Lessons From The Dragon’s Den’s Robert Herjavec Part 2

November 29, 2010

I recently read Herjavac’s book “Driven: How To Succeed In Business And In Life” and found it very insightful for further understanding the personal qualities someone must have for entrepreneurial success.  Most importantly, it’s advice from someone who has reached the very pinnacle of business success, so it’s very much worth listening to.

This article series will focus on the traits and values Herjavec thinks a person must have to not just “make it” in the real estate business but be a hit-the-baseball-out-of-the-ballpark success.  It’ll also be useful for brokers on what to look for when hiring new sales reps for their office.

In the classic real estate sales movie Glengarry Glen Ross there’s a sign in the sales office that says “Salesman are born, not made”.  Herjavec’s book makes a pretty substantial case for that being true throughout the book by examining the major differences between entrepreneurs, executives and managers.  He discusses how each type has very different thought processes, motivations, and values, many of which are innate.  Some are conducive to successful entrepreneurship, and some are not.  One of the central points of the book is that many people who start a business or have thus far only been moderately successful business owners may ultimately be doomed to failure or perpetual mediocrity because as people they’re more like executives or managers than entrepreneurs.

Herjavec repeatedly demonstrates the mindset differences between entrepreneurs, managers and executives are vast.  So it’s unlikely a manager could “learn” to be an entrepreneur, and vice versa, but for Herjavac it’s not impossible.  He doesn’t try discouraging people from becoming entrepreneurs.  Rather, he offers a deep understanding of the overall mindset of successful entrepreneurs for two reasons:

1) let the people who have the requisite entrepreneurial mindset know they have what it takes to succeed as such and

2) let people lacking in the requisite entrepreneurial mindset know what they need to change about themselves to get up to par.  This allows them to self-assess and determine if they’re comfortable in even trying to make those changes in themselves.  If they aren’t, then they may be playing a losing game in seeking success as an entrepreneur and are probably better off being a manager, executive or something else.

Filed under: Inspiration

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