As an avid reader of everything “entrepreneurship,” I often come across really interesting profiles of successful entrepreneurs, their stories and the tales of the serialization of their efforts. Just this morning, I read an online article profiling what a successful entrepreneur looks like, and I realized the perception we all share. We think of an entrepreneur as someone who lives in San Francisco, has a Computer Science degree from Stanford and lives in a trendy apartment with three other guys, hacking 24 hours per day. The media has celebrated the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and rightly so, with the existence of high profile exits such as WhatsApp and the high velocity valuations of companies such as Box, DropBox, Uber, etc.
But this stereotype of an entrepreneur is incomplete at best, a caricature at worst. This is not where and how most entrepreneurs live in their everyday lives. Talented, accomplished self-starters come in all shapes, sizes and characters, as real and everyday surprises.
Let me introduce you to someone I consider a great, everyday and real entrepreneur, one whom I have had the opportunity to get to know. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of building a high-growth, high-tech manufacturing business with him. His name is Joel and his entrepreneurial spirit is on fire.
Joel is a 35 year old farmer from the hill country in upstate New York. He grew up tending his family’s farm, fixing broken equipment and he has created a lifestyle of complete sustainability over the last ten years. He lives in a beautiful chalet-styled home on the top of a small hill overlooking the valley where spent his childhood. He heats his home off the grid, hunts to feed his family (not only for sport) and farms consistently to enjoy fresh vegetables and provide a life of sustainability for his two children. Joel is a good father and husband and is perhaps the most resourceful person I have ever known.
The other side of Joel is an intense, highly competitive entrepreneur who demands high levels of performance from his employees, services the customer to a level that could be taught at Harvard and is on a mission of developing the next generation of manufacturing talent in the USA. He teaches machining technology at night, leads a high-tech machining business by day, one that we grew together to $12MM from start-up. And he can boast a personal service relationship with companies such as General Electric and Dresser-Rand.
Joel’s nickname is MacGyver because of his resourcefulness. We joke admiringly about how he can make anything for any customer at any moment with just a few resources. He is the type of person that will take a piece of metal that is too small for a customer’s job, figure out how to fulfill the customer order with huge time constraints and still ends up with left over material because of his resourcefulness and efficiency.
Joel is a high-growth, hands-on entrepreneur who has created a following in his community as someone who gets things done and has helped build a fast paced, 21st-century manufacturing business from the ground up. Joel is an “Everyday Entrepreneur” who has experienced failure along the way, but who has demonstrated, with amazing focus and diligence, that you can build and grow a company in any community with the right passion, persistence and team.
As I read about the successful entrepreneurs in our country, I find myself coming back to Joel and admiring his talents and ability to succeed, more and more. Joel is a builder and has the results-proven credibility to generate a reliable following, to the point that every young manufacturing person in a 100-mile radius of our business wants to work with him and seeks, any way they can, to get his attention.
Joel does not have a 4-year Computer Science degree. In fact, he graduated from the BOCES program in high school and completed a 2-year degree from the local community college in manufacturing technology. He doesn’t have the “entrepreneurial pedigree” but yet has accomplished more than most entrepreneurs will ever dream to do. As I began pondering this paradox, I asked myself, what makes an “everyday entrepreneur” like Joel so successful? Here is a list of a few things that I have concluded:
1. Joel’s energy and passion are pervasive. He commands a loyal following because of his commitment to excellence and willingness to do whatever it takes to serve a customer.
2. Joel is independent. His upbringing, rural surroundings and family taught him to be able to fend for himself and not have to rely on others, not even to eat. He’s proven that he can accomplish whatever he puts his mind to and sees obstacles as opportunities to learn.
3. Joel is a problem-solver. He has earned the nickname MacGyver because he can solve almost any problem extemporaneously, seemingly effortlessly and imaginatively, with limited resources, and engages others into the process.
4. Joel has what I call a “natural service inclination.” His natural response to anything is to serve others, including his employees and customers, with an intense focus on making them happy. He has no ego and cares only for the team.
5. Most importantly, Joel is a leader. He is committed to his vocation with an undying passion and has a natural love for teaching young people his trade, setting a high standard and demanding excellence.
The most important aspect of Joel’s entrepreneurial profile, to me, is that he is a good friend. We started the company together and have remained friends that trust one another, for eight years now.
I started this post by exclaiming that I am avid reader of everything “entrepreneurship.” I love reading about successful people who have started companies, but I have recently realized how these highflying, dazzling profiles can sometimes discourage a lot of people. I often found myself comparing my journey to theirs and would feel discouraged or “far behind,” as I sometimes put it with friends and family. However, I started pondering who the “everyday entrepreneurs” are and how people like Joel have self-created a network and ecosystem of successful entrepreneurship.
Do you have an “everyday entrepreneur” that has inspired you? What traits and characteristics do they display that you could emulate for your own success?
By: David Dussault
dwdussault@gmail.com
