The Most Valuable (and Dangerous) Quality an Entrepreneur Can Have

It’s the secret to success for some and a fatal flaw for others. Serial entrepreneur Jonah Lupton explains why enthusiasm can be a double-edged sword, and offers three tips for inspiring your team effectively.

Building a business from the ground up is no small feat. It takes an uncanny ability to communicate your vision and inspire others to be just as enthusiastic about it as you are. But while it can be one of the most powerful qualities of an entrepreneur, enthusiasm alone won’t carry you to success. Sometimes it can even take you in the wrong direction.
When Jonah Lupton founded Cauzly.com, a social fundraising website for non-profits, in 2012, he couldn’t have been more excited about its potential — both as a business and as a vehicle for helping great causes acquire the funding they need.
Less than a year later, however, Lupton has learned the sometimes-harsh flipside of entrepreneurial enthusiasm.
“I still think Cauzly.com is a fantastic idea and I love what it stands for,” says Lupton, who is also an advisor and consultant for numerous Boston-area startups. “But I’m not sure it’s a business. It’s probably a great idea that won’t ever make money, and that’s where enthusiasm can be dangerous.”
The reason, Lupton says, is that enthusiasm can blind entrepreneurs — preventing them from seeing when a business is a fun idea, but not a profitable enterprise. And when that happens, enthusiasm can force entrepreneurs to continue pursuing — and funding — something that will probably never pan out.
“You have to be honest with yourself and really be introspective about your company’s potential,” Lupton explains. “If you’re staring at a dead end, don’t let your enthusiasm cloud your judgment.”

Why Enthusiasm Is Still One of the Most Important Qualities of an Entrepreneur

Of course, no entrepreneur can predict the future, and Lupton says it’s critical that you don’t abandon your ideas at the first sniff of adversity.
“If you truly believe in something and objectively think that it can scale with the right employees and strategies, then by all means go for it,” Lupton explains. “And if you do nothing else as a leader, make sure that your enthusiasm is obvious to every person you interact with.”
That starts with clearly communicating a compelling vision for your business, and encouraging your employees and customers to embrace it, as well.
“If people can feel your enthusiasm and share your vision, that can be incredibly motivational,” Lupton says. “They begin to believe and care about it as much as you do.”

3 Tips for Transferring Your Enthusiasm to Your Team

Being enthusiastic about your business doesn’t mean you need to start taking cues from motivational speakers, however.
In fact, Lupton says that enthusiasm can manifest itself in a lot of different forms, and people often have unique ways of communicating it. Lupton does suggest that entrepreneurs do three key things to make certain that their enthusiasm is obvious:

1. Work your tail off: As the leader of your business, employees and customers are watching you, Lupton says. If you’re working nights and weekends, and really living and breathing your business, that work ethic will rub off.
2. Wear your heart on your sleeve: Your team will be able to sense when things aren’t going well, so don’t try to hide it. Instead, Lupton explains, use those challenges as a medium for re-communicating your passion and vision for the business. If those feelings are genuine, your team will be motivated to stick with you.
3. Put your money where your mouth is: While not every business requires founders to put their life savings on the line, Lupton says it can be hard to convince others to buy into your enthusiasm if you’re not willing to invest in your own business. So, if $20,000 could save your business or help it expand and you have that cash, you’d better be ready to put it on the table.

Simply put, Lupton says entrepreneurs hoping to convey their enthusiasm have to be willing to go all-in.
“If employees, customers, vendors, or investors don’t believe that you’re in it for the long haul, they won’t be either,” Lupton says. “You have to be fully committed and deliver on your promises. If you can’t do that, then you probably shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.”

How do you communicate your vision and enthusiasm to your team? Has there been a time when you allowed enthusiasm to cloud your judgment?