What Do Successful Entrepreneurs Want This Christmas?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! What do successful market leaders want for Christmas? I’ve spent significant time on the road and the phone this year talking, walking, and working with entrepreneurs. I thought you might be interested to learn want the want in their life in 2015 and beyond.

There are three things every successful entrepreneur wants in their life. It doesn’t matter what kind or size of the business they’re in. It doesn’t matter if they are a startup, a several hundred billion dollar organization, or anywhere in between. These different entrepreneurs have similar wants and dreams. Let’s see if I can share their wants in hopes of helping you achieve your dreams.

The primary reason entrepreneurs start businesses is to find freedom in their lives. The drive for freedom is so strong it causes leaders to do almost anything they can to keep it. This is what drives so many successful entrepreneurs to build their business. This freedom could be defined as knowing they can do what they do better than anyone else. This freedom means they want to be in charge and they want to create a lasting leadership legacy for themselves, their families, clients, and partners.

This freedom drives them to start their business and continues to get them up in the morning well into their later years.  In many cases, they don’t retire until they can no longer go on. As one of my favorite clients used to say, they want to go out with their boots on. Entrepreneurial freedom moves the world and it always will.

The second reason entrepreneurs start businesses is they want to grow. For most, it’s not enough to be the best in their local markets.  Some force continues to help them expand their dreams beyond those of many others in their industry. They enjoy the growth of the business, but also the expansion that occurs to them as leaders and members of their communities. Great leaders are always growing and helping others grow. This is why you see many great entrepreneurs constantly mentoring others to get involved in business. This includes Bill Gates who went from changing the world of business to changing the business of world.

It’s amazing when you think about it, I remember when I worked on the Windows 2000 launch team and many technical people disliked Bill Gates and the Microsoft way of doing business. I still remember many of my conversations with CEOs across the Midwest helping selling the vision he had of the power of networked world and the impact it could have on how we do business moving forward.

Few people close to him could have foreseen the growth and expansion he would experience over the past 16 years. He again impacts the history of the world by creating a new form of activist philanthropy. He did it by mobilizing many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to give away over 50% of their wealth to help take on many of the world’s most daunting and challenging problems.

Today, the next generation of entrepreneurs sees a large part of their personal and professional growth is achieved by helping their communities and stakeholders around the world. He has inspired many entrepreneurs to take on the leadership legacy as one of growth and continued prosperity. He and his wife Melinda, and their Gates Foundation are doing amazing things with the money they have raised from the successful entrepreneurs. Many diseases once thought impossible to defeat globally are falling to this turned on group of growing entrepreneurs. There isn’t a time when I’m talking to many successful retiring entrepreneurs when we don’t talk about the impact their giving can have on future generations in their communities.

Finally, I want to talk about a secret weapon in the best entrepreneur’s toolkit. I’m almost embarrassed to talk about it.  What is it? It’s Joy!! Today’s successful entrepreneurs find joy in their work and their causes. They get up every morning looking for ways to make a difference in the world.

People like Marc Benioff, Richard Branson, and Steve and Jean Case, to name just a few, have made a huge difference in the world.  Many serving entrepreneurs are committed to building a better world. Here are several rising stars committed to bringing more joy and success to our world. They include Sara Blakely, Bob Parsons, Eric Lefkosky, and Craig McCaw. And the list keeps on growing. Many of these leaders are finding increasing joy in their causes and personal growth. They bring incredible resources and people to their philanthropic causes. They help celebrate the spirit of Christmas with others throughout the years.

These individuals are just the beginning of people who share their wealth, build mission driven businesses, and find significant ways of increasing their joy by helping others. So what does this mean to you as an entrepreneur? This means there are many ways to increase your joy, but sharing seems to take you to the top of your industry, quickly and joyfully.

We started this blog talking about three things entrepreneurs want out of their lives. We’ve seen what drove them to be successful entrepreneurs and market leaders. Tomorrow, I’ll share five gifts that take your life to the next level and beyond. See you at Developing Serving Leaders and I’ll provide you with five gifts for Christmas that can help you have the life of your dreams in 2015 and beyond.

If you’re looking for Christmas gifts that make a difference in the world you may enjoy our Christmas blog on our sister blog at Developing Serving Leaders starting Tuesday this week.

Have a Merry Christmas. See you back here next week when we share five major leadership trends that are changing your world in 2015 and beyond.