Dear Entrepreneur: Stop Dreaming and Just Launch That Start-up

Thus pleaded Naveen Jain in his latest blog on Forbes. And he explains how so many entrepreneurs, frequently brilliant in the home skills, spend all their time on perfecting a prototype that they never bring to market.

And it is not just the time that seems to disappear. So do lump sums of financial reserves. And in the end? Well, these talented people risk becoming another “me-too-tried-it-and-got-nowhere”.

This week, I met up with a mentoring client who has strong abilites in the sciences. Over two decades she has written several patents and has tried to perfect several products to infinitum. Naturally, her powerpoint presentations match the length of time she has taken on technology development.

Everytime, I asked a question, the conversation was drawn back to the concept. Using long complicated words, she detailed what the product could eventually do. And, no surprise, there are a wide range of commercial fields open for the platform technology.

Jain looks at the example of Microsoft, which rushed “Word” to market for all of its early faults. However, my client baulked, when I suggested just moving from the computerised drawing board to a prototype. I cannot do that until it is fully ready is a summary of her response.

The question is why. What stops people commercialising their own dream? Are they afraid of mistakes? Do they want to keep full control, even at the expense of making no money? Is it a case of entrepreneurs are just that? They love innovating, because they hate admin or sales or production or anything of real substance.

Successful entrepreneurs are not just clever. They are also brave. They also recognise  their own limitations, which exist in parallel to thier talents, and bring in a team. Then, these geniuses are “in business”.