An Entrepreneur's Most Controllable Success Factor: An Interview with Dr. Basil Peters

The other day I had the pleasure of interviewing someone who I really admire - Dr. Basil Peters.

What I really like about Basil is that he's had success in so many positions. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Nexus Engineering, which he grew to over 300 employees and sold to Scientific Atlanta.

He's also had success as a venture capitalist as CEO of the venture capital fund, BC Advantage Funds. And he is a successful angel investor, and co-founder and CEO of an angel fund called Fundamental Technologies II.

Basil also writes a blog on best practices for angel investors and entrepreneurs at www.AngelBlog.net and he is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Simon Fraser University where he spent 15 years as an Adjunct Professor of Engineering Sciences.

And finally, Basil is the author of a great book on exit strategies called Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors.

So, with this wealth of experience, I knew that I would learn a ton from the interview, and more importantly, be able to pass on several nuggets of wisdom to other entrepreneurs.

And he delivered.

In fact, Basil made one statement during the interview that I've thought about nearly every day since we spoke. Here's what he said:

"...So I've come to believe that it's a law. I believe that successful entrepreneurs have mentors, and I also believe that it's the most controllable success factor - it's the single thing entrepreneurs can do that would dramatically improve their chances of success that they can control."

An entrepreneur's most controllable success factor. Those are pretty strong and pretty wise words. Let's think about this. From the perspective of a proven entrepreneur and investor, having a mentor is one of the smartest thing an entrepreneur can do to improve their chances of success.

And Basil told me that virtually every successful entrepreneur that he has met has had either a formal or informal mentor.

So, why wouldn't every entrepreneur have a mentor?

Let's start with me. I don't have a formal person that I call my mentor and who considers me their mentee.  But I have had several informal mentors. An uncle who's a successful business man. Mega successful Growthink clients (I define "mega successful" as having exited companies for $100 million or more) who I've worked very closely with for years. And professors who have taught me and answered my numerous questions over time.

Now for those of you entrepreneurs who do not have mentors, I'm going to give you a hard time....Let's go over some excuses you might have:

• I don't have enough time
• I'm afraid to ask a potential mentor for fear I might get rejected
• I don't know who to ask to be a mentor

Unfortunately, none of these excuses are valid.

Finding a mentor shouldn't take all that much time, and this time will possibly have the greatest ROI of all your time investments.

Regarding fear of getting rejected, you'll simply have to overcome this. The fact is that you probably will get rejected by some potential mentors. That's ok. But you can't be afraid to ask. And to persevere until you find a great mentor.

Like everything else in entrepreneurship, rarely does your first effort work as planned. You need to persevere and keep trying.

Now finally, with regards to not knowing who to ask, I believe that any business person who has achieved success and who you respect and admire can make a great mentor.

Wow, 500 words so far, and I've only touched on one of Basil's great points. To get many other great insights from Dr. Basil Peters, listen to the interview.

Click below to hear excerpts from the interview:



To download the full interview and/or transcript click here.