Speaking of Success – Consultant Gail Blanke talks about the pressures entrepreneurs face — and how they can overcome them

Gail Blanke knows firsthand the struggles that small-business owners face.

As founder and chief executive of Lifedesigns LLC, a career and life-consulting company based in New York, she often finds herself incorporating her own experiences into the coaching she gives her clients. In addition to making motivational speeches to corporate audiences, she provides individual coaching to people from a range of backgrounds, including political figures, musicians and entrepreneurs. And before starting her own business, Ms. Blanke was senior vice president of public affairs at Avon Products Inc., where she also rallied salespeople.

By ELLEN BYRON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

http://wsj.com

Her new book, "Between Trapezes," due out next month, explores the professional and personal transitions people make in life and the way one can embrace that uncertain time of leaping from one bar of the trapeze to another. Below, Ms. Blanke discusses the pressures and pitfalls entrepreneurs face, how they can overcome them and what success means for a small-business owner.

You Aren’t Alone

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: What is the biggest misconception about starting small businesses?

Ms. Blanke: I think one is that you think you have to do it by yourself, that it all rests on your shoulders, that you’re alone and that you’re the only one you can count on. That’s simply not true. To the degree that you reach out to other people and access their expertise, their support and their encouragement is what strengthens you.

WSJ: What do you feel are the biggest mistakes people make when they start their own business?

Ms. Blanke: One of the mistakes we make when running small businesses of our own is that we take things personally. Trapeze artists have a saying: "The greatest fliers are always the greatest fallers." Trapeze artists never confuse falling with failing. You’ve got people who just keep reinventing what they do and reinventing the way they do it, and we believe them. If you present yourself with that kind of clarity, like [Donald] Trump does, like Cher does, like Madonna does, like Hillary [Clinton] does, it’s irresistible and people are drawn to that.

WSJ: What common mistakes do small-business owners make in their personal lives, and how should they fix them?

Ms. Blanke: I think that it is really hard running a business of your own, and there are no guarantees. When I left Avon, where I was safe and secure, I described it as leaping off a diving board and inventing the water on the way down. There was no evidence that I was going to succeed, and everyone told me that I wouldn’t.
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RISK MANAGEMENT ‘You have to have advisers, and you have to listen to them,’ Ms. Blanke says

So, you know in the middle of the night, when you wake up and those demons start crawling all over you with those voices? When you’re running your own small business those voices get very loud, saying, "Whatever made me think I could do this?" You have to choose not to acknowledge them, because it can take over your whole life, the fear of failure. And when you let too much of the bad stuff in, it colors the good stuff, and that can affect your relationships with your children, your spouse, with everyone. On any given day, you are going to hear the voices because they’re there. And if you don’t hear any voices, chances are you’re not up for something good enough, or worthy of whom you really are. But don’t give them weight.

WSJ: How do you advise clients who aren’t sure whether they have what it takes to start a small business?

Ms. Blanke: A couple of hundred years ago, that’s all anyone ever was, an entrepreneur, in one way or another, because there were no big corporations. I think we all have the stuff inside us to do it, but we get used to things being done in a certain way, like I did at Avon. I got used to having a lot of people working for me whom I could count on and trust. I got used to lots of departments I could access, like research and finance.

If you’re considering becoming an entrepreneur, you have to ask yourself what your vision is, and make it so hot and so compelling that it can propel you forward no matter what. Once you have that powerful vision, you have to then ask, "What am I willing to let go of?" If the vision is so wonderful in your mind, you can let go of that other stuff.

If you can’t do that, then don’t become an entrepreneur right now, because you’ll keep dragging yourself into the past, back to the old trapeze. Here’s the thing about trapezes: You can’t hold on to two of them at the same time. You have to let go of your old title, getting a paycheck every two weeks, your stock options. You have to let go of that in order to reach out and grasp a new one, and all the possibilities of how you’re going to express yourself and what you’re going to create.

WSJ: Should success for entrepreneurs be measured differently than for other businesspeople?

Ms. Blanke: Major corporations measure their success in terms of shareholder value, which is appropriate. Small businesses measure their success in terms of identifying a unique selling proposition. A lot of small-business owners want to make a difference, too, a lot of them want to do well by doing good, so they’re driven by passion. You want to have an advisory board of people whom you can trust, but you don’t necessarily have to answer to shareholders, so you have a certain amount of freedom to do what is right at any given moment. There’s great joy in that.

I think you get to make up your own measurement of success when you work for a business you own. What does success look like for you? No one else’s even matters.

Passion, Not Money

WSJ: Is it really all about money? And if you’re not making any money, can you really be successful as an entrepreneur?

Ms. Blanke: I don’t think it’s all about money. If it were all about money, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.

I think it’s all about passion. I think passion drives profits, whether you’re running a business of your own, or you’re in a corporation. The best people inside corporations have an entrepreneurial spirit, they’re always looking for the new thing, a new way of doing it, a new way of seeing themselves. When you’re running your own business, you get to do that all the time. And so I think it is passion that drives everything good.

I think a lot of us really do want to make a positive difference, but we want to make money as we do it. If you can meet your payroll and continue taking risks, and take joy in that, take energy from it, as opposed to being depleted by it, you’re OK.

WSJ: What kinds of precautions can small-business owners take to protect themselves financially?

Ms. Blanke: I think you need a really good advisory board.

In trapezing, every trapeze artist has a catcher. A catcher is the person who reaches out, takes your hands at exactly the right moment, not a minute too soon, nor a minute too late. A catcher understands you, and your rhythm and your vision. There’s a saying in trapezing: Let the catcher do the catching. As small-business owners, we have to have those people whom you trust, count on and listen to. You have to have catchers, you have to have advisers, and you have to listen to them. When they say you’ve taken this thing far enough, let’s change direction, because they care about you and they have perhaps a clearer perspective than you, then you have to listen.

It’s certainly all about risk, but it’s not about recklessness. And there is a difference. It’s probably a fine line, but your catchers can help you not go over that fine line.

WSJ: What advice are you most frequently asked for by small-business owners?

Ms. Blanke: How do I keep my courage up? I think you can go to business school, get a 4.0 GPA, have all the right contacts, and even the right idea at the right time. But it’s the courage to step up, that belief in your idea, your concept, your product, your service.

WSJ: Have you seen any significant changes in the attitude of entrepreneurs?

Ms. Blanke: There is certainly a growing number of small businesses, and I don’t think it’s just because of downsizing. I think partly because of the new millennium, partly because of Sept. 11, people want to create something of their own. I think people want to leave a legacy, people want to do something good, create value they feel they can own and they can feel loyal to. We are looking for something bigger in our lives, some meaning, something to be a part of, maybe something larger than ourselves, and so I think that people who are called to be entrepreneurs are finding that spirit in themselves.

WSJ: What lessons have you learned from owning your own small business?

Ms. Blanke: I’ve learned a lot of them. I learn every day about not taking it personally. About not confusing falling with failing. A lot of hard things happen when you own a small business. You have to be a great editor in life. You have to edit out not only those voices, but also the stuff that didn’t work.

To me one of the big things is to distinguish between fact and interpretation. If they don’t call you back, you could let it mean that you’re not that good, versus some other interpretation, like they’re out of town, or they’re taking their company in an entirely different direction. In other words, it’s about them, not me.

We diminish ourselves by placing negative interpretations on the stuff that happens in our lives. Keep deleting the failures, deleting the fears and deleting whatever you consider your mistakes.

WSJ: How far should you push yourself personally?

Ms. Blanke: I think you have to put your whole self on the line. You don’t say I’m just going to see what happens here. You have to decide to try, and you have to put it all on the line. People will feel that, and they will be drawn to you, be it in the form of money, in the form of support, they will be drawn to you.

Ms. Byron is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal’s New York bureau.

Write to Ellen Byron at [email protected]

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