These ideas come from Barbara Mowry, who I recently quoted in another post about channeling your energy into a business.

Mowry was talking with the Denver chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. What I took away from Mowry’s talk:

1. Start a business for the right reasons. Not money, but passion. It’s your passion that can fill a gap in the world that only you see and feel–in a way that tugs at you, wakes you up in the middle of the night, or moves you to tears.
2. Manage ambiguity. Oh, boy. Have I seen this one in spades. Mowry points out that passion and energy are needed to navigate the ambiguity. Entrepreneurs will always be making decisions without complete data, with many pieces unknown. That’s where gut and instinct come in.
3. Pick the right team. This point made me feel really good, given the team that I’ve assembled for my new venture, A Bigger
   Voice (www.abiggervoice.com). According to Mowry, pick people who are smarter than you, who have intellect, curiosity,
   and passion. There’s that P-word again. Provide goals and metrics and
   communicate, communicate, communicate. Then get out of the way. A great team can overcome a mediocre business idea and make it great. A mediocre team will be unsuccessful with a great business idea.
4. Luck and timing help. Sometimes a lot. Mowry gave a great story about sudden downpour in the mountains of Colorado, at the home of a CEO, that extended a pitch from 15 minutes to over two hours. Yes, luck and timing to do help. And I believe "luck" often appears because we create the right conditions for it to show up–doing our homework, being alert, and following our inner voice.

I’m in the sponge mode of learning about entrepreneurship, by doing, by hearing from others who have traveled the road, and by reading. What are your best tips for entrepreneurs?