1 Simple Rule: Build a Circle of Trusted Advisors and Listen to Them

Seek honest feedback from yourself and others to try to overcome biases.

You may be dishonest with yourself (i.e., protect your ego), and others may not be entirely forthcoming with the truth. Whether deceiving yourself or being deceived by others, your decision-making quality will deteriorate. You need to seek honest feedback even if receiving that feedback can be uncomfortable (for you or the person giving it to you).

Recognize that others’ incentives and biases may impact the information you receive.

Some people may tell you what you want to hear to ingratiate themselves with you or to avoid conflict. However, such filtered information can negatively impact the quality of your decisions. Furthermore, the people giving you information may be biased and error-prone. Understanding the quality of the information you receive is essential in weighing that information when making your entrepreneurial decisions.

Form and use a trusted circle of advisors to help you overcome the status quo bias.

A trusted circle of advisors can provide the information and the confidence to change your entrepreneurial course of action. The trust of trusted advisers is essential because when seeking help, you make yourself vulnerable to them. Advice from trusted advisers is critical in entrepreneurship, especially when these advisers are experts in your particular domain. They can provide the intuition you need to enhance your confidence and take entrepreneurial action that can change the status quo.

Don’t shoot the messenger.

It is best to receive honest feedback from people. You can use that valuable information to learn, make better decisions, and enhance entrepreneurial performance. If you attack or show displeasure to people who give you negative feedback, they will be more reluctant to do so, and you will lose this vital source of learning.

2 Simple Rule: Don’t Journey Alone; Involve Others Because Entrepreneurship Needs to Be a Social Endeavor

Understand, build, and use your social capital.

Social capital refers to the goodwill you have developed with other people. This goodwill results in other people considering you to be kind, helpful, and friendly, which creates strong relationships. The trust, reciprocity, and closeness underlying social capital can help you access information to identify opportunities, resources to exploit opportunities, and support if things go wrong.

Understand and manage your social identity.

As an entrepreneur, you have an identity based on multiple roles, such as an entrepreneur, parent, sibling, and community member. These roles can sometimes conflict, so you must manage these roles to minimize the conflict. You can establish boundaries around your different roles and rules for when one role takes precedence over another (e.g., place, time, and person). How people categorize you and your business can also reflect your identity. Your identity impacts your social motivation as an entrepreneur, how you evaluate your entrepreneurial performance, and who you compare yourself to when benchmarking your entrepreneurial performance.Footnote 1

Form a team to create and run your venture.

Teams create more than half of all new ventures. Even solo founders tend to eventually create a team. Teams can be highly effective at undertaking entrepreneurial activities, especially when team members have prior shared experience with each other. A team can provide you with a greater scope of know-how, but you need to know who knows what—who to turn to when different functions need to be performed. If you create a diverse team, you are likely to be more creative, but you also want to ensure some similarities across team members, such as similar ethical values.

Become and/or connect with brokers.

A broker connects previously disparate groups. If you become a broker, you can have a powerful position to benefit your venture. Alternatively, because entrepreneurs often identify opportunities without initial regard for resources, you may need to access important resources you do not have. A broker might connect you to a cluster of people with different attributes, knowledge, and resources.

Use strong ties when high trust is required and weak ties when diverse resources are needed.

Strong ties connect you to people with whom you are close, such as your family and friends. They are helpful when you need trust to advance your venture, such as initially funding your startup with money. While your friends and family are a lot like you, your weak ties are acquaintances who are often different from you and those with whom you have strong ties. Therefore, weak ties are helpful when venturing requires information and other resources that you (and your strong ties) do not possess. For example, weak ties can provide diverse, valuable information for identifying and assessing a potential opportunity.

3 Simple Rule: When It Comes to Building Relationships, Don’t Always Go for What Is Easy and Natural

Look for people who are dissimilar to spice up your mind.

Building relationships with similar and nearby people is okay because it is easy and fun. These are your strong ties. They are similar to you, which is why building relationships with them is so easy. However, it would be best if you also had weak ties. Weak ties are not similar to you and are likely not located near you. Therefore, they are more challenging to find and connect with. However, they offer different information and other useful resources to develop the creativity and innovativeness needed for entrepreneurship.

Engage with dissimilar others through shared activities.

To find dissimilar others, join a sports club, a volunteer group, or a bike-riding group. These types of activities will likely connect you with more diverse people than your current friends and family. Besides, such shared activities will trigger interaction and help you develop relationships with these “different” others. Therefore, you can build strong relationships with diverse people when you find and share a common interest.

Find brokers to connect you to others.

Brokers act like bridges between two separate groups of people; they can provide the link to groups outside your current network. Expanding your network in this way can increase your access to different information and other resources critical for entrepreneurship’s creative and innovative work. Consider who the brokers to diverse groups are and connect with them, perhaps by offering your services.

Become a broker.

Use your network position to make connections between two groups that are relatively disconnected from each other. For example, use your network to help people find the resources they need by linking them to people you know. Perhaps you can develop a reputation for connecting people. This can be a powerful position to hold. However, as you connect people, they may no longer need you.

4 Simple Rule: Engage Others in Dialogue Like a “Good” Professor Does in a Case Discussion

Prompt dialogue and debate to improve decision quality.

A good professor does not just lecture; they do not just tell students about their knowledge. Instead, a good professor prompts dialogue and debate about critical issues. As an entrepreneur, you will want to prompt dialogue and debate with other venture members to generate creative and innovative ideas. This dialogue and debate may create conflict, but that conflict is functional when it revolves around a task and how to execute it.

Encourage alternate viewpoints to stimulate thought.

There is little dialogue or debate about whether everyone has the same viewpoint. It would be best to tap into alternate viewpoints to create dialogue and debate. These alternate viewpoints enable venture members to explore alternatives, consider contingencies, and develop backup plans. People may be reluctant to share their alternate viewpoints. It is up to you to encourage people to express their alternate views. Indeed, people often share information that is common among those in the meeting at hand but do not share unique information—information that they have others do not have. That unique information is critical to introduce into the meeting to stimulate dialogue and debate for better decisions.

Be less interested in people having the right answer and more interested in them thinking about issues the right way.

When discussing a case, a professor might always say it is more important to think about the issue correctly than to know the case’s outcome. Although students may not buy this argument, the professor emphasizes the process rather than the outcome. You can do the same. Given the uncertainty, an exemplary process does not always lead to a good outcome. However, if you focus on the process, you will receive better outcomes on average over time.

5 Simple Rule: Emphasize Inquiry with Others (Instead of Advocacy) for Generating Creative and Innovative Outcomes

Engage in conflict with curiosity.

Conflict over the nature of a task can be highly functional. Good things can happen when a team has diverse perspectives and feels comfortable sharing them within the team. These diverse perspectives can lead to dialogue and debate. Dialogue and debate can generate creative and innovative outcomes. It would be best to ensure that this task conflict does not become relationship conflict. Relationship conflict occurs when matters become of a negative personal nature. An excellent way to ensure that dialogue and debate lead to creativity rather than relationship conflict is to approach such team interactions with curiosity. Curiosity refers to an interest in understanding another person’s perspective and, in this case, the nature of an entrepreneurial problem, issue, and/or response.

Encourage different opinions.

Even in highly diverse teams, team members often do not share the unique information they have that could be useful for entrepreneurial performance. Ensure you encourage people with different opinions to express their opinions to enhance task conflict for more creative and innovative solutions. It would be best to create a psychologically safe climate to encourage people with different opinions to express them. A psychologically safe climate allows people to voice information that is different from what has already been expressed and can be critical to the entrepreneurial process.

Be cognitively open and flexible.

If you approach task conflict with curiosity and passion for the process, you will be cognitively open and flexible to enable the best alternative to arise. This combination of openness and flexibility can generate highly creative and innovative outcomes. It would be best to have a diverse team and the right mindset to enable this to happen (helped by the two points above).

Use procedural fairness so people know they are valued.

If you allow people to express their opinions and consider those opinions in your decision-making process, then you offer procedural fairness. Procedural fairness is based on the process of generating task conflict and coming to a decision. You will not necessarily select team members’ recommendations. Procedural fairness simply means that these individuals are an essential part of the process; they are valued, and you fully consider their opinions and other people’s opinions when coming up with your decisions.

Be passionate about the process.

Although you may be interested in the outcome of your entrepreneurial team’s work, it is best to focus on the process rather than the outcome. You can control and improve the process, eventually leading to good outcomes. In environments of uncertainty, the same cannot be said for a specific outcome. It may have resulted from bad luck rather than a lousy process.

6 Simple Rule: To Access Resources, Learn How to Tell a Good Story

Tell plausible stories of your entrepreneurial future.

Entrepreneurship often involves generating an idea for a potential opportunity without regard for the resources needed to exploit it. However, that does not mean resources are not necessary. It just means they need to be accessed from resource holders. To gain access, you must tell a compelling story of an envisioned future in which the focal opportunity is exploited and the desired outcomes are realized. Because it is a story about the future—abstract and hypothetical—a lot of the story’s success depends on the storyteller. Learn to be an excellent storyteller to access resources and exploit opportunities.

Although it is somewhat expected, be careful telling legitimacy lies.

Although your venture may lack legitimacy, all new ventures lack legitimacy (e.g., the liabilities of newness). Some entrepreneurs tell lies to make their new ventures appear more legitimate—for example, saying a venture will double in size every year, a venture is just about to sign a deal with Walmart, and a venture doesn’t have any competitors. At best, resource providers dismiss such legitimacy lies as expected tactics entrepreneurs use to try to paint a rosy picture to access resources. At worst, resource providers become wary of people who tell lies regardless of how routine they are in the industry. While you should work to establish your venture’s legitimacy in the story you tell, lies will not help and may harm your case. In telling your entrepreneurial story, be truthful about who you are and what you want to do. Your audience perceives this truthfulness as authenticity.

Tell an engaging story.

You can motivate your audience by offering a plausible story that makes sense, is cohesive, and offers a good roadmap to a successful outcome. The more you tell a story to yourself and others, the more feedback you receive and the more plausible your story becomes. Include your desire in the story because doing so highlights your motivation for exploiting the focal opportunity and persevering through obstacles that are likely to appear at various stages throughout the entrepreneurial process. Don’t sugarcoat or tell a rosy story of your venturing so far. Talk about your adversity and how you have overcome obstacles. These struggles make your story more interesting and communicate your resilience, which will likely also be needed in the future.

Your story may need to emphasize the jockey or the horse.

Some resource holders will emphasize you (the entrepreneur, i.e., the jockey) over your venture’s opportunity (i.e., the horse). These are often early stage stakeholders. They believe that many changes will occur at such an early stage and that surprises will happen. They ask themselves about you, “Can this person adapt to these unforeseen changes?” When telling a story to these investors, talk about your venture’s opportunity, but realize that they will broadly assess you as the entrepreneur. Give them the information they seek in your story. Other investors will emphasize your venture’s opportunity. These investors are typically involved at a later stage, when there is less uncertainty about your opportunity’s attractiveness. They believe they can always replace you if your opportunity is sufficiently attractive. In such a situation, tell a story that emphasizes your venture’s opportunity, development, and course corrections.

7 Simple Rule: Know Your Worth and Communicate It to Others for Effective Pricing

Don’t underprice yourself.

While you may believe in yourself and your venture, you may sometimes undervalue yourself and your venture’s value-added contributions. If you undervalue yourself, others will undervalue you, and your venture will not be as successful as it could have been. To improve your value, consider how a good friend would describe you to others. Take this outsider’s perspective to understand your positive attributes.

Communicate the value you create for others.

With good reason, you may be reluctant to “toot your own horn” or present an inflated ego, but valuing yourself is less about these forms of boasting. At least in the entrepreneurial context, you should communicate the value your venture can establish for customers. It is not about tooting your own horn but communicating how you can serve (or help) organizations: “I want to contribute, and I think I can in the following ways.”

Don’t diminish or understate yourself, efforts, or outcomes.

While humility is an endearing attribute, it should not prevent you from creating a positive image and reputation for your business. Don’t use language that understates your importance, venture, and market offerings. Your language communicates your worth. Using the language of venture humility is counterproductive.

8 Simple Rule: Ask for Help.

Seek help when you need it.

Seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness. It signals that you are sufficiently self-confident and not so egotistic that you think asking for help diminishes your status in the eyes of others. Instead, asking for help means trusting the person approached, being curious to learn, and being committed to your venture’s success. It also suggests that you are willing to help others when they need it through reciprocity. It can strengthen your relationship with other venture members.

Realize we all need help sometimes, which is usual in creative endeavors.

Sometimes, people face a problem and need help to resolve it but do not seek help because they are embarrassed to do so—they think it signals their incompetence. It is important to remember that everyone needs help at some stage of their work. You are not alone. Rather than becoming isolated, connect to people and help them when they need help. Your venture can establish a helping culture that strengthens cooperation with the venture.

Help the helper by sharing information about the problem or obstacle at hand.

This preparation for being helped respects the helper’s time and maximizes your benefit from the interaction. Find the right person to help you. It might be someone with expertise, but it could also be a person you find trustworthy—they will not take advantage of your vulnerability. It is also important to consider people’s accessibility at the time you need help. You want a person who is accessible and has some spare time to help you in the needed way. Don’t forget to thank them. They have given you time on a task not formally part of their job.

Don’t worry that you are wasting their time.

This worry is a common excuse for not seeking help. However, in doing so, you may underestimate the pleasure that others receive from the prosocial activity of helping. Helping typically makes people feel good about themselves, feel stronger toward you, feel closer to your organization, and appreciate your gratitude. Besides, help involves a bond of reciprocity. They know that you will be willing to help them one day.