Introduction
Many people decide to take the path of the "entrepreneur" and become entrepreneurs, but few are successful. New entrepreneurs react by intuition, learning as we go, based on trial and error, making mistakes and stumbling.
Today it is common to see a hospital run by a doctor, a construction company run by an architect or engineer, a restaurant run by a chef, certainly with great culinary knowledge, but without the slightest idea of business management principles. And so many businesses run by their own owners and almost never by a manager.
So if you already have a business or dream of owning it, this story could serve as a starting point reference.
Background
About 35 years ago, a businessman was appointed president of COPARMEX, (Organization representing the Mexican businessman). When he took the microphone to give his thank you message, the entire audience was silent; upon hearing these words:
"And that's how one day I decided to stop being an employee, and start my own path, my own company… I decided then to become the loneliest being in the world."
An employer is a person who decides to leave the comfort and security that gives him the certainty of receiving his salary every week or every fortnight, his bonus, his paid vacations, his retirement at a certain age, as well as other additional benefits. An entrepreneur decides to abandon that band of certainty and comfort. He decides to join the ranks of those who take risks, those who put their hard-earned savings next to their dreams.
You have just set out on the journey, you realize that the world is changing dramatically around you. The governmental system that previously protected him now becomes his main dependent, often his enemy. Dozens of government agencies begin to reach out: tax collection secretaries, federal, state, and municipal secretaries of labor, health, ecology, public safety, social security, Infonavit… all of them with the endless list of requirements that must be filled so that you can operate legally, and many times you find yourself in situations of extortion due to the complexity involved in collecting all these requirements in the beginning.
You realize how that system that you once thought protected you, has now become one of the greatest obstacles to the development of your dreams. On the other hand you meet another new and terrible enemy: the competition.
You have begun to affect the interests or to enter the markets of others, they have become an implacable competitor…
In the process of evolving your business, one day you hired the first employees, then more, and so on. During the first days of fighting, everyone looked at you with admiration and affection, because you offered them a job. Suddenly the business begins to do well, and your income begins to increase, and suddenly a jealousy begins to develop that over time turns into envy, many cases turns into hatred. It is common in our society to hear phrases like "the damned boss", logically alluding to the one who offered them the job they were so grateful for at the time.
Again, this entrepreneur who one day dreamed of transforming his life for the better, now faces a situation where many times he no longer knows who is with him and who wants to destroy him. (Not to mention the professional extortionists "so fashionable" now in our country.) This situation begins to breed a general distrust between both parties, wears them down and antagonizes them. Friends with whom he spent a lot of time before, first feel offended by the friend's increasing absence, without realizing that he, previously employed 40 hours a week, now has to work endless hours in which there are no neither arrival nor departure time.
The family, "before you had more time for us" now we hardly see you and when you arrive you are very tired and unwilling to do anything.
That brave dreamer who abandoned his peace and comfort in search of a better life, and invested his savings, his maximum effort and iron will, at the cost of his health, now diminished by the effort and the lack of attention to his person, has achieved money and satisfiers; he has lost friends and made enemies, hated by many of his employees, a target of the government and his competition, and a family from which he has become estranged.
Yes: "he has become the loneliest being in the world."
When reading this testimony, one thing remains with me: I do not know how I am going to achieve it or what the methodology will be, but I do not want to become that man alone.
My professional training as a Lic. In culinary arts was totally absent from any indication of learning about how to be an entrepreneur. One day I found myself behind the desk, full of dreams and devoid of administrative knowledge and guidance, on the way I make many mistakes. At first beating forging and getting up every time I fall.
That is why I recap from this and other authors, some keys to becoming a beloved, respected and successful entrepreneurial entrepreneur.
I reiterate that nothing that is written here is designed or invented by me, it is a compilation of concepts and teachings that many of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world have given us.
Definition of company
If we have decided to be entrepreneurs, the first thing we must be clear about is the definition of a company.
The Britannia encyclopedia explains: company is the union of material, human, technological, financial resources, which are combined to achieve a common goal.
Nothing more aberrant than this definition.
People are NOT resources: we are human beings with souls, dreams, and aspirations, who seek in their employment to be treated with dignity, with humanism, not as a disposable and changeable resource.
The first rule of thumb for a successful entrepreneur is to put your coworkers first.
The most successful entrepreneurs on the planet have come to redefine the company as follows:
"A company is a group of people, human beings, who with technological and financial resources, among others, come together to achieve a common goal, for the benefit and well-being of all."
The platform of building a successful company is considering your co-workers as the most important asset of the same.
Universal values applied in the company
Today the first problem in the world is poverty and the loss of values, abuses and consequences that always accompany it:
- Economic poverty, or absence of material things and belongings. Intellectual poverty, or absence of education and knowledge. Spiritual poverty, or absence of values and faith.
Curiously, and not by coincidence, the richest and most successful companies in the world have a very clear culture in relation to the values that are lived in it.
Wealth distribution
Much has been said about why there are rich societies and poor societies.
Will it be the natural wealth of each country?
It seems like the most obvious answer to the question.
However, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela are examples of rich countries with poor inhabitants. They have natural resources, oil, forests, coastlines, mining, agricultural extensions; They are countries with many class differences, where a large percentage of its inhabitants live in poverty.
Japan, on the other hand, is a small island, the size of the state of Chihuahua and Aguas Calientes combined, and with 130 million inhabitants. Most of its territory is mountainous and not suitable for agriculture; However, it looks like a floating factory, since practically all its inputs are imported and transformed into highly valued products throughout the world.
Is it then the age of the countries that makes the difference? Perhaps it is race? Is it intelligence?…
So if it is not natural wealth, not age, not race, not intelligence, why is there so much difference between the economies of peoples?
The answer is: the attitude of people around human values makes a difference.
Studies agree that the industrialized or rich countries have as a common denominator the roots of values in their society.
The values of a company are not negotiable
If you are going to start the path as an entrepreneur, you must be very clear that the path of company administration based on human values is the best to take, the most effective and fast, and above all sustainable and permanent.
Leadership
Leader, is that person capable of convincing and guiding a group of people to achieve a common planned objective. Unlike a boss, the leader does not command: he convinces. Much has been debated as to whether a leader is born or made.
Buffaloes are animals that blindly follow their leader, therefore, if he throws himself off a rock, the others will also follow him; on the contrary, the geese fly in the V position. The one in front has the greatest responsibility and the greatest effort, must guide the group, but not for long, since those who come behind are ready to periodically rotate the point vertex. This means that everyone knows perfectly the destination and the flight conditions; that is: everyone knows, shares and knows the mission. So in our companies we will have to transform the old buffalo into a renewed goose!
Mission and values
"No wind is favorable to a ship that does not know where it is going" (Seneca)
The mission of your company must be clear in the heads of others, and in no way should it be contaminated by economic aspirations, that is, people who start a business motivated solely by the expectation of economic generation, are more likely to fail. than those who do it for more reasons, such as love for that business, hobby, vocation, knowledge, passion, etc. money should not be the goal of a company, it will come as a logical consequence when things are done well.
Logically, the mission of your company must be perfectly aligned with your own life mission. There are many people, unfortunately the majority, some even successful entrepreneurs; who are not clear about their personal mission.
View
Vision is simply closing your eyes and dreaming of your organization at the culmination point of its yearnings. Dare yourself! And transmit it to your entire company.
Define your life mission and your personal values, and organize your company so that its mission and values are defined and thus form a business culture.
Alignment and selection of personnel
One of the rarest values in the human being is alignment or congruence. It consists of thinking, speaking and acting along the same lines, being congruent.
We all want to give an adequate image in our environment, and most of the time, that image is not aligned with who we really are, with our essence.
The complex thing is to live, think, feel, love, speak and act along the same lines.
It is very important to give ourselves to the task, in a very serious and professional way, to choose our collaborators. Generally, employers spend very little time in the selection of personnel, especially in those positions, apparently of little importance. Later, when the lack of values are detected: theft, abuse, we wonder why.
The art of organizing teamwork
I sadly remember that popular tale from years ago:
“A guy used to collect crabs in the Rio Grande:
When the friend approached him and questioned him about his activity, he replied:
- Well here, collecting crabs. And why do you select them? And you put them in different buckets, one covered and the other uncovered? Look, explains the friend, first I check the crabs, and determine if they are North American or Mexican. I put the Americans in the lidded bucket and the Mexicans in the uncovered one. Why? -Asked the friend -Very easy, when the North American crabs get together, they begin to form towers to remove the top one from the bucket. What about the Mexicans? You don't need to cover those crabs, he answers, at the moment that one crab climbs the other to try to reach the edge, the others come and pull him down yelling: where are you going!
In Mexico, for the most part, we do not know how to work as a team, almost all entrepreneurs, large, medium or small, do not conceive the possibility of merging with their competitors, since in their ideology, they have to be the ones who make the decisions completely, And again, we don't have the education to work as a team. We sadly see how globalization has brought powerful foreign companies to take over Mexican ones.
In your company, if you apply the basic concept of leadership, and you understand well the art of delegating, adding to the creation of a corporate culture based on values, you will surely obtain harmonious and effective teams.
Delegation
Assemble work teams, effective enough to make the decisions that concern their area, in a total way, this is called delegating.
Many people confuse delegating with abdication.
To abdicate is to throw responsibility in one or some people, without giving them the power to make decisions and without them being prepared for it.
Quality
It is important to have a system of processes that ensure quality in your company.
It's Murphy's Law: If things can go wrong, they will go wrong.
Therefore, if things go wrong or start to go wrong in your organization, far from looking for culprits, you review your procedures and start reengineering, things will go well. There are no pretexts.
Social responsability
There is a rule, divine for some, of nature for others, which says that the more you give, the more you receive.
The problems of our Mexico must be solved by society as a whole, in an interaction of society and government.
It is important to give something of ourselves: our time, effort, talent, use our relationships, knowledge to contribute something not only to society but to the planet in general.
Administration and finance
It is important to mention that the modern businessman must move to the rhythm of the society in which he interacts, however, he must take care of the basic principles of administration and finance and take care at all times not to fall into comfort areas, or workshop blinds.
Conclusions
You must have your mission, values and personal vision very defined, as well as the way in which you will play the different roles in your life. In this way you can design a culture of your company that is in accordance with your principles and operate the company with your same ideology and values.
Within this culture you allow your colleagues to have better access to better living standards, better wages, and higher levels of happiness.
Learn to form autonomous and effective work teams through leadership and delegation.
Being an entrepreneur is truly rewarding, we must never forget our origins, remember why, why, and what dream we had to form our own company.
References
- Héctor González González. (2012). Contemporary Entrepreneur Manual. SLP: DHARMA Editorial Group.
