Recently an entrepreneur was asking me questions about my own entrepreneurial journey. He was interested in learning from other entrepreneurs and potentially modeling his style and actions after others. My advice: play to your own strengths. Only you can be you.
As for myself, I have a number of strengths and weaknesses.
I love starting things, but hate finishing them.
I love dreaming up ideas and getting others excited about them, but have little interest in the detailed execution.
I love connecting people and looking for ways to add value to others.
I love seeing trends in the world and guessing where things will be in the future.
I love finding gaps or opportunities in the market and thinking through potential solutions.
I love as little process as possible that ensures the organization is running well, but eschew anything that feels like overhead.
I love challenging people and working to help them grow in their careers.
I love getting doubted and then proving the skeptics wrong.
I love trying hard things and just move right along when most don’t work, with no regrets.
I have plenty of strengths and weaknesses, no different than anyone else.
My ability to see where markets are headed, recruit people for crazy ideas, and stay out of the weeds are some of my most important strengths.
What are your strengths?
David Cummings on Startups 
When I was in college contemplating the entrepreneurial route, my older sister sat me down and said “you can’t succeed without a degree.”
I dropped out and started my own business. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
I remember a co-worker laughing at me when I said I was going to be a music producer. I couldn’t help but think of her when I received my first platinum album. That was a good day.
I remember meeting a girl the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. She was kind, beautiful, confident. I was a puddle. I immediately regretted all the sugary cereals and late night snacks that made me so overweight and insecure. Finally, after 4 years of admiring from afar, I decided to take action. With braces gripping the rogue teeth that earned me the nickname “vampire” in middle school, I ran for 2 hours every night of 8th grade. Now with the weight and braces off just before high school, I gathered the courage to ask her out. She said yes.
We dated 7.5 years to the day of our wedding, have been married 11 years, and have the 4 beautiful kids we talked about when we were 14.
As entrepreneurs, we bring dreams into reality. Sometimes it takes several years, but they’re always worth it. I’ve seen the seemingly impossible become reality time and time again, and I am forever grateful.
My strength is faith.
Hi David, Ricardo from Brazil here.
Probably you are an ENTP person (same as me).
How do you deal with that in an entrepreneur life?
Because you have to relentless execute and keep focused to build a great company, and sometimes you just get bored of things.
* Ricardo Cici* ricardo.cici@conferecartoes.com.br
+55 11 4118-2932 +55 11 98381-9296
Em sáb, 15 de dez de 2018 às 18:47, David Cummings on Startups escreveu:
> David Cummings posted: “Recently an entrepreneur was asking me questions > about my own entrepreneurial journey. He was interested in learning from > other entrepreneurs and potentially modeling his style and actions after > others. My advice: play to your own strengths. Only you can ” >
Hi David, l read your strengths and nodded yes on almost 90 of the way. But trying to manage 2 companies and finding talents has been challenging.
My question is how do you recruit mentors and champions to help you scale. How do you learn from