There is a phenomenon I like to call Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder (EADD).
EADD afflicts many entrepreneurs, but is a particular problem for primarily first-timers.
What happens is this — once the entrepreneur starts to understand all of the opportunities that are exist in the marketplace, they become easily distracted from the purpose of their intended start-up venture.
I tell entrepreneurs that EADD is the main reason I have them write and memorize a mission statement. It is not for outsiders, such as investors and bankers. The mission statement is for them to keep their focus!
I have often suffered from this condition. It becomes a compulsive reaction to perceived needs in the market.
I learned over the years (usually the hard way) to control my impulses. But I am not always successful.
Case in point. While Mike Naughton and I were working away on our book Bringing Your Business to Life I was approached by the editors of a new series of entrepreneurship texts being developed by Prentice-Hall to write a textbook on Bootstrapping. How could I say “no” to that??!! After all, I write and teach about bootstrapping all of the time. I rationalized to myself that all would go smoothly with the book with Mike and then I could dive into the new book.
Well, as they say in the world of entrepreneurship “stuff happens.” Mike and I got delayed a bit in our new book due to the decision to make one more major revision (a good decision). I forgot that entrepreneurs always underestimate the time and cost to get things launched.
And then we got the opportunity to do a second edition of our book Entrepreneurial Financial Management. How could I resist that opportunity??
And then my good friend Dr. George Solomon at George Washington University approached me about writing another new textbook. I have never had the chance to write with George, so again, I could not control my impulses and said “yes.”
And so it goes….
I guess I have a chronic and incurable case of EADD….