If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur, You Have To Be Willing To Take The Bagel

Most Sundays throughout the year,  the New York Road Runners organizes races in Central Park. They range in distance from a mile or two to distances just shy of half-marathon length.  Though there are medals for the winners, hundreds even thousands of New Yorkers take part simply for fun or to try to beat their own times.

One  Sunday morning, a friend and I ran in a 4-mile race together.  My friend is a decent runner. He is more disciplined about keeping a regular running schedule than I am. And because of it, he's generally a little faster than I am too. Though he works for a large bank down on Wall Street, on more than one occasion he has mentioned a desire to start his own business one day.  Given his discipline, I assumed that he was well suited to be an entrepreneur. 

That was...until we got to the end of the race. 

Sometimes they give away free stuff to the runners at the finish line.  On this day - free bagels.  There were boxes of bagels sitting atop 2 or 3 of those long, brown fold-up lunch tables, like in high school. One one side of the tables were volunteers giving out the bagels. On the other side of the tables was a long line of runners waiting to get a free bagel. A long line of runners. 

I turned to my friend and said, "lets get a free bagel." He turned, looked at the line and said, "nah, forget it, line's too long."

I looked at him, puzzled. Pointed to the bagels and said, "lets just get a bagel - they're free."  He pointed to the line and said, "yeah, but I don't want to wait."

And it was at that point, I realized he could never be an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs see the thing they want or need then try to figure out a process of how to get it. People who shouldn't be entrepreneurs see the standard process they need to go through to get the thing they want or need then decide if they want to go through that process.  My friend didn't want to stand in line, so he opted to abandon the bagel.  I wanted the bagel, so I opted to avoid the line.

I could see that he would rather not have a bagel than break the rules. So I pushed him, "come on, we don't need to stand in line, lets just get a bagel." He refused. He pushed me back, "come on, lets just go...the line's too long."

Realizing we saw the world differently, I walked up to the tables, leaned through the line, put my hand in one of the boxes, pulled out two bagels and walked back to him with our breakfast.  Not a single person in the line said anything to me or even seemed to care.

Entrepreneurs smile when I tell this story.  Non-entrepreneurs like to tell me that I shouldn't do things like that, because if everyone did things like that, we'd have anarchy.  And they'd be right...IF everyone had what it took to be an entrepreneur.  But everyone doesn't. Which is why most people don't start their own businesses and why most people are perfectly fine to stand in line.

And this is why the whole system works. Because the two mindsets need each other. If no one ever broke the rules, then we'd never advance. But if a few people were willing to take the bagel, to break the rules in order to find or create a better process for the majority to follow...that's called progress.

 

To learn more about how great leaders inspire everyone to take action, look out for Simon's new book, Start With Why, due in stores at the end of the month.

For more from Simon, visit www.simonsinek.com

 

 

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Comments

[ZuluShaka]

This article doesn't use the best example to illustrate that being an entrepreneur means seeing opportunities and then having the courage to go out and get them. There's a new book out called the Shark and the Goldfish that illustrates the idea more clearly, without muddling things with "manners" issues:

Basically, the shark goes out and gets his/her food everyday, they hunt it down. The goldfish swims about his/her bowl, waiting to be fed. Even if dropped in the ocean, he/she hopes that food will magically drop in front of his/her face. ]And furthermore, goldfish are way too docile to consider they could get eaten and to watch their back, unlike tuna or other fish raised in the wild.]

If you want to be a speaker or writer on an issue, you have to be willing to find the best examples for your points.

[MJinCanada]

You scare me.

Yeah, today it was a bagel. Tomorrow it's the employees' pension funds.

[kesmarn]

Simon, you are simply a wonderful human being.

[hypnotoad72]

Oh, I see. So to get anything we have to break out of the line; stop being well-behaved people in a society. Values, ethics, and virtues are meaningless - is that what you're trying to say?

Lastly, what's your take on this article?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-hope-bryant/the-crisis-in-america-tod_b_293692.html

And maybe you're right. But then, some like Lay, Petters, Madoff, and others do break out of the line and seem to get into trouble.

oh, by the way, those people who watch the vermin break out of the line -- they may not be acting, but they sure as Halliburton are thinking.