Can you be an entrepreneur?  Do you have what it takes?  Are the characteristics of an entrepreneur innate like an artist’s talent?  Does success comes from brilliant “flashes of genius” that lead to new products and markets?

Innovation is essential to successful entrepreneurship, but flashes of genius aren’t enough. Leonardo Da Vinci was definitely a genius, and “invented” the submarine, the helicopter and many other machines we use today.

But Da Vinci wasn’t an entrepreneur.  None of his “flashes of genius” could become successful business in the 1500’s.  The technology just didn’t exist.  As an innovator, he was extraordinary.  As an entrepreneur, he was a bust.

Successful entrepreneurship is a discipline, not a talent.  You can develop your entrepreneur skills.  You don’t need to have been born with them. Peter Drucker, the first “management guru,” called this the “cult of the entrepreneur.”

Peter Drucker says, “What is needed is willingness to learn, willingness to work hard and persistently, willingness to exercise self-discipline, willingness to adapt and to apply the right policies and practices.”

Some entrepreneur personality traits make it easier for you to start your own business, and some characteristics of an entrepreneur may make you more likely to become an entrepreneur (though they rarely determine success), such as having parents who were self-employed.

I work with “rebel” entrepreneurs who, though they are intelligent, creative and energetic, struggle to focus and get organized.  Your “rebel” brains activate with passion, and because you think differently, you must use different approaches to manage your time and organize your business.  (Learn more about these differences in the free report,

“Top Ten Entrepreneur Productivity Myths… Busted“)

I believe Rebel entrepreneurs like you offer our best hope for the future and you will solve many of the world’s problems, saving the environment, solving the energy crisis, overcoming poverty and tackling many other challenges… as long as you’re empowered to bring your amazing ideas to fruition.

But the real entrepreneur test comes daily as you work to build your own business.  The real secret to success comes from your own decision and your own desire.  Will you need help?  Of course.  Will it be easy?  Of course not.  But that’s never stopped you before, has it?

I love working with entrepreneurs. Their passionate, us-against-world attitude is exciting, but they were always the toughest clients to keep. Brilliance, creativity and a whirlwind of activity just aren’t enough to overcome the procrastination, poor focus and lack of follow through that often cost them their business.

I wanted to help, but I was struggling with the same situation at home! I’d naively hoped Duane’s marriage proposal a month after our first (blind!) date signaled the end of his reckless trouble making and thrill seeking. But, impulsive as ever, he roamed from job to job – sales, clerk, programmer, teacher, project manager…

After crossing the country (twice) following his latest “opportunity of a lifetime,” I put my foot down. He had to stick with his job with a dot com. He loved the excitement but he just couldn’t manage his time or get organized.

Spiraling out of control, Duane delivered a project late (at double what he’d bid!) Ready to fire him (as miserable as he was, Duane would have been relieved!), instead Duane’s boss demoted him, but insisted things improve.

Devastated, Duane thought, “Time for a change!”, but I refused to pack up and leave (again!). I wasn’t even sure our marriage would last… in the few hours he wasn’t at work, Duane was just as unfocused and disorganized at home. I felt like the only adult in our family. We needed help, and as stressful and uncertain as those days were, they provided the incentive for us to find the silver lining to the cloud we’d been living under.

I credit divine intervention for the experimental training program at a local university. Seeking intelligent, creative people full of energy, but who struggled to maintain focus and get organized, they described Duane (and my favorite entrepreneur clients) perfectly!

We learned that some people are better suited to a primal existence. Compare a “farmer” (or accountant, manager or clerk) to a nomadic “rebel” (rock star, artist or entrepreneur). Often labeled with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) as children, as was my youngest daughter, as adults these “Rebels” struggle because they think differently.

Their brain activates with passion, and the time management strategies that work for others just don’t work for them. But once Duane learned to work with his brain instead of against it, life took an exciting 180-degree turn almost overnight! Within weeks, he was back to his old salary AND then surpassed it! Within two years, Duane was vice-president at more than triple his salary. Astonishingly, career rocketing to success, Duane simultaneously cut his hours!

Duane was a new man. I was proud of him, and as was recently described in an article in The Globe and Mail, Duane’s transformation inspired me. I decided I had to share this “secret” with the Rebel entrepreneurs I’d been unable to help earlier in my career.

Numerous time management experts claim to know the secrets of time management, and while their strategies do help many people, entrepreneurs come to me after they’ve exhausted the experts’ advice with little or no improvement. The strategies I teach have proven so successful for “Rebel” entrepreneurs they’re featured in Success magazine.

The challenge I face with my “Rebel” clients is convincing them they CAN DO THIS. Often having struggled through school, failed at job after job, even failing in business before they find their passion, most are convinced they’re the problem, not the solution. But it’s stunningly easy, and once you start working with your brain instead of against it, the transformation is immediate and amazing. It’s hard to believe, but the more screwed up you are, the faster and better these techniques work.

Are you ready to find your silver lining? To learn more, please request my free report, “Top Ten Entrepreneur Productivity Myths… Busted!“

Successful entrepreneurs spot an opportunity in the market, a niche, and create a specialized company to fill that particular hole.  Specialization is a proven recipe for success and a valuable lesson.

Your business is a system to fill your targeted niche, and all parts of your business contribute to its success.  With many roles to fill, entrepreneurs often act as “chief cook and bottle-washer.”  Though you hate paperwork, administration is unavoidable.  Proposals, invoices, accounting and income tax returns are all essential to your success.

Starting out, you may be the entire team, but if you don’t grow, adapt and specialize, you’ll tear your hair out and ultimately your business will fail. What I love the most about entrepreneurs is your creative energy, brilliant ideas and passion.  Your specialty is providing the vision and leadership for your company, and you must apply the lesson of specialization within your business as well as you do in the marketplace.

The sooner you assign company roles to specialists, the faster you’ll grow. Before you hire employees, outsource some tasks to other entrepreneurs.  You can start building your team with a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper and a computer technician you can rely on.

If money is tight, use systems to automate and streamline tasks so you free your time to concentrate on your specialty to promote your business and drive more profits.  However, you’re not really saving money by putting off creating your team.  Delegating to specialists lets you apply your time to building your business, and because they’re specialists, they’ll do the job much more efficiently than you can.

The great news is that it makes good business sense to let specialists to do their thing while you do yours.  Although initially you may find it challenging to delegate without losing control, soon you’ll be able to focus worry-free on building your business instead finding ways to avoid paperwork.

When you’re spending time with your loved ones, what do you think about?  Are you still thinking about work?  Can’t relax or get your mind off the job when you’re worried about things left undone? Improving your work-life balance is usually a question of improving your productivity.

Most people just try to do more.  Constantly running, multitasking, never taking breaks (most North Americans don’t even take all their allotted vacation!) they rush through everything.  And if something goes wrong?  They still work more hours!

There will always be more to do, and things do go wrong occasionally.  Since you only have a finite number of hours, you need a better strategy if you hope to achieve work-life balance.

One of the biggest drains on your productivity is time spent transitioning between tasks.  You must stop thinking about one thing, put your things away (if you remember to do that instead of letting your desk slowly disappear under mounds of debris!), get out what you need, and start thinking about the next task.

The entrepreneurs I work with struggle with productivity, though you can be amazingly productive when you stick with an activity long enough to achieve a state of hyperfocus.  Switching between tasks wastes time because you can’t pay full attention to any task.  There’s no productivity without action, but action without attention is worthless.

While most people focus on the time they spend on something, you must learn to value attention.  Concentrate only on how much time you spend doing things and your productivity goes into freefall. Instead, use strategies that increase your ability to pay attention to what you’re doing and your productivity will skyrocket:

• leave your office to work uninterrupted,
• never multitask, and
• tackle mentally demanding tasks only during your most productive periods.

You’ve heard it’s better to work smarter than to work harder.  People who choose to work smarter rather than harder squeeze a better return out of each hour.  With practice, you can even accomplish more while working less.  If working smarter sounds like the right thing to do, you’ll be happy to learn it’s the only thing that works for entrepreneurs like you.

To learn how to apply this and other strategies to double (or more!) your productivity, improve your work-life balance (your wife will fall in love with you all over again!) get Grow With the Flow for Entrepreneurs©.

If a pill could cure procrastination, every entrepreneur would want one.  Of course, there’s no procrastination pill because procrastination is a symptom of many different root problems.  Without addressing the root cause, you can’t solve the problem.

An entrepreneur’s first challenge with procrastination often stems from a fear of failure.  Delays in presenting your business plan, publishing your Web site or submitting your proposal are really ways of avoiding putting your business to the test.

If you don’t send your proposal, you can’t lose the sale because your strategy doesn’t measure up.  Perhaps you worry that if you do get a contract, you won’t be able to deliver.  Or maybe you struggle with perfectionism.

Each of these appears as procrastination but demands a different solution.  And should you recognize perfectionism as a delaying tactic you still need to overcome several mechanisms that may slow your progress:

1. Do you constantly circle back and edit as you’re writing?
2. Are you struggling with formatting and presentation more than the writing?
3. Or do you know it’s done, but you’re dotting “I”’s and crossing “T”’s, never satisfied that it’s good enough.

Break the cycle by asking yourself this question: “What are the criteria for success?”

In the case of your proposal, success is landing the sale.  However, you can’t possibly get the deal unless you deliver the proposal on time.  Once you see the problem in terms of success criteria, you’re more likely to see solutions that let you meet those criteria:

1. Write a rough draft and leave the editing until the end or even delegate it.
2. Outsource quality control, final formatting and polishing (virtual assistants are great at this).
3. Block out a set time for a final edit and stick to it.

Procrastination plagues so many entrepreneurs that it seems insurmountable, but where platitudes fail, strategies that attack the root of the problem can help you finally conquer procrastination.