Lesson learned - the role of the entrepreneur

There are things we communicate no matter what we say. I had two interesting experiences lately that drive me to a very useful learning I would like to share with you.

This year I took the entrepreneurship path. One business started in January, one in April. And my plans are for a few more in the near future. Because my dream was to be the type of entrepreneur who finds the opportunity in the market, the business idea, designs the concept, makes a development plan draft, finds appropriate people to work on it, motivates them and then....moves further to the next business. More like being a founder, a leader, a business developer, a salesman, but not a manager or an implementer (or not for longer than a few months).

Well, it works well for the second business, but it is definitely not working for the first one. And here is why:

For the first business, I tried to set the team expectations on my role and involvement in time. I stated how I am going to act, for how long I will be active and when I plan to detach. All the words. However, now I realize that even if I have somebody to fulfill the manager's role, the team still expects me to be there, to be involved, to lead, to manage, to implement. So now I realize that it did not matter what I said, as long as I behaved in a different way. I was there all the time, I was the glue of the team, I was motivating and inspiring, I was leading by example doing some things beyond my areas. Now I see this was only leading to trapping me in my own business, to people needing my presence - thing I do not wish since I want to be a serial entrepreneur. Conclusion: it doesn't matter what you say you want, as long as by behavior you already created a culture contrary to what you wanted!

For the second business, I acted in a different way. I did not put myself at the center of it, but I found somebody I trust and with who I have a good chemistry to be the center of it. While I am just her support from the shadow, the team is looking at her as being the leader and the manager. I communicate only with her, and she communicates further in the team. I only met the entire team once, and I could notice that everybody is attached to her, not to me - which gives me total freedom to detach from this business at any time. So now I can work on the concept, the strategy, the partnership development, the sales...but the team is and will be independent from me. Conclusion: if you want to have a business able to run without you, you need to stay in the shadow of the manager/ team leader.

I think this was a very valuable lesson for the future.