Solutions Are Entrepreneurs’ True Currency
After interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs, ELI’s Founder, Gary Schoeniger, has found one commonly held assumption that drives their behavior. They assume that by solving problems for others, they can empower themselves.
This is the deceptively simple logic from which all other entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors, and skills arise. It is also the underlying logic that enables them to recognize opportunities that others overlook.
From this perspective, entrepreneurs learn to see problems as opportunities. They learn to approach every problem, frustration, or unmet need they encounter as a potential opportunity. Learning to see the world empathically, their attention shifts to the community around them to understand the needs of others. They are observant, asking themselves why are we doing it this way, what is missing, and what can be improved?
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Being an Effective Leader During Turbulent Times
Charlie Katz, Executive Creative Director at Bitbean, interviewed Gary as part of his series “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company,” published by Authority Magazine. Gary shared some advice for those starting new ventures based on his entrepreneurial journey.
"I became an entrepreneur out of necessity. I wasn’t a great student in high school. I never went to college. I had a number of low-paying, high school diploma-type jobs. I failed at my first small business attempt. I found myself in my mid-20s, dead broke, unemployed, in debt. I took a borrowed ladder, strapped it on the roof of my car, and offered to clean the leaves out of people’s gutters. That experience taught me to think like an entrepreneur. I didn’t know what the word meant. I just realized the only way I was going to get somewhere in this world was by figuring it out by myself."
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