Do you have what it takes to build a truly sustainable business? Is entrepreneurship a skill or a divinely given DNA strand?

There are plenty of tests out there you can take by organizations like the Founders' Institute. However, as an entrepreneur for over 19 years I will tell you that there is no test yet, like the real world of execution that separates the winners and losers.

Guts, Grit, and Gall are ingredient strands for your success. I hope the real-world examples of fellow Startup Drugz community members below that personify these traits inspire you to get out of bed an hour earlier tomorrow.

GUTS

Jeremy Wade was a rising star at the U.S. Treasury in 2013, 5 years after graduating with a finance degree from Pittsburg State in the midst of the financial crisis. Living in San Francisco, doing risk analysis for middle market banks, he had earned job security and was on a secure path to increased management responsibility at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Then he sold everything he owned (that wouldn't fit into two pieces of luggage), quit his job and moved to New Dehli, India, (where he knew nobody) at age 27 to get a global perspective. He used enrollment in an MA in Diplomacy, Law, and Business as his excuse to leave everything he knew.

Guts are the strand that allows someone to take the leap into the unknown with a mixed state of curiosity and focus and to harness the ability to convert fear into fuel and excitement about what lay possible on the blank canvas of life.

Wade has now started and runs a one-of-a-kind incubator for social enterprise and innovation (JSIE) in India and is inspiring and enabling entrepreneurs across Asia and the Middle East to solve problems together.

His vision is radically inclusive growth.

Wade said, "There is tremendous untapped potential around the world, but we urgently need to decentralize innovation and problem-solving."

His gutsy efforts to develop in the uncharted territory have paid early returns on influence as he has visited on numerous occasions with the Prime Minister of Tibet and received an invitation to dinner with Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2016.

GRIT

You don't know how much pain you can take until everything you think you value, has been taken away and all that you are left with is the fragile memory of the dream you began chasing when you started your business.

Joshua Denne exhibits grit and determination (as well as immense talent) more than any entrepreneur I have personally known in the last 20 years. 

Imagine that you have built a multi-million dollar net worth with houses, cars, etc after having not finished high school, and have a beautiful young family with 2 children under the age of 2. Then in 2011, through a perfect storm of a few bad investments and partnerships, you lose it all. You are one million dollars in personal debt, homeless, and on food stamps. 

What would you do next?

Joshua Denne pulled out his iPhone and began to record his life, (heart palpitations, and emotions) in real time on the firm belief that all of it was just temporary. 

If you want to get perspective and be inspired or motivated to conquer your obstacles watch his video below from 7 years ago.

Fast forward 7 years later on the back of sheer will, faith, and 100+ hour work weeks, Joshua built a new distribution business that did $150 million per year in revenue and he exited that business in 2018.  Since then he has invested and launched into a portfolio of projects (view his portfolio at www.joshuadenne.com)

Joshua put the lessons learned in his recent book release Inevitable and it is a powerful and fast read that is ripe with strategies he uses to this day to tip the scales in his favor again whenever they get out of whack.

GALL

Stacey Ferreira (a frequent speaker at Inc. events and global conferences) co-founded MySocialCloud at 18 and sold it by 20. She is now the CEO/Founder of Forge and has been featured in between in the amazing documentary "She Started It".

Before she was out of high school, she leveraged her boldness (gall) and the inherent connectivity of a socially networked world to reach out directly to Richard Branson at the age of 18 and received an invite to meet in Miami. The trip would cost approximately $4,000 for her and her co-founder brother. They found money they didn't have and you can see her discuss the lesson at "How a Tweet to Richard Branson Land an Investment".

Gall is a critical strand that is ageless and allows for you to believe that you have every right to go for your dream regardless of who you are, what color you are, or where you came from, as long as you are willing to follow that boldness up with commitment and reliability to see it through.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN...

The purpose of this post is to bring you insights and stories from the unglamorous and amazing world of business building from startup-through the growth curve. I fundamentally believe that the real risk is doing nothing and that the coming decade will be the most amazing time humanity has ever experienced.

Cultivate these critical strands of DNA and I promise to meet you on the front lines as I continue to build our business. I will see you out there on the field of play!