The Execution Factor Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

The difference between success and failure often comes down to one thing: execution. You can plan all you want, but that’s not going to realize your dreams. The way in which you execute your plans is critical.

Fortunately, the execution factor isn’t just a trait you have or don’t have. It is made up of five components, all of which can be developed. The five parts of the execution factor are vision, passion, action, resilience, and building relationships. These work together for meaningful execution.

If you think of yourself as a driver on a journey in a car, the execution factor is how you get where you want to go. The vision is your destination. You think about it and you have to be specific. It is hard to go to a general place. You need an actual location to be able to drive there.

Passion is the gas in the tank. You need it to get your engine going and you can’t run out. Small tasks related to your end goal and celebrating victories help keep the gas tank full.

Action is actually putting the car in drive and moving. There may be different routes to your destination, but you have to pick one and start moving. Pay attention to your progress and adjust your route as needed.

Resilience helps you deal with unplanned obstacles. Maybe you hit a small pothole and you just have to deal with the brief rough patch. Or you get stuck in a major traffic jam. Cars have safety equipment to handle the worst stuff and keeping a positive attitude even will help you even when things get frustrating.

Sure, you can drive alone. But maybe there are parts of your journey that would be better with some company. Long road trips can get lonely and tiring. If there is more than one driver and you share the burden, you can get there quicker. Or you need special skills on a road that is difficult to navigate. The relationships you build will support you on your journey. Make sure you surround yourself with positive relationships.

With the five pieces coming together, you have what you need. Make it a priority to reach your goals and execute on your plans. Reaching the destination you set out for will be well worth the journey.

About the Author

Kim Perell is an entrepreneur with a background in marketing and advertising.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pepperdine University, Perell joined Xdrive Technology. In her role as the Director of Marketing and Sales, she brought in more than $9 million in revenue from advertising. Xdrive was an internet startup that eventually went bankrupt and Perell was laid off.

Perell took her marketing expertise and founded Frontline Direct. In seven years, her firm grew to over $100 million in revenue. Building on her success, she sold her company to Adconion Media Group.

After the sale, the two companies merged and Perell became the CEO and the first woman on its board. Four years later the company was sold again but for more than $200 million this time. Perell again stayed on as a leader, serving as president for two years before moving up to CEO.

In 2019, Perell shifted her focus to investing and supporting entrepreneurs. As an angel investor, she’s supported more than 60 businesses. She has judged business ideas on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Elevator Pitch series and appeared in Good Morning America’s segments Side Hustle Showdown and Kidventors.

She lives in San Diego with her husband and their two sets of twins.

Topics

Entrepreneurship

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Key Insights

If you’re an entrepreneur, you probably know all about hard work. You know you have to be determined and persevere. Likely, you have some idea of what achieving your goals means. Maybe you want to be your own boss or you want financial independence.

But the reality is that not everyone succeeds. Some people have good ideas that never take off or a great product that doesn’t sell. For many aspiring entrepreneurs, this may feel disheartening. Why do some people succeed where others fail?

The difference between dreams and success comes down to execution. You have to be able to take meaningful action to make your goals a reality. This capacity to chart a course of action and carry it out is known as the execution factor.

Kim Perell knows all about execution. She went from an unemployed 23-year-old to a multimillionaire in seven years. As an angel investor, she’s seen that the execution factor over and over in the successful companies she’s invested in.

Perell explores the execution factor. The factor is made up of five traits: vision, passion, action, resilience, and relationship-building. The good news is you can learn this critical component of entrepreneurial success. You just have to be willing to put in the work.

Having a vision is critical for mapping out where you want to go.

Vision is the first part of the execution factor. You need to have an articulated idea of where you want to go. This is the long-term aspiration you have. If things don’t go as planned, you try to get back on course towards that goal.

President John F. Kennedy set an ambitious mission for America in 1961. It was the middle of the Cold War. The United States was competing with the Soviet Union, trying to determine who had more power and influence on a global scale. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first person to go to space. President Kennedy responded by stating that the United States would put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.

President Kennedy’s statement was a vision. It was something you could visualize and work towards. Inspiring the nation, it set the tone for actions that culminated in the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong took those steps on the lunar landscape and realized the vision.

Your goal doesn’t have to require leaving the planet. But you need to know what you want to accomplish if you’re going to figure out how to accomplish it. You won’t know if the work you’re doing is helping you meet your goals if you don’t have a final destination in mind.

A vision is any sort of goal that isn’t immediate. You could be trying to complete an ambitious task that requires a lot of preparation, such as running a marathon. You may want to acquire a new skill, like baking. Your goal may be broader, like helping the environment or achieving financial freedom.

The path to achieving your vision will probably not be smooth and easy. If it was, you...