Successful Entrepreneurs Have One Key Trait: Discipline

Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder of Apple, said it best:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to one thousand things.”

Do you have the discipline to stick to your original vision despite the temptation to veer off course?

The discipline to stick to your original product or service offering despite clients asking for different things… ?

The discipline to ignore whatever shiny ball is demanding your attention and instead focus on what you originally set out to do…?

The two partners at JurisPage, Andy Cabasso and Sam Brodie, set out to be the premier website service for law firms and rejected other lucrative business that was offered to them that meant they would have to veer from their focus.

In the end, Cabasso and Brodie’s discipline paid off because they attracted the attention of Uptime Legal, an Inc. 5000 business specializing in technology and practice management software for law firms.

The two companies fit together like peanut butter and jelly, which is why Uptime Legal acquired JurisPage in a seven-figure deal that closed in 2016.

The moral? While curiosity and grit are important personality traits for any would-be founder, the ability to remain discipled in the face of opportunity may be the most important attribute of all.