A VC in Vacationland

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"An opportunist is someone who meets the wolf at the door and shows up the next day in a fur coat"

        –Kemmons Wilson, as quoted in Half Luck, Half Brains: the Kemmons Wilson, Holiday Inn Story, by Robert Kerr.

Kemmons Wilson gave new meaning to the word perseverance.  A serial entrepreneur, with the Holiday Inn chain as only one of his accomplishments, Kemmons embodies the spirit of what I like to see in a start up team. And the above quote is exactly the attitude a founder needs to have if they are going to be successful in migrating the inevitable troubles that will beset a start up. The whole book is well worth a read.

My best portfolio company CEO's are the ones with the most perseverance.  They do not view all the start up troubles as problems, only opportunities.  Like Kemmons, I hope they all end up with fur coats.

So how can founders make perseverance work for them?  Trust me, there is a right and wrong form of perseverance.

The wrong way is to mistake perseverance for a monomanical focus on success.  As I have suggested many times, have a good business plan and stick to it.  But not if it is not working.

The right way to persevere is to not accept artifical barriers that others create for you.  Think two or three moves ahead in your business and be ready to respond when adversity happens.