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)
… 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.
"all my life I've been waiting for I've been praying for for the people to say that we don't wanna fight no more they'll be no more wars and our children will play"
This song video by Matisyahu is everytwhere in the social networks. When I finally opened it (sometimes I am skeptical about the quality of the stuff that is overly shared on Facebook) I understood the reason for such hype. It's beautiful.
Where the heck do you learn to be kind? How the heck to you teach to be kind? How do you scale simple acts of kindness as the ones seen on the video into a higher level of reality? And actually, would our world be better if ...?
I’ve been an MBA student at BABSON for less than three months. Time might look short, but if there is something that I have done much more often than what I believed I would do in just three months is “pitching”.
The “business pitch culture” at Babson is very strong. I heard once from a classmate that even when one is having a beer at the campus pub (specially during Rocket Pitch season), one could simply be approached by a fellow student, who invites you to do your pitch in front of him/her. And I’m not surprised. If we recall that Babson has been ranked as the No. School for Entrepreneurship for 18 years, such a culture is very consistent with the type of school we are.
Whether you like public speaking or not, business pitching becomes a skill we all develop and some of us master. Formal and informal spaces at the school allow us to do so. For instance, as part of my first Entrepreneurship class (which I had during Module 1, which is the first half of the Fall Semester) I was required to pitch twice. The experience was transformational. At first, you feel under pressure, you feel unprepared, you feel uncomfortable: max. 3 slides in max. 3 minutes is not an easy task (when Spanish is you native language, being succinct is not a particular strength!). But after couple of pitches you realize that the panic just vanished and that the connection between you and your idea is more powerful than anything else.
Babson Rocket Pitch 2011
Another special space at Babson to show your ideas to the world is the Babson Rocket Pitch, which is an annual event where Babson and Olin entrepreneurs (students and alumni) are invited to pitch their business ideas to a large audience of students, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers – also under the 3 slides/3 minutes format. As one of the students who pitched, I can say that this was a particularly special day. One could see how many people were pitching not because it was a class assignment (which as said, tends to be our first experience with doing an elevator pitch), but because they really wanted to do so.
“Idea Live” is also an additional activity that students have available to hone our “pitching” skills, even if it is not an official rocket pitch or business plan competition. It is a less formal event where students can discuss their ideas and receive feedback in a fun and energized environment. Each presenter has 5 minutes to discuss his or her business idea. No Powerpoint slides, but a white board will be available if needed.
I believe it is very important to realize that even if traditionally a pitch is directed at anyone who might want to provide funding for an entrepreneur’s venture, you can pitch for many reasons beyond funding, like for example to find high level advisors, new partners or new employees. Or you simply pitch because you want to get feedback on your idea, being the latter probably the most powerful take away from any pitch you deliver.
Fresh highlights from today's Entrepreneurship class with BABSON MBA Alumni that came "home"... great stories of resilience, team work and of course, satisfaction... "the things the way they are".
"We have grown our venture through validation"
"Convertible debt"
"The 'stupidity' of what was offered at that time is what motivated our launch this product"
"He is the one that manages the finances, I take care of product development ... I'm not a finance guy"
"Nobody was willing to give us money ... we were 'unproven' Entrepreneurs"
"I have been a struggling entrepreneur since 2007 ...the struggle for us has been raising money" (Note: he has raised 4.5 million USD already)
"Professional investors are the nicest people you can even think of! The VCs are the first people to tell us: "you are not quite where you think you are ... they help us understand why we are a 2 Mio instead of a 6 Mio company, as entrepreneurs at times we have a lot of misunderstandings of the industry we are at"
"Boston is known for being a tough climate for a first time entrepreneur"
"We really liked the fact that they recognized the own limitations and hired a CEO and other smart people that had a lot of expertise" (said by the Venture Capital)
"We are not afraid to invest in first time Entrepreneurs, but we understand that they are companies that will need a lot of attention"(said by the Venture Capital)
Some questions done by the students and some pieces of the answers ...
On approaching FAMILY and (good) FRIENDS for initial investment
"For initial friends and family founding, YOU DO NOT APPROACH your poor family members!"
"It's the most 'expensive' money I have got, those investors were the ones that kept me awake at night"
"Forget the grandchildren .. how is the business?" (that's how the conversations with your father start after they invest in you!)
"Treat them carefully, as if they were institutional investors"
"Their exit strategy was important, but they were more proud of seeing our product in the TIME magazine ... they were really investing in us"
On RESILIENCE (How often do you ask yourself if you want to continue, if you are doing the right thing?)
"About 4 times a day!"
"I have a friend that calls me once in a while and what he always asks me is 'Are you still having fun?' And as long as I say yes, that's what matters. We do not feel pity. Those moments of success bring you to the next one ... and your need for success becomes larger ... those moments help you through the dark times ... it is like a roller coaster ... as your company grows, your highs get 'higher' and your lows get 'lower'"
"When your employees start getting married and having kids, and you realize how many kids the company is feeding ... that makes you go on"
On FINDING THE TECHNICAL PARTNERS/EMPLOYEES (I have the idea but, I do not know how to materialize it, I'm not an engineer!)
We were in our BCAP (BCAP is an experiential learning program at BABSON) room and sketched the first idea of our product ... the sketch was awful, it was clear that we needed real design talent.We decided to find a design school that WOULD HELP us. We just called the design schools and asked to speak with the deans ... nobody paid attention. But I got attention of ONE school, I do not know what happened that day, but the dean gave us an appointment. What called her attention was the STORY we could build around working together: we will have a design school and business school creating a company! They liked having a designers understanding how to bring a product to the market. 6 months, 30 students, a professors, and us ... it was a very interesting product development process ... and the result was a 100 USD play table. After that process we had almost 30 designers that were familiar with us and we leveraged on that network.
Recruiting software engineers was very difficult, what would drive them to do something WITH YOU, with a START UP? Are you able to give them the experience they are looking for? It was a sales process, it is about selling a person that at times is smarter than you, that has maybe at the time more opportunities that the one you can give that he/she, the idea that he/she should work with you.
On THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIFFERENT
"There are too many things that we would have done different. But this is part of the learning curve, you will never have all the answers, what matters is your ability to react and that is what brings you to success"
"If you are not making mistakes, you must be doing something wrong"
Disclaimer: The past highlights do not necessarily reflect my personal opinions or the ones of BABSON. It is just a blog post to share an interesting class activity.
I found the previous video one day - randomly - on Facebook.
As anything that is about Colombia, i went on to see what it was all about. Nice video, as usual, nice to hear foreigners praising your land, your culture.
Yet, there was a comment by one of the foreigners that absolutely called my attention: "In comparison with Europe, Colombia is much less stressful, you are not expected to give your 120% (...)"
I let it sink, even if it stayed in my head for couple of days. Until today, 20.07 ... Colombia`s remarkable Independence Day, where all the people swim in the pride of being colombian (including myself) .. today is a good day however to talk about this 120% ...
Before I go on, I want to clarify that having lived in Europe I (kind of) know what this person tries to express and by no means this post intends to challenge him or his perception. Perception is reality. Period. What I really would like to decode is what it means "not giving the 120%". As colombian, is this actually something to praise? If yes, from which angle?
What does it mean not to give the 120%?
The first thing that came to my mind was "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" - in german ("Anecdote to the Decline of the Work Ethic" - english translation). It is a famous short story by Heinrich Böll that I actually learned at school and I never, ever will forget (I graduated from a german school, in my home city, Barranquilla). The story is about an encounter between an enterprising tourist and a small fisherman, in which the tourist suggests how the fisherman can improve his life. It was written for a May Day programme on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in 1963, and is considered one of the best stories written by Heinrich Böll. And hell it is.
The Tale of the fisherman and the Tourist: A tourist looks on a most idyllic picture: a fisherman dozing in the sun in his rowing boat that he has pulled out of the waves which come rolling up the sandy beach. The tourist's camera clicks and the fisherman wakes. The tourist asks: “The weather is great and there's plenty of fish, so why are you lying around instead of going out and catching more?”
The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!” The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.” “But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .” “And then?” asks the fisherman. “And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!”
Thanks to my job at Endeavor for the past 4 years there is a term that has become part of my lexicon: THINK BIG. When I reflect on the 120% thing and the short story of Böll, I can´t help recalling of the term.
I think as Colombians we are "lazy" to think big, many times. To think big does not mean "stopping spending time sitting at the beachside dozing" as the fisherman in the previous story does. The two things are not mutually exclusive. This "trade-off" scenario is WAY OVERRATED, please! One thing is valuing and living the PRESENT and another one is excusing ourselves for not giving the extra mile in a nation where so many things need to be done: this is an emerging economy folks! lots of stuff needs to be still created and forward thinking, big thinking is fundamental to that.
I am proud to be colombian NOT BECAUSE OF THE SUPERFICIAL elements that you read in newspapers or over social networks: "WE ARE ONE OF THE HAPPIEST NATIONS IN THE WORLD". What does that mean? What`s happiness actually? What`s the underlying structure from which we self-portrait ourseves as happy?
I am proud to be colombian because I feel like the butterfly that struggles to squeeze its body through the tiny hole of the cocoon (read the story) and this excersice made me strong. Anf I feel lucky to be citizen in this environment, because it makes me better and enables me to give my 120% while changing a reality.
I am proud to be colombian because there is a new generation of citizens raising, a new generation that is waking up and that repulses curruption, crime, hate, envy, injustice and is creating concrete initiatives to create a fair society for all. We are a generation that EMBRACES VULNERABILITY, BUT ALSO KNOWS THAT ITS VULNERABILITY IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE, OF IMPROVEMENT, OF CREATIVITY, OF BELONGING, as Brene Brown says.
I am proud to be colombian, because many of our efforts are starting to show results, because clear numbers make us be part of the CIVETS, given our reasonably sophisticated financial systems, controlled inflation, and a soaring young population.
I am proud to be colombian because back in the 1800s there was a group of patriots corageous enough to raise their voices and proclaim this nation as independent. They dared to CHANGE.
I am proud to be colombian because we are WHOLE-HEARTED, and let ourselves be seen.
I am proud to be colombian because we KNOW how to freaking give our 120%, and if not all of us do that, there is hell a big part of us that is doing it. Without cliches, withour paradigms, without lame excuses.
The Zen master Hakuin is one of the rare flowerings. A warrior came to him, a samurai, a great soldier, and he asked "Is there any hell, is there any heaven? If there is hell and heaven, where are the gates? Where do I enter from? How can I avoid hell and choose heaven?"
He was a simple warrior. A warrior is always simple; otherwise he cannot be a warrior. A warrior knows only two things, life and death--his life is always at stake, he is always gambling; He is a simple man. He had not come to learn any doctrine. He wanted to know where the gate was so he could avoid hell and enter heaven. And Hakuin replied in a way only a warrior could understand.
What did Hakuin do? He said, "Who are you?"
And the warrior replied, "I am a samurai."
It is a thing of much pride to be a samurai in Japan. It means being a perfect warrior, a man who will not hesitate a single moment to give his life. For him, life and death are just a game. He said, "I am a samurai, I am a leader of samurais. Even the emperor pays respect to me."
Hakuin laughed and said, " You, a samurai? You look like a beggar."
The samurai's pride was hurt, his ego hammered. He forgot what he had come for. He took out his sword and was just about to kill Hakuin. He forgot that he had come to this master to ask where is the gate of heaven, to ask where is the gate of hell.
Hakuin laughed and said, "This is the gate of hell. With this sword, this anger, this ego, here opens the gate." This is what a warrior can understand. Immediately he understood: This is the gate. He put his sword back in its sheath.
And Hakuin said, "Here opens the gate of heaven."
Hell and heaven are within you, both gates are within you. When you are behaving unconsciously there is the gate of hell; when you become alert and conscious, there is the gate of heaven.
SPANISH VERSION ...
Un guerrero samurai, fue a ver al Maestro Zen Hakuin y le preguntó:
"¿Existe el infierno? ¿Existe el cielo?
¿Dónde están las puertas que llevan a ellos? ¿Por dónde puedo entrar?
Era un guerrero sencillo. Los guerreros siempre son sencillos, sin astucia en sus mentes, sin matemáticas. Sólo conocen dos cosas: La vida y la muerte. Él no había venido a aprender ninguna doctrina; solo quería saber dónde estaban las puertas, para poder evitar el infierno y entrar en el cielo. Hauikin le respondió de una manera que sólo un guerrero podía haber entendido.
¿Quién eres?", le preguntó Hakuin.
"Soy un samurai, le respondió el guerrero, hasta el emperador me respeta".
Hakuin se rió y contestó "¿Un Samurai, tú? Pareces un mendigo".
El orgullo del samurai se sintió herido y olvidó para que había venido. Sacó su espada y ya estaba a punto de matar a Hakuin cuando éste dijo:
"Esta es la puerta del infierno. Esta espada, esta ira, este ego, te abren la puerta".
Esto es lo que un guerrero puede comprender. Inmediatamente el samurai entendió. Puso de nuevo la espada en su cinto, conmovido, se inclinó con humildad y con voz honesta y profunda dijo:
-Maestro, muchas gracias, tus palabras tocaron mi alma. La rabia, el miedo y la arrogancia son mi infierno.
El maestro lo miró fijamente y le dijo:
"Aquí se abren las puertas del cielo."
No son las palabras de los otros las que te envían al cielo o al infierno, es el significado que les das.
Las palabras pueden contener emociones, pero tú decides si las aceptas y cuanta importancia tienen para ti.
Cuando eliges la rabia, la arrogancia o el miedo, estas escogiendo el dolor, el juicio y el aislamiento, tanto para ti como para quienes te rodean.
Nuestros maestros y nuestras lecciones se encuentran con frecuencia en las personas o situaciones más inesperadas.
La persona más difícil o la situación más adversa pueden ser los maestros que te recuerden que en este instante puedes elegir estar en el cielo o en el infierno.
