YOUR FEEL-GOOD GANG
The entrepreneur’s path can be crushingly lonely. New founders must find and haul their own motivational fuel, building their store of inner resources. At the same time, nearly all successful entrepreneurs find support and encouragement from their social network of friends, family, colleagues, and advisers. One of our earliest instincts during the incubation phase is to share our idea with trusted friends and colleagues, people who can act as sounding boards and who might caution us about unseen obstacles or problems. Mostly, we hope they will reinforce our idea, confirm the rightness of our path, and cheer us onward.
On this last hope, the news is all good. Studies investigating the impact of social networks on the formation of new ventures suggest that when a founder seeks support and advice for a new venture, he or she taps a small number of well-known, trusted, and like-minded individuals.8 And social psychological research has confirmed again and again that we are an unfailingly polite species when asked for any kind of evaluative feedback. In one intriguing study conducted by psychologists Bella DePaulo and Kathy Bell in 1996, test subjects were put in the difficult situation of critiquing an artist’s paintings for which they had already privately expressed a dislike. They had never met the artist or known of the artist’s work. Nearly everyone was hesitant to say anything that might discourage the artist or give rise to hurt feelings; the most blatant white lies coming from people who had been told that the artist cared deeply about a particular painting.9
The upshot of this and other studies is that the more openly we share our passion for our new venture, the more likely it is that we will receive support and encouragement, not only from the usual sus - pects—trusted friends and family—but from just about anyone who can see our enthusiasm for the business idea. Lynn Ivey talked with hundreds of people within and outside the senior care industry as she formulated plans for The Ivey, and she found nearly universal support for her concept for an upscale daycare center located in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. With a few exceptions (to be explored in later chapters), “Your center will fill up in no time,” was the common refrain, she heard from industry professionals, investors, and old friends alike.
