The Link Between Thought Leadership and Entrepreneurs | Mary Cronin | 413

What is the relationship between thought leadership and entrepreneurship? Both are forward-thinking problem solvers who know that passion and vision can take you far! To dig deeper into the ways these two paths intersect, we sit down with Mary Cronin, a research professor at Boston College. She's also the Founder and President of 4Q Catalyst LLC, a business advisory firm that provides strategy consulting, market analysis, and leadership development services. We start our conversation by discussing the similarities between thought leadership and entrepreneurship. In addition to passion and vision, both roles require a fine understanding of storytelling; a key component to success. Mary describes the impact of storytelling, and why it's often an overlooked function for start-ups as they focus on bootstrapping their business to achieve success. In May of 2021, Mary published Starting Up Smarter: Why Founders Over 50 Build Better Companies, which provides a keen look at entrepreneurs starting companies, and how their success rates were often impacted by the founder's age and experience. The book's research investigates 7 million US start-up companies over the last decade, and provides a keen look into the how's and why's of their success. Mary explains the research showing that most successful founders are in their 50s, which is also the age of many established and successful thought leaders. We further explore the traits of successful founders, and how they cross-over into successful thought leadership. Mary tells us that starting a business in your 50s means having a great sense of purpose, a willingness to partner with the younger generation, and the persistence to keep pushing forward and rethinking problems in order to achieve success. While the most successful founders are in their 50s this conversation will give you great advice to find success as a thought leader or entrepreneur at any age. Three Key Takeaways: * Good storytelling is a useful tool to ensure clients, employees, and investors fully understand your vision - whether you're building a company or creating thought leadership. * Partnering with team members or co-founders of different generations will give your work a broader reach and greater perspective. * Having an overwhelming passion for your mission, whether thought leadership or business, will go a long way to overcoming difficult challenges in your path.