Shane Parrish

The same force that built a $16 billion company from a cow pasture was not a force that softened when it met resistance.

Whether that resistance came from a competitor, a government, or his own brother, you don't get to choose which version of that energy shows up.

You get all of it or none.

After his death, a journalist observed that as long as Harrison lived in Florenceville, the company's soul lived there too.

But things changed after he was gone.

Much of what was new and significant started moving to Toronto.

Harrison would not have been happy about that.

But somewhere in his personal papers, his biographer found an undated note Harrison had written to himself.

He headed it, Characteristics of an Entrepreneur, and it was the closest he ever came to the book that he always wanted to write.

I'll read it to you now.

The entrepreneur keeps himself operating on the threshold of excellence because he fears mediocrity.

The entrepreneur has learned to dig for facts.

The first explanation given does not include all the facts.

Once the facts are found, the necessary action is clear.

The entrepreneur has a sixth sense of what will work and what will not work by adjusting experience and knowledge.

The entrepreneur tenaciously grasps every opportunity to meet goals.

The entrepreneur knows that he must delegate responsibility, but he never sacrifices his knowledge of the details.

The main difference between the entrepreneur and the manager is attitude.

That last line has sat with me since I first read it.

It's not about education or capital or even connections.