There are four types of entrepreneurs and you may find yourself in one or two of these categories throughout your journey. I would like to share with you what I learned recently from Chalene Johnson, while attending her Marketing Impact Academy. This is an annual conference I attend which is for entrepreneurs looking to build a successful business.
The characteristics of entrepreneurs and why some people are successful is my focus today. We need to recognize what is holding us back from success and highlight the areas that we can work on to reach our full potential in our business. Chalene focused on the four types of entrepreneurs, I will give details on which characteristics work in your favor and which may be working against you.
As an entrepreneur in a multi-level marketing business such as myself, I am a distributor with Beachbody, I recommend reading Eric Worre’s book Go Pro , which is a phenomenal book written for people working in the network marketing industry. Worre details the different types of people who join network marketing and how people succeed and also why so many fail at multi-level marketing.
The four types of entrepreneurs as described in Marketing Impact Academy are:
#1 Educated Dreamer – This person is highly educated, goes through all the trainings, and fully understands the potential of the business they have. For the Beachbody coach, we know the potential of our business, but so many coaches never take the leap to get their business of the ground. They are often busy acquiring more knowledge and seem to think they must know everything about the business before beginning. More than likely this person needs to focus on personal development related to overcoming fear and confidence, I recommend Jon Acuff’s book Start, which will help you pinpoint what area might be scaring you from starting. It is often fear that keeps people from taking the leap into entrepreneurship, thinking that they will be ready as soon as they have gathered enough knowledge. For the educated dreamer, there is always more to learn so their business never really takes off.
#2 Processing Perfectionist – The processing perfectionist often gets caught up in the processes and in the development stage and wants everything to be perfect before implementing. These people make money, but often get caught up in what others are doing and try to perfect everything they put out into the world. For me, I often get caught up in this stage, but I am slowly realizing not everything needs to be perfect to be ok. To get out of this group you need to stop worrying about what other people think and what everyone else is doing, and just start. It is more important to get your message out there to the people, than to worry about what everyone else is doing.
#3 Jumper – These people are very good at a lot of things, super confident, and not afraid of putting themselves out there. They hear what others are doing and dive right in, which can generally be a good thing, but also may work against them as they often don’t master one single thing. Seem to always be jumping into new ways to get their message out there, but never really take time to focus. My advice for the jumper is to master one thing at a time and then move on. If social media is your thing, focus on one format before moving on to another.
#4 Soldier – This is the type of entrepreneur that will be most successful. Soldiers are willing to be on the front line, always putting themselves and their ideas out to the public is the soldier. They don’t need accolades, pats on the back, and are consistently working really hard at being focused and strategic. If given a process, they will do it in the correct order, step by step, without easily becoming distracted. This Is someone that is willing to go out on their own, with or without the support of people around them. Throughout my nine year journey with Beachbody, I continue to strive to be the soldier, like many of you though I find myself in falling into the other types as well. When you are persistent and consistent you are going to be 98% more successful than the rest of the people in your business. When consistent, these types of entrepreneurs will continue to work for the payoff and will succeed in the end. People who I contacted in the beginning of my business often times come back and realize I am still here and decide to join me. It is the fact that I am still here after all this time, just like the tortoise, that convince some people that entrepreneurship can work for them as well. In the end, slow and steady wins the race, be the tortoise not the hare.
You may see yourself in one or more of these groups, at any given stage of your career, what we all want to work towards is becoming the SOLDIER. Be consistent and persistent in your goal of becoming a successful entrepreneur and it WILL pay off for you.
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