I wanted to look for a list of commonalities among CEOs and founders of unicorns, which are startups that surpass billion dollar valuation.
Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of BridgeWater which manages $160 billion in 2017, wrote in his best-selling book “The Principle” about his research for commonalities among successful entrepreneurs whose companies and products disrupted the industry. Ray called them shapers. I have heard others called them builders, disruptors, or simply entrepreneurs.
The following is from Ray’s book “The Principle”.
Shaper is someone who comes up with unique and valuable visions and builds them, typically over doubts and opposition of others.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ray Dalio are shapers.
Ray researched shapers (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos….) and came up with their commonalities:
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- They visualize remarkable concept and build organizations to actualize them.
- They are independent thinkers who do not let anyone or anything stand in their way of achieving their audacious goals.
- They have very strong mental maps of how things should be done, a willingness to test those mental maps, and change the ways they do things to make them work better.
- They are extremely resilient because their need to achieve what they envision is stronger than the pain they experience.
- They have a wider range of vision than most people.
- They are able to see big pictures and granular details and synthesize the perspectives they gain at those different levels.
- They are simultaneously creative, systematic, and practical.
- They are assertive and open-minded.
- They are passionate about what they are doing, intolerant of people who work for them who aren’t excellent at what they do.
- They want to have a big, beneficial impact on the world.
Shapers would rate low on the question “Concern for others”. The reason is that when faced with a choice between achieving their goal or pleasing others, they would choose achieving their goals every time.
True shapers consistently move from one success to another and sustain over decades.
Check out Ray’s amazing book at https://www.principles.com
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About the author: Hoan Do is a certified leadership coach. Hoan have led multiple teams at Symantec Inc. across the globe delivering world-class solutions to protect consumers and businesses. Hoan is an expert in building highly performing teams. He believes that the best leader is the leader that could grow his followers to be leaders. Hoan has been organizing mastermind groups to share with other leaders about transformational leadership and coaching. He has trained many leaders via mastermind groups, workshops, and one-on-one coaching.
If you are curious about the above method and how you can apply it to your life successfully, open your email and send me an inquiry at coach@hoanmdo.com
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