The internet is plastered with items on how to be a “successful entrepreneur”.

After a brief thought, it is a bit of a silly statement. What categorises somebody a success?

• That they survive?
• That they generate a certain level of sales within a year or five years?
• That they become a chain of outlets?
• That they commence operations outside their home territory?

When I talk to many people just starting out, they rarely have such a defined vision. They are merely looking to get past the next financial crisis.

This week, my eye caught two interesting articles, which gave a perspective on how to judge success. The background is that Israel has just celebrated its 64th birthday and the country’s press is full of “well done” type items.

The first piece asked each of ten well known local personalities to name a person, whom they most respected, mainly for their contributions to commerce. The final list was ten people or heads of companies, who had taken a long hard road to establish themselves. Fairly obvious stuff.

What impressed me far more was a report from the holy city of Jerusalem. Six separate businesses were identified, where each one had been founded by somebody under the age of thirty years old: –

• a gym
• real estate school
• an internet site to connect parents with private teachers
• a specialist packaging operation
• an event planner
• a baby products distributor

That is a varied list. The owners come from all parts of society. Some had already been working. Some had a degree. Some had a small amount of private capital to start with. Yet there is no single obvious common denominator.

Let’s go back to what I wrote about Ronen Nimni, who by the age of 15 had worked out that he possessed something “extra” in the commercial world. 35 years later, he has progressed from selling pictures door-to-door and now owns several restaurant chains in Israel. Not too much formal education in Nimni’s story.

The point being that Nimni understood that he had a talent and went out to discover a way how to exploit it. He believed in himself. And that same theme comes out in the story of the people above. 

This week, I had my second meeting with the owner of a new pizza parlour, also a man still in his 20s and resident in Jerusalem. He has a clear vision for his business and he wants to take it to a chain of a few premises within 3-5 years. That is his target, because he does not feel that he has the ability to go further.

I urged my pizzaman not to let his brain to be the restriction on his talents. The mental process should be the methodology which creates an outlet for our human skills and thus towards new achievements.