Lucky or Smart? Which is it?

BLOGGER'S NOTE: The following evangelism is 100% genuine and 100% unprovoked. 'Nuff said.

"The number one killer of start-ups is when entrepreneurs confuse ‘being lucky’ with ‘being smart.’ You must possess the humility to distinguish one from the other.

Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies."

That’s a snippet from Bo Peabody’s Lucky or Smart? Secrets to an Entrepreneurial Life - an early contender for the best business book of 2005.

Bo Peabody is best known for co-founding Tripod, a personal publishing Internet site. Since selling Tripod to Lycos in 1998, he has co-founded five other businesses. Bo’s recently published book, Lucky or Smart?, shares lessons he has learned from his entrepreneurial business life.

In a mere 58 pages, Bo shares compelling stories, gives poignant perspective, and offers a trove of sage business advice that will benefit any entrepreneur and entrepreneur wannabe. (So in this case, size doesn't matter.)

The premise of Lucky or Smart? is simple … entrepreneurs are not more lucky than smart or more smart than lucky. Instead, successful entrepreneurs are smart enough to know when they are getting lucky.

I loved his perspective that entrepreneurs are better off being B-students and not A-students. (Hmm … where does that put a C-student like me?) In a chapter titled, “Entrepreneurs are B-Students. Managers are A-Students.,” Bo writes …

"B-students don’t know everything about anything and are excellent at nothing. B-students, however, know something about a lot of things, and they can complete almost any task with some modicum of success. Entrepreneurs are B-students. There is no one thing they do well. But there are many thing they do well enough.

A-students, on the other hand, know a lot about one thing, whether it is technology or marketing or sales and finance. And they do this thing extremely well. If they don’t do it well, it bothers them. A-students want to do things perfectly all the time. This is a very bad trait for an entrepreneur, but a very good trait for a manager.

The most important thing to realize when you’re a B-student entrepreneur is that you need A-student managers. You must listen to them. You have no choice. The good news is that A-students must also listen to B-students, because B-students know about aspects of life and business that A-students know nothing about. While most A-students are really good at one thing, they tend to be completely out to lunch when it comes to most everything else. On the other hand, B-students are really good at being sort of good at everything.

The sooner the B-students and the A-students understand and appreciate each other, the more productive everyone will be."

*********************************************************************
Good stuff, eh? I think so and so does Jack Covert of 800-CEO-READ. Jack recently gushed about Lucky or Smart? So there, take it from us … go buy it ... go read it ... go dig it.

Comments

[Rob]

And I thought short but relevant books was a lost art... seems like most everything has to be 200-300 pages.

[Karsten]

I'm half way through it already and feel compelled to say something. I love this book. I've started 4 companies and it just reaffirms the beliefs I have had on starting a business. Its a quick read, with some valuable lessons. Get it, enjoy and passs it on to someone else.