When it comes to entrepreneurship - Are you an obstetrician, a pediatrician, or a geriatrician?

Recently on a casual chat with Rene Rojas, Founder and CEO of HubBog, he shared with me one of the coolest analogies I’ve heard when it comes to entrepreneurship.

Rene and I, both passionate for education, were talking about the concept of “academy” for entrepreneurial context and how it differs from the traditional  MBA/business education mental models. So, it was when he told me: “Supporting Entrepreneurs is like being an obstetrician, we are talking about a fragile human being hardly trying to come to life, in a process that is fairly delicate , unexpected and difficult. MBAs in the other hand are full of pediatricians, those who deal with the child when he’s expected to be stable and fit and now it's all about raising her/him healthily” (1)

As a soon-to-be MBA (even from Babson and its differential entrepreneurial approach) I could not agree more with the past point, to the extend that I added that some graduate programs or at least people I have come across, seem to be even “geriatricians”. However in a entrepreneurship movement that eery days leans more towards SCALE UPs (vs. Start Ups) and RAPID GROWTH, pediatricians will be nevertheless in high demand, specially those who hang out with lots of obstetricians. 

While many of the greatest things I’ve seen in the entrepreneurial world have risen however from the magic zone of collaborations between obstetricians, pediatricians and geriatricians, such as …

• ·   Endeavor connecting adolescents (High Impact Ventures) with adult doctors (seasoned executives of Large Organizations and TOP consulting firms)
• ·       The IBM Emerging Opportunities Program, for Corporate Entrepreneurship

… I still think that everybody needs to be clear of where its natural space it. 

The beauty of all this is not to play cool about being one or another; we need the three types of doctors for the economic system to function! 

The real beauty is to understand where our expertise, talent and personal culture relies, as a manager or as a “mentor” (I am pretty scared to use the underestimated/misunderstood M word these days) and offer this expertise in the right context. Just because entrepreneurship is so cool these days, does not mean that you have the right skills set to support entrepreneurs or turn into one.

And thinking back in my own business education at Babson, I can truly say the Entrepreneurial Thought and Action DNA of our school is nothing else as an invitation to understand that in today's world, we'll be many times pushed to be obstetricians (weather we want it or not- "you never know when a pregnant woman in the middle of nowhere we need your help!"). That does not mean that every single person that leaves this school will be an obstetrician, but at least we all are aware that pivoting, and testing and dancing with ambiguity (even in the most stable organizations)  is the "new forecasting".

(1) These might not be textual words, but you get the idea.

Perseverance: A picture is worth a thousand words

"There Is a Hole in My Sidewalk"

Saw this minutes ago being shared by couple of friends in Facebook.

Reminds me the spirit of Entrepreneurs ...

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

By Portia Nelson

Chapter One

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost…I am helpless.

It isn’t my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend that I don’t see it.

I fall in again.

I can’t believe I am in this same place.

But, it isn’t my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep whole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,

My eyes are open

I know where I am

It is my fault.

I get out immediately,

Chapter Four

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

Chapter Five

I walk down another street.

Overdose of optimism, the entrepreneurs` most typical excess?

Today I was reading an article that was written by Michael Skapinke on the Financial Times called  "Entrepreneurs need to know when to let go". You can read it if you feel like here.

On the article, there was a phrase that particularly called  my attention: "Scepticism is the journalist's default position, just as optimism is the entrepreneur's". 

Only few people would disagree with the fact that these "let`s be positive that it`s gonna work - attitude" that Entrepreneurs share plays a key role. It`s on the Entrepreneur`s DNA to hope for the best (no matter which risk level they are handling), and they do so because they trust the power of their own ideas and performance. And it`s great. Self-confidence is one of the most powerful characteristics that one can have to reach extraordinary things. 

However "right" and admirable the former can sound, there are limits. Indeed there must be limits ... the biggest challenge is to be aware of them. Out of my personal experience supporting Entrepreneurs as also trying to be one since we opened our restaurant with a couple of other partners, few situations where Entrepreneurs might suffer from "overdose of optimism" are:

- Not letting go a business that market has shown not to be profitable and still trying to artificially keep it alive though capital investment. If you do not change the strategy (management, plan, leader) to make it work, a business won`t get back on track by just being positive that a bit more of time is needed.

- Not letting go a worker/employee that shows some potential, but that has not been able to exploit it. "I think he/she will improve" - Second chances to underperformers are most typical than what we believe. Unfortunately (and fortunately) Entrepreneurs tend to think with the heart when it comes to managing employees, specially if these employees are those who happened to be around when you started your business. There is a hidden feeling of gratitude involved. 

Coming back to the phrase that inspired me to write this post ("scepticism is the journalist's default position, just as optimism is the entrepreneur's"), I feel like modifying it a bit to tap better into the entrepreneurial arena: "Scepticism is the manager`s default position, just as optimism is the entrepreneur's". When Entrepreneurs accept their overdose of optimism and realize that it can threaten their business, normally they call managers, creating a healthy balance. If Entrepreneurs are not there to hope for the best, innovation and "out of the box thinking" couldn`t probably flourish.

I think the biggest conclusions of this reflexion is that:

1. It would be a mistake to pretend to remove the natural optimism that Entrepreneurs have, it`s like going against their essence

2. Entrepreneurs need however to be aware when optimism blinds them and affects the soundness of the decisions they make

3. It`s important to look for a "counterweight" once one is aware that optimism is hindering growth: involving an objective manager or investor or advisor could be a way to go.

Meanwhile "WORKING FOR THE BEST WHILE HOPING FOR THE BEST" might sound like a healthy balance.

Olympics - a real expression of entrepreneurship

For some reason this particular version of the Olympics I´ve much more engaged following up the event and the competitions that in the past times ... it might be the "China factor" or it might just be that given the time difference between China and Colombia it´s very convenient for me to watch late at night some of the competitions ...!

Anyways, with all the Olympics fever and the flawless execution of this year´s opening ceremony, I can help start making connections between entrepreneurship and event management. Let´s first take a look at the definition*:

"Event management is the application of the management practice of project management to the creation and development of festivals and events. Event Management involves studying the intricacies of the brand, identifying the target audience, devising the event concept, planning the logistics and coordinating the aspects before actually executing the modalities of the proposed event. The industry now includes events of all sizes from the Olympics down to a breakfast meeting for ten business people. Every industry, charity, society and group will hold events of some type/size in order to market themselves, raise money or celebrate. Event Management is a multi-million dollar industry, growing rapidly, with mega shows and events hosted regularly. Surprisingly, there is no formalized research conducted to assess the growth of this industry. The industry includes fields such as the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events), exhibitions, conferences and seminars as well as live music and sporting events."

[boomtownbeijing.wordpress.com/]

"creation and development" ... isn´t it all the about being entrepreneurial?

Sure we can´t got to the extreme, it´s clear that the event management industry nowadays has so many stereotypes and established practices, standards and processes that might hardly leave room for innovation and risk, but still the concept that event management represents will always be a platform to develop and nurture entrepreneurial skills. If not, just a take a look at schools ... how many of today´s real-life entrepreneurs we know were the ones that back at college or university leaded the school events, festivals and all kind of related activities? If you have one of those kids, pay attention, you might have a potential future entrepreneur!

For now keep enjoying the Olympics and every time you sit down in from of your TV (or well, every time that you join live an spectacle there in China, if you are lucky to be there), unplug yourself for some minutes of the sport side of things, and analyze how much entrepreneurial talent must have been involved to make that happen. This reflection can bring you to amazing conclusions.

Congratulations China!


* Yes, it is from Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia, can´t deny! It´s just that you can´t use Wikipedia for everything ...!

Top Ten Myths of Entrepreneurship

Posted on January 10, 2008 at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

1. It takes a lot of money to finance a new business. Not true. The typical start-up only requires about $25,000 to get going. The successful entrepreneurs who don’t believe the myth design their businesses to work with little cash. They borrow instead of paying for things. They rent instead of buy. And they turn fixed costs into variable costs by, say, paying people commissions instead of salaries.

2. Venture capitalists are a good place to go for start-up money. Not unless you start a computer or biotech company. Computer hardware and software, semiconductors, communication, and biotechnology account for 81 percent of all venture capital dollars, and seventy-two percent of the companies that got VC money over the past fifteen or so years. VCs only fund about 3,000 companies per year and only about one quarter of those companies are in the seed or start-up stage. In fact, the odds that a start-up company will get VC money are about one in 4,000. That’s worse than the odds that you will die from a fall in the shower.

3. Most business angels are rich. If rich means being an accredited investor –a person with a net worth of more than $1 million or an annual income of $200,000 per year if single and $300,000 if married – then the answer is “no.” Almost three quarters of the people who provide capital to fund the start-ups of other people who are not friends, neighbors, co-workers, or family don’t meet SEC accreditation requirements. In fact, thirty-two percent have a household income of $40,000 per year or less and seventeen percent have a negative net worth.

4. Start-ups can’t be financed with debt. Actually, debt is more common than equity. According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Small Business Finances, fifty-three percent of the financing of companies that are two years old or younger comes from debt and only forty-seven percent comes from equity. So a lot of entrepreneurs out there are using debt rather than equity to fund their companies.

5. Banks don’t lend money to start-ups. This is another myth. Again, the Federal Reserve data shows that banks account for sixteen percent of all the financing provided to companies that are two years old or younger. While sixteen percent might not seem that high, it is three percent higher than the amount of money provided by the next highest source – trade creditors – and is higher than a bunch of other sources that everyone talks about going to: friends and family, business angels, venture capitalists, strategic investors, and government agencies.

6. Most entrepreneurs start businesses in attractive industries. Sadly, the opposite is true. Most entrepreneurs head right for the worst industries for start-ups. The correlation between the number of entrepreneurs starting businesses in an industry and the number of companies failing in the industry is 0.77. That means that most entrepreneurs are picking industries in which they are mostlikely to fail.

7. The growth of a start-up depends more on an entrepreneur’s talent than on the business he chooses. Sorry to deflate some egos here, but the industry you choose to start your company has a huge effect on the odds that it will grow. Over the past twenty years or so, about 4.2 percent of all start-ups in the computer and office equipment industry made the Inc 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. 0.005 percent of start-ups in the hotel and motel industry and 0.007 percent of start-up eating and drinking establishments made the Inc. 500. That means the odds that you will make the Inc 500 are 840 times higher if you start a computer company than if you start a hotel or motel. There is nothing anyone has discovered about the effects of entrepreneurial talent that has a similar magnitude effect on the growth of new businesses.

8. Most entrepreneurs are successful financially. Sorry, this is another myth. Entrepreneurship creates a lot of wealth, but it is very unevenly distributed. The typical profit of an owner-managed business is $39,000 per year. Only the top ten percent of entrepreneurs earn more money than employees. And the typical entrepreneur earns less money than he otherwise would have earned working for someone else.

9. Many start-ups achieve the sales growth projections that equity investors are looking for. Not even close. Of the 590,000 or so new businesses with at least one employee founded in this country every year, data from the U.S. Census shows that less than 200 reach the $100 million in sales in six years that venture capitalists talk about looking for. About 500 firms reach the $50 million in sales that the sophisticated angels, like the ones at Tech Coast Angels and the Band of Angels talk about. In fact, only about 9,500 companies reach $5 million in sales in that amount of time.

10. Starting a business is easy. Actually it isn’t, and most people who begin the process of starting a company fail to get one up and running. Seven years after beginning the process of starting a business, only one-third of people have a new company with positive cash flow greater than the salary and expenses of the owner for more than three consecutive months.

Roots of the word entrepreneurship

Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, defines entrepreneurship by looking to the roots of the French language. She found two words: "entre" and "prendre" that suggest the act of immersion into something that also takes hold of you. (Taken from Stanford Educators Corner)

I have always liked the past video (not only because I love indian accent!), and even if it was an intervention of 2003. What a better way to start understanding entrepreneurship than analizing the roots of the word itself?

So, even if the roots of the word entrepreneurship (and therefore of the word entrepreneur) come from a romance language, as french is, it´s important to notice that in spanish only few words or terms that we use normally related to entrepreneurship do officialy exist. For example, if you go to the REAL ACADEMIA DE LA LENGUA (the highest authority for the spanish language words writting and definitions), the noun EMPRENDIMIENTO (entrepreneurship, endeavor) is reported as non-existent. But we use it everywhere. However words as EMPRENDEDOR (entrepreneur) and EMPRENDER (verb for entrepreneurship, that actually does not exist in english) exist. And it´s a similar story in portuguese. I personally remember starting using the word entrepreneurship when I was about 19 - 20 years old ...

What is the point I try to make? Isn´t it funny to talk so much about those terms in Latinamerica when the word simply does not exist? Let´s face it, entrepreneurship now is in fashion, and many of us once used the word without even knowing what it really meant! but at the beginning must have been hard to start acting upon a culture which definition and concept was not even familiar to our language. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs, no matter what we called them and since when we started called them like this, have always existed, id oubt our civilizations would have had evolved without them. If not, let´s remember that in France in the beginning of the XVI century the word was also used to refer to the adverturers that traveled to the "New World" looking for life opportunities without knowing what to expect. Not really a big difference with what we today understand, right?

Any other theories or insights about the roots of the word?! Feel free to share!

Hope to come back soon with more capsules about Nature and Definitions of Entrepreneurship.