The New Breed of Entrepreneur Isn't So New When entrepreneurs refocus on revenue, metrics and building a strong foundation, they wind up sounding fresh and innovative.
By Eran Halevy •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The past decade or so has popularized the "grow at all costs" model of business, with innovative tech companies leading the way. Staying in the red for years on end has become trendy, with Jeff Bezos himself insisting that long-term investment in future growth is more important than quarterly earning targets. But for every Amazon success story, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of failed attempts to replicate the same model. These SoftBank companies (as they have come to be known regardless of whether or not the notorious conglomerate is actually invested) seem to fail far more often than they succeed.
Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son recently called his investment in WeWork "foolish." By now we all know story of WeWork's downfall. The popular co-working company's evaluation dropped from $47 billion to just $2.9 billion in one year.
But savvy business leaders don't stop there … they look for the reason behind the plummet. In the case of WeWork, it was a failure to focus on earning fundamentals. WeWork has actually said as much, with former CEO Adam Neumann once claiming that energy and spirituality were better measures of success than revenue and losses.
