision, your idea, your baby.”

-David Becker: First Internet Bank

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Iterate, execute, repeat. Keep dancing in the ring and never present a sitting target.

“I tell young entrepreneurs that our business model was like going to the eye doctor. Better like this or like this? A or B? B or C? Oh, C’s doing better than B. Let’s do more C.”

-Dick Costolo: Feedburner

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Live with ambiguity. You cannot study to learn balance.

“People think if you study long enough, you’ll get clear direction to go ahead. That’s never going to happen. You just have to have enough confident in yourself to move forward.”

-Al Berning: Pemstar

© RedFlash Press Adapted from How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America

Join the Conversation:www.HowTheyDidItBook.com

ROBERT JORDAN has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America, a book of advice and inspiration from 45 of America’s most successful company founders. His startup, Online Access, the first Internet-coverage magazine, landed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies. After its sale he founded RedFlash, a project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.

Now Available