Entrepreneurial DNA: The Breakthrough Discovery that Aligns Your Business to Your Unique Strengths

229 Pages·2011·2.31 MB·English

by  Joe Abraham

Entrepreneurial DNA

The Breakthrough Discovery that Aligns Your Business to Your Unique
Strengths

JOE ABRAHAM
Copyright © 2011 by Joe Abraham. All rights reserved. Except as permitted
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ISBN: 978-0-07-176014-0
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I’d like to dedicate this book to my boys, JJ and Zach. Here’s hoping the
entrepreneurial bug bites you too someday.
contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One What Is Your Entrepreneurial DNA?

Chapter 1 Four Entrepreneurs Walk into a Bar
Chapter 2 Your Entrepreneurial DNA Drives Your Business Strategy …
Chapter 3 Entrepreneurial DNA in Action
Chapter 4 Discovering Your BOSI Profile
Part Two How Can You Make Your Entrepreneurial DNA Work for You?

Chapter 5 The Builder DNA: “People Drive Me Nuts”
Chapter 6 Seven Business Optimization Strategies for Builder DNA

Chapter 7 The Opportunist DNA: “Who Cares, Let’s Do It”
Chapter 8 Seven Business Optimization Strategies for Opportunist DNA
Chapter 9 The Specialist DNA: “Three Cheers for the Tortoise”
Chapter 10 Seven Business Optimization Strategies for Specialist DNA
Chapter 11 The Innovator DNA: Fish Out of Water
Chapter 12 Seven Business Optimization Strategies for Innovator DNA
Part 3 Building Your Strategic Plan
Chapter 13 Setting the Foundation of Your New Strategic Plan
Chapter 14 Designing Your New Strategic Plan
Chapter 15 The Real Journey Is About to Begin
Appendix A: The SPACE Marketing Funnel
Appendix B: The Credibility Analyzer for Opportunist DNA
Appendix C: The Relationship Analyzer for Builder DNA
Index
acknowledgments

To my awesome wife and best friend Sally, thank you for your unconditional
love, patience and care as I went through my entrepreneurial journey. You’ve
been my greatest cheerleader and inspiration and I thank God for giving me the
gift of you. To mom and dad, thank you for your loving support and favor as I
negotiated the ups and downs of the journey.
To my agent Cynthia Zigmund and the team at Literary Services, Inc., thank
you for believing in this first-time author and putting your name on the line to
bring it to such a fantastic publisher. Your insight, input and candid feedback
during the proposal stage were mission critical to this book project becoming a
reality.
To Knox Huston my brilliant editor, thank you for the passion with which you
sold this project to the team at McGraw Hill Professional. I am also indebted to
you for guiding me through the editing process and adding your incredible talent
to the output of this book. Entrepreneurial DNA would not be what it is today
without your contributions. Sara Hendricksen at McGraw Hill—you rock. I
would also like to thank McGraw-Hill production editor Scott Kurtz and copy
editor Nina Levy Girard for your outstanding work.
Special appreciation goes to my friend Garry Arasmith who was BOSI’s
biggest proponent right after the discovery. Thanks G for not letting me shelf the
concept like I kept trying to do. Your persistent commitment to see BOSI impact
businesses around the world was a key driver to me sitting down and working on
the book manuscript.
Steve Thompson, thank you for believing in me and this project long before
there was a measurable reason to do so. Rob Armstrong, you da man. The
Opportunist in you kept me fired up and “tank full” even when the reality said
otherwise. Trey Morris, your friendship and partnership have been of
immeasurable value. We’ve got a great journey ahead of us. Lukas Naugle, my
brand and content strategist--you are the bat that breaks any box I put myself in.
Thank you for that.
Last but by no means the least, to my mentors, business partners, and clients,
thank you for allowing me into your businesses and lives. There’s a part of every
single one of you in this book. From the highest highs to the lowest lows we
have shared together, we learned lessons about business and entrepreneurial life
that are now encapsulated in this work. I hope you are proud to know that your
story now stands to impact the lives and businesses of entrepreneurs around the
world.
introduction

I vividly remember the experience of watching my first-ever television show. It
was the late 1970s in New Delhi, India. Dad didn’t see the point of us owning a
TV, given that there was one national channel that delivered a few hours of fuzzy
programming each evening. Our neighbors, however, had just bought a brand-
new TV and invited me and my sisters to come over on a Wednesday night to
watch an “American” show with them.
I was just beside myself in excitement. Not only was I going to get to see what
a TV looked like, I was going to get my first real taste of America! I don’t think
I slept very well the night before. I remember tossing and turning in glee, just
hoping and praying for daybreak so I could begin the official countdown to that
coveted experience.
The day of the event, I remember bragging to my friends at school and on the
playground about my elite invitation for later that night. By the time 8 p.m.
arrived on the clock, I was bouncing off the walls. No sooner did my mom give
us the okay to walk politely over to the neighbor’s house, than I was pounding
on their door, begging to be let in. A few minutes later, we were sitting cross-
legged on a beautiful Persian rug, ready to take in the entire experience. “Who
cares about the food and drink?” I remember thinking to myself, “Let’s get this
amazing device turned on!”
When the lady of the house finally walked over to turn the unit on, my heart
skipped a beat. A few seconds of snowy fuzz eventually gave way to the
breathtaking black-and-white footage of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo bantering back
and forth on the I Love Lucy show.
I was in awe. Instantly I was transported to Lucy and Ricky’s living room and
kitchen thousands of miles away. It felt like I was right there with them.
That was a big night for me. I had experienced something amazing out of a
13-inch black-and-white screen. “This is the most incredible thing ever,” I
thought to myself. “I can’t imagine anything better than this.”
You and I now have the luxury of knowing that a 13-inch black-and-white TV
with rabbit-ear antenna was not the end of TV innovation. Today as I pen the
words on this page, my six-year-old is nagging me about the latest 3-D High
Definition television that we absolutely have to own.
“Really? A high definition TV in 3-D?” I asked him. “Oh yeah, Dad. It’s as
thin as your computer screen and you put on these special glasses, and the stuff