What Secret Ingredient Is Common To Successful Entrepreneurs?

A friend of mine asked, “What do successful entrepreneurs have in common?”

Is there a common recipe or a secret ingredient? One that is followed by Elon Musk, Robyn Smith, Adrian Gore, Aisha Pandor and Koos Bekker that we can all follow?

I spent the day with the legendary Bruce Whitfield recently, who has just released the book Genius. For Bruce’s Heavy Chef recipe entitled Think Globally, I asked Bruce my friend’s question.

Bruce said, “I’ve spent over 25 years of talking to people at various stages of their businesses, from micro startups to large corporations. I have found that there is one character trait they all have in common.”

What's that one thing? “It is optimism,” Bruce says.

Bruce elaborated. “It is not optimism in the sense of ‘sunny sunshine’. It is not kumbaya, campfire marshmallows, perfect weather, no wind, no mosquitoes, everything is going to be fine in the morning.”

“It is an optimism that is far more complicated than that,” Bruce said. “These entrepreneurs ask themselves, ‘Can I improve the world? Is what I'm seeking to do here going to improve the lives of others?’”

I believe Mr Whitfield is right. However, how the heck can we be optimistic when the world seems crazy? In a post-Covid world, stress and anxiety is rife. Mental health is a pandemic of its own. Opinions on everything are binary. Corporate corridors are crawling with conflict. Government is (still) a mess.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been receiving some harrowing messages from entrepreneurs within the community. Some examples (with names changed):

“I just can’t do this alone as I’m not cut for this,” says Aja, founder of an e-commerce platform website.

“I feel so overwhelmed, almost suicidal,” says Thatho, founder of an AI app.

In response, Bruce Whitfield defers to our very own Elon Musk: “He is an astonishing optimist. Believing that the world is going to implode and we’d better go and set up a colony on Mars, doesn't sound particularly optimistic. What's optimistic about him is Musk’s belief that we can turn around climate change. His belief that we can actually begin to address the issues of sustainability.”

Optimism, of course, is not a recipe for success. In fact, there’s no such thing as a ‘recipe for success’.

Here at Heavy Chef, recipes are merely a guideline. One that encourages creativity in the entrepreneur’s kitchen. The learning bites that make up each recipe can be mixed and matched, continually examined and readjusted.

Consider the view of Koos Bekker, the former CEO of Naspers. “I think ‘recipes’, like ‘principles’, are dangerous,” says Koos in Ebbe Dommisse’s book Fortunes: The Rise And Rise Of Afrikaner Tycoons. “Both imply a certain timelessness to your outlook, a rock-solid truth you were born with and with which you will die.”

I subscribe to Jim Collins’ view on optimism in the chapter on optimism in Good To Great, entitled The Stockdale Paradox.

Admiral James Stockdale revealed his own recipe to how he survived being a POW under brutal conditions. “Confront the brutal facts, but never give up hope,” was Admiral Stockdale’s answer.

This is not so much of a recipe, but a framework of thinking. We need to know the truth of what’s happening in our sector. It’s bloody hard. People like Aja and Thatho are battling brutal conditions, right now.

Personally, I think there is a sub-theme to optimism that I’ve noticed in all the entrepreneurs we’ve featured on Heavy Chef. I see this also in so many of our community members.

It is courage.

The storyteller and creative strategist Pierre du Plessis told Heavy Chef that the root etymology of courage is the French word, cor. It means ‘heart’.

If ever there was a common secret ingredient to all the recipes, I’d say it’s the courage, the heart, shown by our sector.

We spent a day with Robyn Smith last week, capturing a recipe that will feature soon on Heavy Chef. Robyn is the phenomally successful founder of Faithful to Nature, but it wasn’t always fun and roses. The first seven years of Robyn’s startup were chaotic and often terrifying.

Without optimism and courage, Robyn would never have opened herself up to the possibilities that were around the corner.

Aisha Pandor, in her Heavy Chef recipe on ‘Creating A Platform’ says: “Ideally, you want to open up limitless possibilities for yourself, infinite possibilities. I should be able to say, ‘Today when I wake up, I can be anything, I can be anywhere I want to be.’”

We asked Bruce what his own recipe is. His response was suitably cryptic. “I don’t believe there is a single recipe. It’s like Tito Mboweni’s recipes, you never know what’s going to come out on the other side.”

Bruce did give us this: “I’m not sure I have a secret ingredient. If there is a recipe, it is my deep belief in the power of humanity to do good. I want to tell those stories of hope and show people what is possible.”

Now that is optimism.

Peace -