11

ESSENTIALS FOR
ENTREPRENEURIAL
SUCCESS

ALA N WE I S S P H D
11 Essentials for Entrepreneurial Success Alan Weiss PhD

1
Create a strong, committed support system.
This should include family, partners, close friends, and trusted advisors. Don’t suffer

setbacks alone, and don’t celebrate successes by yourself.

2
Educate yourself.
Be able to talk to anyone about almost anything. Read books about art, music, and the

theater. Read current best-sellers in fiction and non-fiction. Read the Wall Street Journal

daily.

3
Invest in yourself first.
Participate in professional development with people whom you aspire to be like. You’ll get

what you pay for. Don’t accept coaching from people who are not, themselves, fabulously

successful.

1
Pay yourself first.

account to create your strategic reserve.

4
Whenever you receive a fee or other payment, place at least ten percent in a separate

© 2019 Alan Weiss

11 Essentials for Entrepreneurial Success Alan Weiss PhD

Shamelessly promote yourself.

5
No one asks for a humble surgeon, or trial lawyer, or financial expert. If you don’t blow

your own horn, there is no music.

6
Be in the moment.
Learn social cues. Understand the proper behaviors at meals, in an office, on the phone.

Learn to be gracious and generous.

7
Dominate language.
Language controls discussions, which control relationships, which control business.

Learn to use examples, metaphors, analogies and other art forms of speech. Use correct

grammar in speaking and writing.

8
Create intellectual property and a “body of work.”
Do this weekly, in audio, video, text, and electronically. Create depth in your expertise so

that people cite you, and refer to you.

2 © 2019 Alan Weiss

11 Essentials for Entrepreneurial Success Alan Weiss PhD

Create a strong brand, which is ultimately your name.

9
People should say, “Get me Jim,” or “Get me Joan.” Your name is the ultimate brand.

10
Ignore unsolicited feedback.
Don’t become a ping pong ball slapped with the paddle of random advice. Only listen to

those you respect and whom you ask. And never pay attention to one-off (individual)

feedback.

11
Be absolutely fearless.
No one is shooting at you. You can’t leave a buyer’s office poorer than when you walked

in. Walk into a room as if you own it, not as if you’re simply looking to sub-let space.

3 © 2019 Alan Weiss

11 Essentials for Entrepreneurial Success Alan Weiss PhD

About Alan Weiss - A Biographical Sketch

Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker, and author and mean it. His consulting

firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State

Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500

other leading organizations. He has served on the boards of directors of the Trinity Repertory Company, a

Tony-Award-winning New England regional theater, Festival Ballet, and chaired the Newport International Film Festival.

His speaking typically includes 20 keynotes a year at major conferences, and he has been a visiting faculty member at

Case Western Reserve University, Boston College, Tufts, St. John’s, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management

Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in

the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he taught courses on advanced management and

consulting skills to MBA and PhD candidates. He once held the record for selling out the highest priced workshop (on

entrepreneurialism) in the then-21-year history of New York City’s Learning Annex. His Ph.D. is in psychology. He has

served on the Board of Governors of Harvard University’s Center for Mental Health and the Media.

He is an inductee into the Professional

Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent

recipient of the National Speakers Association

Council of Peers Award of Excellence,

representing the top 1% of professional

speakers in the world. He has been named a

Fellow of the Institute of Management

Consultants, one of only two people in history

holding both those designations.

4 © 2019 Alan Weiss

11 Essentials for Entrepreneurial Success Alan Weiss PhD

His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from

McGraw-Hill) now in its 25th year and fifth edition. His newest is Threescore and More: Applying the Assets of Maturity,

Wisdom, and Experience for Personal and Professional Success (Routledge, 2018). His books have been on the curricula at

Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.

For development in these areas, try my books:

Million Dollar Consulting

Million Dollar Maverick

Process Consulting

Getting Started in Consulting

And these books by others:

The Capitalist Philosophers, Andrea Gabor

The Consultant’s Calling, Geoff Bellman

The Art of Problem Solving, Russ Ackoff

Managing in Turbulent Times, Peter Drucker

Also, you can request of me a list of hundreds of books in various disciplines that I’ve read and applied, including

history, biography, fiction, science, biography, warfare, and so forth.

My Million Dollar Consulting® College takes participants through all of the above steps and more, and uses roll

plays and intense interaction to hone and fine tune the skills needed for entrepreneurial success.

My Growth Access Program is a lifetime subscription to my body of work in text, video, audio, workshop, and

electronic forms. It currently contains over $100,000 worth of services and products, with more continuously

being added, and available to subscribers for one low fee.

5 © 2019 Alan Weiss