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Here's a question I get asked, time and again.

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Bob, what are the absolute most important factors to the success of any business?

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After thinking it over, I made a list of the most important traits that all successful businesses and successful entrepreneurs share. There are a lot of factors that matter, but here are just a few of the most important ones.

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Have a fall back.

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In other words, don't rush in recklessly. You'll hear some experts tell people, "take the plunge and go all in". In general, I got to tell you that's an incredibly bad idea.

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First, you need to make sure there's water in the pool before you dive. By this, I mean you need to prove to yourself that your idea makes sense and it has traction.

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This is best accomplished when you start small and have a fall back that allows you to fail time and again until you get it right.

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Be ready to break the rules.

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This one is critical. You won't find many successful businesses out there that haven't at some point gone against the grain.

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When I started Parsons Technology, I took a risk by distributing my products in a whole new way. At the time, software was sold mostly in stores. One of the ways I stood out was by delivering my software directly to your door through mail order.

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That's pretty commonplace now, but at the time, it was practically unheard of.

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Now at Go Daddy, one of the risky things I did was advertise in the Super Bowl. In 2005, Go Daddy was still a fairly small company. And for a company our size to spend millions on one commercial, especially after the dot-com bust, was crazy to many people inside and outside of Go Daddy.

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The other thing I did was to use very edgy advertising that featured the Go Daddy Girls®.

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Just about every critic has called my ads tasteless, juvenile, idiotic, ill thought out, etc, etc... But the end result, not only did the ads work, they worked in spades.

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Before we ran our first Super Bowl ad, Go Daddy's market share of new domain names was 16% worldwide. The following week, because of that ad, our market share of new registrations jumped to 25%.

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Now, let me ask you a question. If you were me, would you do the same thing again? You bet you would. And I have again and again and again. And you know what, I'll keep doing it until it stops working, which doesn't look like it'll be anytime soon.

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So be prepared to go against the grain. It just might be the ticket that pays off for you bigger than your wildest dreams.

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Test and measure everything.

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This is one of the most important things you can do as an entrepreneur.

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My rule #9 says that anything that is measured and watched, improves. Watch your operations and product offerings closely. Then make small improvements, and do it often.

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Keep big changes to a minimum, but always, always, always be making small changes.

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You've got to have your head on straight.

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How you think will literally determine how successful you are. All of us have had to teach ourselves how to think. You can do it too.

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Successful entrepreneurs devote the majority of their time thinking about how they are going to pull off the opportunities in front of them. They spend as little time as possible dwelling on the problems, and worrying about the consequences.

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One of the important life lessons I learned as a young combat marine in Vietnam, and in my early years of business, was to quantify the worst possible outcome, and prepare myself to accept it in the event that it happened.

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Pretty dramatic. But once I accepted the worst possible outcome, I found I was better able to deal with every situation that came my way.

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Plus, the moment I quantified and accepted it, I quit wasting time thinking about it. Then I spent the majority of my time thinking about and doing positive things.

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You absolutely, positively have to be doing something you love.

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And that's why today, my businesses are GoDaddy.com, a technology company, and GoAZ Motorcycles.

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Now, technology and motorcycles aren't my only interests. But they are the ones I developed a passion for.

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Take Go Daddy for example. Through that passion, mostly because I'm always thinking about the company and its products, I was able to find a competitive edge in the way domain names, hosting, and SSL certs were priced, sold, and marketed.

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So when you do what you love, you'll be willing to work harder at it. And you'll learn things that will really separate you from your competition, who more than likely are in it just for a paycheck.

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My dad always told me, "When you love something, it tells you all its secrets". He was right you know.

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Well that's a wrap for this episode. If you have any comments or questions, please post them here. I read each and every one of them, and I'm always interested in what you have to say.

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With Reva, Brenna, and myself, thanks for watching.
See ya next time.

06:12, 06:24
During my life, I've assembled a collection of 16 rules. Most of them, I learned the hard way. These rules helped me in business and my personal life. Hopefully, they will help you too.

06:24.5, 06:42
Today's rule is #4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences."

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My father would tell me early on when I was struggling, losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going. My dad would say, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."

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