Entrepreneur

3.MY PUBLIC IMPACT

Throughout Chapters 1 and 2 we looked at, among other things, the personal characteristics that may increase the chances of success as an entrepreneur and considered methods to increase the personal effectiveness in your everyday life. However, there is a third perspective to the personal factor, which is vital to entrepreneurs: the ability to break through – to be heard and seen in public. In this chapter, we will look at various practical aspects of this, as personal persuasion power can make an important difference as to whether you get the start-up project up and running or not.

People who work in well-established, well-known and profitable companies might survive without exhibiting the greatest personal impact, as the company does the job for them. But start-ups often depend entirely on the entrepreneur's personal ability to persuade and force change, and there are vast differences in how good people are at this. We have probably all noticed that some people really make an impression in the media, while others do not. Similarly, there are some sellers who could sell sand in the Sahara and others who could not sell ice in the self-same place. And some people are brilliant at negotiating, while others are not.

Start-up companies often rely entirely on the entrepreneur's personal ability to make changes.

Some might say that such capabilities cannot be taught, but we think they can. The ability to make a personal impact for sure involves a degree of ...