Great ideas aren't enough

Ron Bienvenu gave a great speech last week about entrepreneurship, and he raised some really interesting points. Ron has founded and sold 2 software firms, lead a hostile takeover, managed 50 public and private M&A events, and has raised over $250M through every possible method from venture capital firms. This guy is super smart, really charismatic and is clearly a phenomenal business man.

One of the points he brought up that really hit home was that almost everything is a commodity these days. Intelligence can be a commodity if you hire smart people. Money is clearly a commodity. Even ideas become commodities as ideas spread across the internet faster than companies can monetize them. Ron had no problem discussing his next big idea in front of an audience of entrepreneurs because the idea will likely become public knowledge anyway before he has a chance to bring it to completion.

So what is it that Ron believes sets successful entrepreneurs apart? In his words, "toughness". How you respond to setbacks, competition, disappointments and the unexpected dictates how successful your company will be. Anyone can hire a smart CFO to read a balance sheet or a good marketing person to execute a marketing plan. These are business skills. How you react when a customer is late with a payment and you can't make payroll, or a huge company decides to enter your space with a competitive product is where toughness really becomes essential the the survival of your company.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. This theory assumes that everyone has (or hires someone who has) the hard skills necessary to succeed. Is that a valid assumption? And is toughness really the differentiating factor for success?