When we try to distinguish the characteristics that separate successful entrepreneurs from those who either try and fail, or fail to try at all – the one that stands out the most is commitment.
There are business ideas floating around everywhere. As Harvard Business School’s Reza Satchu says, “Just think about what bothers you, and those are ideas.” The hard part – the distinguishing characteristic – is having the requisite belief in both yourself and the simple power of your idea.
“Commitment is where the magic happens,” says Satchu. “It focuses your energy and signals to others that you’re serious.”
Commitment may seem like a simple thing, but what stops so many people from fully committing is the realization that once they do, they’re rejecting so many other paths. This can be intimidating, acknowledges Satchu. But without total commitment, a business has little chance of succeeding.
“The surprising part is that once you commit, you’ll attract support and resources you never expected,” says Satchu. “People are drawn to conviction and determination.”
So what does it take to develop this confidence in yourself to commit, and trust that once you’ve taken that mental plunge, you’ll be able to see it through?
Satchu has nurtured hundreds of aspiring founders in his role as Senior Lecturer at HBS and as co-founder of NEXT Canada, an entrepreneurial incubator based in Toronto. He’s often reflected on where the similarities begin and end between the generally more entitled, self-assured HBS students and the more sweat-and-hustle founders of NEXT. He claims that one of the reasons he founded NEXT was to instill the same level of high expectations of founding a paradigm-shifting company in Canadian entrepreneurs as he saw as both a student and lecturer at HBS.
“I saw that it was not to do with hard work, or being less educated – it’s more that Canadians don’t produce the right tail outcomes,” says Satchu. “There’s no Canadian Google or Facebook. There’s not a big, novel idea. And I knew that there could be if we expanded the expectations that Canadian entrepreneurs have for themselves. The things they believe are possible to achieve.”
As for what gave him the ability to believe in himself and his ideas, Satchu credits his family and, specifically, his wife, for giving him the confidence to be all he could be. He often advises his students, many of whom are single and in their 20s, that their choice of a life partner is one of the key decisions they’ll make in determining their happiness and success.
The most difficult part of any journey is making that first decision to leap into it – to start. We’ve all experienced the power of making that decision; whether it’s in the momentum we suddenly get to finish a long-overdue home improvement project or the happiness that comes from finally telling someone special how you feel about them. The same truth applies to business. Once you make the decision that you are going to start a business, and that it will become your primary goal and means for supporting yourself and your family, the business universe will respond to your determination to see it through.
“People always want more info before the leap,” says Satchu. “You have to accept that there is risk associated with being a founder. What’s the downside? It doesn’t work, and you learn a tremendous amount. The upside is, something meaningful happens.”
