For an entrepreneur, especially a serial entrepreneur, business success is easily defined as making money—preferably lots of it! But success is about more than striking it rich once (or even twice). Success is about consistently conducting your business or businesses in a way that makes the most of every profit opportunity. Entrepreneurship involves risk; some reverses are inevitable. A successful entrepreneur takes setbacks in stride and keeps his or her eye on the goal.
Successful entrepreneurs know their limits, not just in terms of resources but also in terms of knowledge. They also know that laying everything they have on the line when they don’t know what they’re doing can be fatal to their business. They know when it’s time to call for the cavalry—the kind of small business help that even the most experienced operators can use every now and then.
Ron Sturgeon, Mr. Mission Possible, is a very successful entrepreneur, and he’d be the first to tell you that business mentoring helped him get where he is today. That’s why he passes on what he knows through consulting assignments, peer benchmarking groups and in speaking engagements.