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What are you building?

In their new book, Gallup’s CEO Jim Clifton and researcher Sangeeta Badal say the key to creating a successful business is a ‘builder’ mindset

Born To Build.
Born To Build.

David Ogilvy, often called the “father of advertising", once said: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."

Born To Build takes this thought a step forward by offering a psychological approach that could help people turn their innovative ideas into successful ventures and also make a lasting impact on society. In the 244-page book, Gallup chairperson and chief executive officer Jim Clifton and principal scientist for the American analytics firm’s entrepreneurship and job creation initiative Sangeeta Badal argue that a successful business can only happen if you go ahead with a “builder" mindset. “An innovation has no value until an ambitious builder creates a business model around it and turns it into a product or service that customers will buy... Successful builders proactively develop behaviours that empower them to anticipate problems, overcome adversity, recognize opportunities and take action to build something," the authors write. They give examples of builders like Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford who famously created historic economic energy through steel, electricity, trains and cars. “They also made very big bets—they would sometimes bet everything they were worth. Extreme builders will, a few times in their life, bet it all." Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

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