How to Build The Perfect Entrepreneur

We’re familiar with the founder stereotype who emerged, business casual, from the womb with a passion for entrepreneurship and risk taking. Great companies, it seems, are built by gritty visionaries who are willing to take enormous risks to build something great. But does that story really hold up? There are a lot of romantic notions around what makes a good entrepreneur and a lot of those are founded in survivor bias, in other words, the startups that succeed get to tell their stories the loudest.

Are entrepreneurs born that way? I don’t believe that a good entrepreneur is necessarily born to take greater risks, but I do think that becoming an entrepreneur requires a certain level of faith in oneself and in your dream. There are people that have a greater predisposition for taking risks than others and I also understand that there is a world of privilege that enables that for some, more than others.

I had a conservative upbringing. My parents wanted me to be a doctor. My father had a PhD in chemical engineering researching early forms of food technology. At the time, he was developing ways to keep food fresh in vending machines. My father was brilliant and great at his job, but he worked for someone else’s vision. He was not an entrepreneur.

I think about some of the people that I’ve met that seem like born entrepreneurs and they come from families completely different to mine with parents who were entrepreneurs and they were more comfortable with this sort of risk profile and the lifestyle of being an entrepreneur.

I've often said that one of the reasons that I became an entrepreneur is because of the success I had playing blackjack in college. It afforded me a steady income and the financial padding to pursue my entrepreneurial endeavors. Also, I didn’t have a real career path that I felt comfortable with. For me, the issue of risk was less relevant. When you're young and you’re just starting out and you don't have kids there's not nearly as much risk as people think.

Of course, when you’re a little further along in your career, there may be more risk involved in pursuing a new venture, but is that really risk, or just opportunity cost?

If we take risk out of the equation, what are some of the defining characteristics of a good entrepreneur?

Let’s start with stubbornness. A successful entrepreneur needs a hard head and thick skin.

When I meet an entrepreneur, I try to challenge them, because they often have too many people telling them how great their ideas are and that doesn't do them any good. They need to be able to push back and defend their choices because being an entrepreneur is incredibly hard. Within the life cycle of a company, you're going to fail more often than you succeed. You need an amount of stubborn self-belief and an optimistic confidence in your ideas to keep moving towards your goals. A good entrepreneur is a stubborn optimist.

I think charisma is also important and I mean that in the broadest sense. An entrepreneur is going to spend a fair amount of time cajoling, convincing and persuading other people to share his vision. Much of that can be learned, but there’s no denying the advantage that a magnetic and charismatic leader has in any new enterprise.

Being an entrepreneur has both highs and lows. The best parts are building something from scratch. The endless possibilities of the blank space. Then there are the milestones along the way, each one offering a little bit of encouragement and a dopamine hit, from getting in front of investors and pitching, to recruiting the right team to help realize your vision.

The downside is the self-doubt that can come from a setback or even just a slow day. Every decision and every outcome for an entrepreneur is magnified beyond its normal significance. Everything seems critical and that can be both exhilarating and exhausting.

I loved every bit of my time as an entrepreneur and coming into Microsoft, it’s no accident that I joined as head of Microsoft for Startups. I think, if I was leading a mature division or a long-established product line, I might have been a bit lost, but Microsoft for Startups operates very much like a startup itself and having the mindset of an entrepreneur is key to how this team works with entrepreneurs and startups all over the world.

Since I started at Microsoft for Startups, I get approached by entrepreneurs all the time and I am loving the opportunity this role gives me to pay things forward, to take the experiences that have shaped me and use them to guide and help others. I believe that Microsoft for Startups has the ability to help every entrepreneur along their startup journey. As we move through 2021 with a whole heap of optimism about the way this year will be different to the last, I look forward to working more entrepreneurs than ever, whether born or built, and helping them realize their vision for success.