Nine Rules to Entrepreneur By
Nancy Smith, The NextMedia Company Ltd.
Toronto
Tel: 416-971-9973,
E-mail: nsmith@nextmediacompany.com
Web: www.nextmediacompany.com
Like many women who eventually discover they are born entrepreneurs, for much of her career Nancy Smith felt slightly out of step with the corporate world she was working in. As a successful television executive, she constantly challenged the status quo and asked the tough questions that made others uncomfortable. Finally, she realized that "the most rewarding moments in my life were those when I did colour outside of the lines" - and that the world's view of success just wasn't a view she shared. Seven years ago, she founded The NextMedia Company Limited - a new breed and integrated advertising, communications and business consulting agency - and has never looked back. In 1999 and 2000, her company achieved recognition in Canada's Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs list.
Here, Nancy reflects on the vital importance of mentoring for young women and female entrepreneurs today, and shares nine guidelines she's adopted for running her business and her life:
"Mentoring is one of the most important ways any of us can spend our time - whether we are being mentored or actually doing the mentoring. When I left school, there was no opportunity for a woman to be formally mentored (at least none of which I was aware). Rather, there were preconceived ideas of the roles women could play. The only strong models I was exposed to growing up worked within specific lines as teachers, nurses, mothers, wives, secretaries and clerks. These women were capable and played a vital role in society, but what if you wanted to do something else? What if you wanted to colour outside of the lines? All of my life, I have coloured outside of the lines. For many years, I viewed this as a terrible affliction and wondered why I didn't always react like many of the people around me - why did I always ask so many questions, challenge the status quo? And later in life - why did I have so much trouble with the world's view of success?"
"As I progressively pushed the envelope at home and work, I came to a great discovery: this wasn't an affliction; it was a gift. Over time, I realized that the most rewarding moments in my life were based on colouring outside of the lines: developing an independent lifestyle, forging new paths, constantly learning and evolving."
Here are nine points that have worked for Nancy since making that discovery and gaining the freedom to make her own rules. She has applied them in different ways through the various stages of her personal and professional life and through changing times and circumstances.
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Rely on instincts but marry them with intelligence. |
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1. Make Sure You're In The Right Place
If you are not in the right place, you can't soar. Matching your strengths and personality to the culture and values of a company is essential. For me, being in the wrong place is like being slowly poisoned. At first I don't feel well -- a little off-centre -- then unsure, frustrated and ineffective. At one time, I would have stayed too long in the wrong place. But my instincts now kick in early - a kind of natural barometer - when a place is toxic for me. Don't underestimate how important it is to your life to be in the right place. If you're not, you won't achieve your goals and will be poisoned a little each day, hurting yourself personally as well as professionally.
2. Live Your Own Version of Success
Your own version of success may be entirely different from the stereotypes promoted by the media and your associates. One of my favourite scenes is from the movie "Good Will Hunting." It's when the Robin Williams character is confronted by his old schoolmate, a highly acclaimed academic who looks down on Robin's chosen work and obviously considers him a failure. Williams responds: "This isn't a screw-up. This is a choice." Williams was successful, even if part of society didn't think so.
Here's how that scene relates to my life: I was one of the most senior women working in television -- an industry which at that time was predominantly male dominated. I had a high profile, lots of awards and recognition. But I chose to leave it behind to create my own company. I heard it depicted this way: "She did a belly flop off the high diving board."Yet, I felt like running my own company made me more of a success than anything I'd ever done in my life.
Fast-forward three years later and there was another shift in perceptions even though nothing had really changed: "She's so successful she was named Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the year." This is what had changed. I'd won an award that gave me an external stamp of approval and therefore all of the attendant perceived power. I was "successful" again. I was still the owner of an independent business. But I was a winner because the outside world said I was.
If your self-worth depends on having an external spotlight shine on you, you're in for a rough ride. Let the spotlight shine from within. Live your own version of success.
3. Develop Your Emotional intelligence
This is a critical ingredient for success. Ten percent of life is what happens to you. The other 90% is about how you react to it. We spend a huge amount of our life developing the intellectual side of ourselves but too little developing the emotional. I know there have been many times in my life when I have not achieved what I could have, at work or home, because I was emotionally too immature or undeveloped to respond in a manner that would have enhanced my life, the lives of those around me and the job I was doing.
As an employer, I have seen people commit a form of suicide over and over again, because their emotional maturity just did not fit their capability. In fact, I've seen it scuttle entire careers. Conversely, I've seen people do very well with little other than a lot of emotional intelligence. They know how to stick-handle their way effectively through life. Put as much time into developing your emotional side as you do your intellectual. It will be one of the best things you ever do.
4. Take Care of Body, Mind and Spirit
All three are important. A balanced life is the key to health and well being. And I've discovered that the greatest high of all is feeling well. It is impossible to be well if you're not nurturing body, mind and spirit. You know that sinking feeling that you should be happy but you're not. This is especially jarring when you have achieved a lot of your professional goals and find it doesn't translate into satisfaction. The hole we feel in our centre sometimes exists because we haven't found balance. What good is being a professional star if inside we're unfulfilled? If you buy into the concept that 'we are what we do', sometimes it's necessary to change how and where we work to gain balance. That's what happened to me in television. And it's one of the main reasons I made the change.
5. Don't Let Anyone Grind You Down
An international broadcast guru signed off all of his presentations with the line: "Don't let the bastards grind you down." And the audience always let out a huge cheer. Everyone identified with that statement.
For much of my career, I was the only woman within senior management. I found over time that women are often more vulnerable to getting ground down by competitive peers. Because I worked for entrepreneurs rather than within highly political environments, I learned very late the value of learning how to navigate my way through corporate politics. While my peers were in each other's offices bonding, I had my head down in my office working. I didn't even notice it was important - I just thought that doing good work was what mattered. It was late in life that I discovered that political acumen was essential to keep the wolves at bay. And that in every workplace there are people who cannot only grind you down but also dramatically limit your ability to soar.
After the light went on, I gained some new-found respect for what I once thought of as a non-skill: political polish. And then I learned how to be slightly better at it. Finally, I created as unpolitical an environment as I could at NextMedia, putting in place a values statement that focused on respect, integrity, empowerment and quality of life. At NextMedia, bastards need not apply.
6. View Change as Opportunity
View every change as an opportunity. For me, imposed change instinctively led to resistance. I am learning to approach change as adventure, and to stay cool and determine how and if it can work for me. This is easier to do if you are not overly stressed and are balanced. When I started NextMedia, I was on an emotional roller-coaster and would get high and low on a daily basis depending on whether I was winning or losing. I had to learn to have faith that if I kept on putting one right foot in front of the other and roll with change, it would work out fine.
7. Take Considered Risks
Considered risk is not an oxymoron, not if you do your homework, apply what are usually good instincts, and don't risk anything you can't afford to lose. We grow up admiring risk takers but not all risk is admirable. It is my nature to fly by the seat of my pants but I've learned to slow down, let the adrenalin hit pass, and do my homework. I still rely on instincts but marry them with intelligence rather than pure adrenalin.
8. Be Who You Are
Do work that fits your nature and skill set. Know yourself. Know what elements you need to live your version of success. Understand your basic "chemistry" - "what you're made of" and how you relate to people, places and circumstances. Stretch yourself only far enough to grow, not break. And be true to your own internal self while continuing to learn and grow.
9. Live Entrepreneurship
In today's world, we all have to act like entrepreneurs whether we're working for ourselves or a multinational corporation. When I started my own company, I realized I had operated entrepreneurially throughout my career. I always worked for entrepreneur-owned businesses because I knew they were the best place for me. In the days when I was attempting to break out professionally, entrepreneurs were gender-blind. As long as I helped them reach their goals, they were prepared to let me work as much as I wanted. And they rewarded out-of-the-box thinking.
The entrepreneurs I worked for were men but they were very unique men. They were wildly innovative, viewing and living and working in a way that was very different from the "normal" people I knew. In fact, these men became my mentors. They showed me how to lead, create new products and forge new paths. Men like Moses Znaimer from CityTV and MuchMusic, and Izzy Asper from Canwest Global, as well as many less well-known but equally brilliant people.
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If you are not in the right place, you can't soar. |
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Working for yourself is the dream of many people. But it can turn into a nightmare without the right foundation. Entrepreneurs are supposed to start a business for one reason: so they can build the asset and sell it. My motivation was simply quality of life: I wanted to create the kind of place I felt good about going to everyday - while doing the work I wanted and making money. At that time, I was bumping my head on the glass ceiling. I'd had the best jobs in TV at a time of incredible creative freedom, but the specialty television channel I was going to head wasn't licensed. I wanted a level of freedom it was impossible to get working for someone else. It was time to move on.
It's now seven years later. The company is successful, internally and externally, and I find myself looking for the next new challenge and wanting more personal time. I seem to operate in seven-year cycles. It will be interesting to see if I can effectively move to the next "good place" for me - one where I can tip the balance to more personal rather than work time, remain stimulated and still make money, albeit possibly less than I have been earning. This is my next goal and I believe it's achievable.
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