Who makes the best entrepreneur? It’s definitely not the basement tech guy; and it’s definitely not the academic genius. We have ideas of stanford graduate students sitting in their dorms building billion-dollar companies; secluded from the world. And obviously, sometimes the basement programmer strikes it rich. Most of the time- the entrepreneur is the extroverted salesman.

Entrepreneurship is about starting companies; and starting a company means selling a product or service. Sometimes starting a company means selling the idea to investors or employees; and sometimes it means selling the idea to customers and resellers. But the golden rule of entrepreneurship is- know how to sell. You can’t invent an idea and expect someone else to sell it for you; and there is no college degree in how to sell. In fact; some of the most effective entrepreneurs I know never went to college. They sell.

Obviously only knowing how to sell is not enough for entrepreneurship. Technical skills, project management skills, financial skills, marketing, logistics, design, branding, networking, legal advice, researching- these are all greatly beneficial. But they are also all purchasable. You can go out and buy everything- except your ability to sell.

An entrepreneur is more than a salesman; he needs an idea. The most effective entrepreneurs are idea salesmen- people who can sell vacuum cleaners door to door; but perhaps with only the idea of a vacuum cleaner. In fact, networking- financing- marketing- are just different types of sales.

Usually, selling your product helps you design your product- or at least it has helped me.