86 ◾ The Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Create Wealth for Your Company
3. Empire builder
4. Serial
Lifestyle—The lifestyle entrepreneur has decided to build a business
strictly to satisfy his or her own personal motivations. This entrepreneur
would like to create a successful company, butbuilding a public companyis
denitely not a necessity or the main driving force. Such businesses are typi-
cally high cash generative businesses. A good example of the lifestyle entre-
preneur is Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Innovator—If you operate your business predominately by innova-
tion, you are focused on using your company as a means to improve the
world. A business owned and operated by an innovator is full of life,
energy, and optimism. Such a company is life energizing and makes cus-
tomers feel the company has a “get it done” attitude. Innovators include
Gordon Moore, Intel’s founder, and Malcolm Forbes, founder and pub-
lisher of Forbes Magazine.
Empire builder—Also called a visionary, an empire builder will build
a business based on his or her future vision. The empire builder requires
a high degree of curiosity to understand the surrounding world and devise
plans to avoid the landmines. An example of an empire builder is Bill Gates,
founder of Microsoft.
Serial—This entrepreneur’s main motivation is to build a business with
a clear exit strategy (to “harvest” the enterprise). Often this entrepreneur-
ial type is ignored by many angel investors because the serial entrepreneur
may have mixed priorities, and may have started numerous business ven-
tures and then moved on! Interestingly, some angel syndicates actually do
prefer to invest in the serial entrepreneur because this entrepreneurial type
is focused on the exit or sale, and the cash payout isthe main motivation.
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Serial entrepreneurs include Donald Trump, founder and CEO of Trump
Hotels & Casino Resorts.
4.12 The Ten Commandments of Leadership
1. Thou shall balance inuence with good judgment.
2. Thou shall speak authoritatively and clearly.
3. Thou shall prioritize achievable goals.
4. Thou shall delegate to motivate.
5. Thou shall promote diversity of skills.