The 2nd trait : INITIATIVE

Researchers Micheal Frese and Doris Fay define initiative as “work behaviour characterized by its self-starting nature and by being persistent in overcoming difficulties that arise in pursuit of a goal.  In short, initiative means do things without being told, find out by ourself what we need to know, keep going when things get tough and never lose the opportunity that others pass by.  At work, we need to act instead of reacting.  As a entrepreneur, we need to think on our own feet and take action without waiting for someone to tell us what to do.  This type of flexibility and courage is what we need to innovate new ideas and overcome competition.

One of the best example for this trait was Nihal Mehta, CEO and the co-founder of LocalResponse, a New York-based ad-tech firm that leverages social media signals to run intent-targeted ads.  Mehta has dealt with the ups and downs of startups for 13 years.  First one was when his first venture went bankrupt in 1999 but the assets were folded into a mobile-marketing company that eventually sold to Omnicom Group in 2005 while in 2007, he started buzzed a real-time mobile city guide that snagged $4 million in funding.  His current company also went through hard time as he started to running out of money in early 2010 and the next six months were toturous because he lost almost half quarter of his staff.  Then his co-founder burned out and left on his birthday which he remembered the details when he negotiating with his co-founder on that time until now. 

But Mehta would never give up with his company, he still tried his best to negotiatied with investors to recapitalize back the company, touting a new “direct-response” product that could hel big brands get high click-through rates.   He also raised about $7 million to scale the company, newly renamed LocalResponse in October 2011 and by the end of 2012, LocalResponse had hired more than 30 employees and was projecting a run rate of $10 million with profitability just around the corner thanks to the clients like McDonald’s, Audi and FedEx.  Mehta said, “Building products isn’t easy, but if we keep working hard keep throwing things at the wall, we will find a way”.  He also said that if we faced with any difficulties, never turned away just keep with the flow.