January 5; Assemble a Counsel of Experienced Advisors
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

5 January

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 15:22

Assemble a Counsel of Experienced Advisors

Wise Old Men

I have worked for decades with ambitious entrepreneurs excited about starting new businesses. Each has ideas, passions, numbers and dreams. Some even have inspirational vision.

Nice. But that all really didn’t matter much.  Plans, and vision, are necessary. But not sufficient.

Entrepreneurs always have big planning documents with tabs and analysis and stuff and power points and charts and graphs and more stuff. I’ve even created a few of these eyesores myself (for a fee).

Yes, the planning is important. An investor must know the financials, the resources, the product, the peddling. But that’s not where I turn to first in a business plan.

The first section I open is the tab marked ‘Management Team.’ Who is going to execute this Next Big Thing?

The biggest variable in the success of any business venture is the talent of the men and women running the show. I look for an experienced board of advisors or directors, and then the managers running the day-to-day operations.

Who did the entrepreneur sell his vision to? What wise old men (and women of a certain age) is the principal accountable to? What experienced administrators did she recruit?

The leader cannot be alone in running a business. He must have mentors above, and managers below, for his dreams to come true.

As Proverbs 15:22 reminds us, Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

The business builder should not rely solely on his own judgment. He needs a number of confidants who can offer an outside perspective.

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