The Entrepreneurial Savant

A rainmaker is someone who makes things happen. In a business she may bring in new sales when things are slow. In a creative situation, he may break up logjams and get things going again. Being a rainmaker means taking situations where things are not happening and looking for a way, sometimes any way, to get the momentum back. Rainmakers look for new angles, they throw ideas on the table, no matter how absurd or unusual, they ask people to do things outside of their job description or expertise and they look at a process that is stopped up and try to find a way around the stop.
Rainmaking is a skill requiring creative thinking and the nerve to go out on a limb. Sometimes it might mean being the first to say or do something that everyone has been hesitant to do. Often, it means diverting attention way from the thorny difficulty that has everybody stymied and back onto the bigger picture. Rainmakers say things like ‘Is this worth the effort?’ or ‘let’s just pick one small problem, solve it and then go on to the next’. They ask secretaries and dock workers what they think. Whatever gets the job done.
Rainmakers always find their way to the center and take the risks that take them to the next step. The best ones develop the people and listening skills that help them enlist others into their rainmaking.

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