Ego vs. Arrogance

It is the same ego that makes an individual believe that they can build a $100 million business up from an idea that causes them to fail. When that ego turns to arrogance and the entrepreneur is no longer willing to listen to their team, their advisers, their competitors or the market conditions.

There are many smart people that fail time and time again because they don't know how to listen.

What is worse, having to shift directions and admitting that your vision or execution was off or trying to force it to prove everyone wrong and failing even more miserably? Stupid question, but many entrepreneurs don't consider the fact that if they are being told by many the people they trust that they will fail and they don't listen and fail anyway, not only have they tanked a business they've burned those relationships.

In the beginning and the end business is about relationships. People will work with you if they believe in you, not your business, you. If you fail, but you learn and they believe in you as a person they will bet on you again. If they can't work with you they won't work with you.

There are many smart young entrepreneurs that I know will work with one day. There are exponentially more entrepreneurs that I would never work with, not because they aren't smart, because they are too arrogant.

Listen to what people are telling you. When they say they don't believe in your business idea there is a reason, and the reason isn't that they just want to crush your dreams.

The entrepreneurial and investment community is very tight nit because we like to work with people we trust. Trust is gained through respect and demonstrating the ability to execute.

Every great leader knows that they must learn to follow to truly succeed. Following means giving up control and putting trust in your partner.

Be confident but check the ego at the door. Ego leads to arrogance and arrogance leads to failure.