Four Types Of Entrepreneurs, And Only One Changes

Who is the hardest person to change in a business? Not the staff. The owner.

I sat in an INSEAD classroom this week and the assignment was one question: what stops an organisation from changing? The clearest answer is always the person leading it. I have watched the same thing for eighteen years, and I have been every one of these four.

There are four types of entrepreneur when it comes to change. Here is what each one means, and how it looks in a real business.

One. Unaware

Everything feels fine. Sales hold, wages are paid, no crisis. He is not lazy. He simply has no picture of what he is supposed to become, and with no target there is nothing to measure against.

So every failure gets placed outside him. The market is slow. The staff are weak. Customers are stingy. He never asks what his own way of working has to do with it.

What this means: without a clear target you will never receive the signal that something must change, because there is no line to compare against.

How to use it: write one sentence, your business three years from today, in numbers. Not “grow”. For example: RM8 million in sales, 12 percent net margin, two branches. If you cannot write that sentence tonight, that is your answer.

Two. Aware, but unwilling

He knows something is off. But this business is what he built with his own hands, and change feels like admitting the last ten years were wrong. So he defends the very thing holding him still.

This type usually moves only after something breaks. A doctor, a debt, or a key person leaving.

What this means: he is not blind to the problem, he is afraid of losing what he already has. That fear is stronger than the facts.

How to use it: list the three things you are most afraid to lose if this business changes. Then ask how long those three things can survive if nothing changes.

Three. Aware, willing, and stuck

This is the largest group I meet. He wants to move, he will learn, he accepts being corrected. But he does not know the first step, so he does a little of everything and finishes none of it.

What this means: the problem is not effort. It is direction. Effort without direction only makes him more tired, not closer.

How to use it: pick one area only, for sixty days. One. If it is cash flow, do not touch marketing yet. Write the single number you will look at each Monday, for example weekly cash balance and the age of customer debts.

Four. Committed, and still moving

What separates the fourth type is not intelligence and not capital. It is design and guidance. He knows what he is building, he has someone who tells him when he drifts, and he measures.

I was the first type about my own weight for years. A hundred and thirty six kilos and I thought there was no problem. Then I became aware but uncommitted, and I tried many things halfway. The real turn came after a week in ICU, when the doctor told me that if I did not change I might not wake up.

That morning I did not need more information. I needed a design: what I eat, when I sleep, how I move, and someone to hold me to it. Today I am a size M, thirty inch waist, and I do not want to go back.

Business works the same way. Most owners wait to feel motivated before they change anything. That feeling arrives and leaves within two weeks. What remains is the design you follow on the days you do not feel like it.

One action this week

Score yourself honestly, one to ten, on how committed you are to the change you have already said you need.

Then ask two questions. What exactly am I changing, in one sentence. And what will the business look like when it is done.

If your score is below seven, do not add effort. Raise commitment first. Effort without commitment only produces exhaustion.

A question for you

Which of the four are you this week, if you answer honestly?

Many entrepreneurs want to grow their business, sales and profit to the next level, RM10 million and above, but they cannot see what is holding them back or how to reach the next stage. RCG has helped many entrepreneurs grow their business to RM10 million, RM25 million, RM50 million and RM100 million.

We start with a free Business Diagnosis at rcg.my.

Datuk Wira