Do you have what it takes?by Derek Lidow “Do I have what it takes?” We get asked that all the time. Unless we get to know you really well and understand what you aspire to do, we cannot give a good and legitimate answer. We believe the worst thing we could do is give someone a cliche answer like, “you can do whatever you put your mind to,” or, “with the right team you can accomplish anything.” In a previous Quick Tip we discussed how to tell good advice from bad advice; in this newsletter we will discuss how to self-evaluate, “How good am I at doing a specific skill?” Remember that a skill is an ability to perform a prescribed task, and a great deal of your ability to succeed as an entrepreneur lies in how well you can perform the required skills. In our sprints we discuss the range of skills you need to succeed in finding good ideas, to successfully lead yourself and others through the startup process, and to simply yet effectively start to bring your idea to fruition. Start answering “do you have what it takes,” by writing down what skills you have and what skills you think you are missing to be successful in founding and leading your startup. The key now is to realize that there are five levels of ability in the performance of any skill and they are easy to understand and measure. The lowest level is “not skilled,” which means you do not know how to perform one of the prescribed tasks you listed that are needed to do your startup. “Not skilled” is where everyone begins and most people never get past. You can only get skilled if you have the motivation to learn the skill and then you practice it with a skilled teacher or coach. The next level is gaining a “basic awareness” of the skill to the point where you can perform the skill with the help of a coach or teacher. You know how to describe how the skill is performed and you have performed it enough times that you can successfully accomplish the prescribed task while supervised but unaided. Think of this as solving an algebra problem in front of your teacher without any hints. You could then legitimately say you have basic algebra skills. The third level is where you are “competent.” You are competent when you can perform the prescribed task reliably without any supervision, whenever prompted, given enough time and attempts. Think of this as getting a good grade on your algebra homework. You can rightfully claim to be “masterful” at a skill when you can perform the prescribed task reliably and under time and environmental pressure. Think of this as being good enough to get a near perfect grade on every algebra test and pop quiz. The top tier is “best-in-class.” You achieve that when you can perform the prescribed task perfectly reliably under extreme pressure and under any conditions. Think of this as the level where you win awards for performing the skill, as when competing with the top algebra students in your region.
The good news is that you and your team only need to be best-in-class at the specific skill or skills that deliver the happiness, or cause the happiness to be delivered to your customers. And you only need to be best-in-class relative in how you are serve and hunt for customers. For example, if you aspire to start a neighborhood diner, then you need to be better than anyone in the neighborhood at preparing and serving an exciting diner menu of food in an exciting place, no matter how much pressure customers, your team, your suppliers, the economy, and competitors put on you. If you plan to serve and prospect for customers globally, then you and your team need to be best-in-the-world. Because today’s technologies enable you to easily offer and sell your products and services globally, it put lots of pressure on founders to produce exceptional products and services. The point is that in order to gain enough customers–and to keep them–you need to set very high expectations for yourself and your team in the specific area of “where and how you deliver exemplary happiness”. With gratitude, Derek and Ben P.S. If you like what we’re doing, please consider recommending this newsletter to another person you think would benefit from us. It really helps us build out our free content platform.
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