JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog

Recently, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article called “The Sure Thing” in The New Yorker which shares the “entrepreneurial stories” of individuals such as media mogul Ted Turner and hedge-fund manager John Paulson.

I found this article fascinating because it speaks to something that I believe most entrepreneurs do not truly understand. And that is in order to realize very significant success in pursuing an entrepreneurial venture, the best entrepreneurs have a deep understanding as to why their products or services are going to be successful against the competition — and in many cases they understand this before they have even created the product.

Most entrepreneurs fall in love with their products or services. This article speaks to how both Turner and Paulson became experts regarding the industries their companies were operated in and how some of the “fundamental truths” in these industries were 100% wrong. These entrepreneurs, with deep insight and understanding, did the unthinkable by thoroughly understanding a few fundamental truths regarding their industries that others did not see or ignored.

Gladwell’s article is based on a new book called “From Predators to Icons,” written by French scholars Michel Villette and Chatherine Vuillermot who set out in the book to uncover what successful entrepreneurs have in common. This book shares that truly successful business leaders are anything but a risk-takers. But rather predators who seek to incur the least risk possible while hunting.

Every startup entrepreneur should read this article to help them to pause and consider some of the fundamental truths they are operating under as they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. In most cases, there is likely going to be some additional homework they should do to increase their likelihood for sucess and reduce the risk of their new venture.

Ray Leach is CEO of JumpStart and brings his energy and leadership experiences from founding five high growth entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial endeavors in the last 20 years. Ray is a Sloan Fellow and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also earned a BA in Finance from the University of Akron.

Ever since the recession of the early 2000s, Northeast Ohio’s economy has struggled to maintain our competitiveness vis-a-vis other communities and regions in the U.S. This has been well documented of late. We have also suffered problems here in Northeast Ohio well before other areas of the country. Our challenges around foreclosures a few years ago are now the challenges for much of the entire nation.

If you think about the big picture, you can see that Northeast Ohio is much like a “canary in a coal mine.” Our economy has been challenged by critical, significant issues such as globalization (via our loss of manufacturing jobs), increasing requirements of a broad and well-educated workforce, and the financial requirement (not just desire) for more competitive and streamlined government.

Could everyone else’s new found challenges (and the time it is going to take local communities to address some of these) give Northeast Ohio the opportunity to make tremendous progress in the next five years? I think the answer may be yes.

A serial entrepreneur who had left Northeast Ohio in 2003 to lead a company recently returned and commented to me that “the entrepreneurial landscape in the region has completely changed in just five years.” I think this is a great example of what this region can do.

In order for this to happen at a broader level it is going to require an enhanced level of leadership and a focused agenda. I think it can be said that all of Northeast Ohio’s efforts around regionalism, especially when aligned with the State’s Third Frontier and the Ohio Department of Development’s new strategic plan, could continue to play an even more significant role in help this region to catch up!

Ray Leach is CEO of JumpStart and brings his energy and leadership experiences from founding five high-growth entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial endeavors in the last 20 years. Ray is a Sloan Fellow and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also earned a BA in Finance from the University of Akron.