Motivating Entrepreneurs: There's More to it than Money

I was on a panel at the New York Times Small Business Summit last week and I learned a lot about entrepreneurship. The biggest thing I learned from my fellow panelists is that definitions of successful entrepreneurship are wildly divergent and often don't hinge on the degree of financial success entrepreneurs achieve. Entrepreneurial success has mostly to do with what drives the individual to succeed. If your business serves and fulfills you, that's the primary indication that you are successful.

Here's a bit about the interesting and diverse entrepreneurs whom I got to observe.

Alex Mashinsky, CEO and founder of LimoRes, a transportation management company, clearly is driven by big ideas and big financial success. He told the audience that he has started seven companies and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. I came away with the distinct sense of a man who, as his website says, was born into communism, raised in socialism and is driven to succeed in capitalism. Building big successes and big payoffs is clearly party of what makes Alex tick.

Another of our panelists was Colleen Payne-Nabors, from Tulsa, Okla., who went from being a single mother and nuclear medicine technician to starting a Mobile Cardiac Imaging LLC, a mobile cardiac diagnostic facility (she borrowed several hundred thousand dollars to get her first truck -- and drove it herself). Her firm is said to be the largest mobile medical imaging company in Oklahoma. She has been recognized by Inc. magazine and Black Enterprise and used that publicity to create a brand and secure new business deals. She also wrote a book, I Did it My Way - And It Worked!,  to motivate other entrepreneurs. Colleen projects fearlessness and exudes self-confidence. Her companies have benefited many people in Oklahoma, bringing health care closer to their communities. What drove her to success was proving herself in the world and beating back potential failure. And I sensed she gets tremendous satisfaction from, to paraphrase her book title, "Doing It Her Way."

There was Judy MacDonald Johnston, CEO and founder of Blue Lake Children's Publishing, a company that develops magazines for children ranging in age from 2 to 12. She had a long and successful career at Hewlett-Packard and then left to start a children's software company. In three years, sales reached $11 million and she sold the company, PrintPaks, to Mattel Inc. She is hoping to secure a strategic partner for Blue Lake. Her entrepreneurship seems to have a theme -- children and education. She has also done a great deal of charity work on behalf of children. Her latest company is not the most successful, but she told the audience she loves it more than anything she has done. What drives her, it seems to me, is bringing something special to children and literacy. A financial payoff would be nice, but clearly not the most important part of her value system.

And oh, there was me. My business (in addition to writing for About.com and being a coach to entrepreneurs) is a specialty catering company that serves corporate, social and college markets. My business is eight years old, and from the get-go  I have been motivated by  two core drivers: not being in a traditional corporate environment, and having complete independence and control (i.e. no boss, no board of directors, just customers to tell me what to do, which is fine by me). Money is on my list, just not as high as other factors.

What drives you as an entrepreneur, and how are your motivations important to your success? Please leave a comment.