Chapter 3
Demystifying Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced for the purpose of value creation and capture
Results in the creation, enhancement, realization, and renewal of value
Creation and/or recognition of opportunities
Very rarely is entrepreneurship a get-rich-quick proposition
People don’t want to be managed, they want to be led
Entrepreneurship = Paradoxes
An opportunity with no or very low potential can be an enormously big opportunity
To make money you have to first lose money
To create and build wealth one must relinquish wealth
To succeed, one first has to experience failure
Entrepreneurship requires considerable thought, preparation and planning, yet is basically an unplanned event
For creativity and innovativeness to prosper, rigor and discipline must accompany the process
Entrepreneurship requires a bias toward action and a sense of urgency, but also demands patience and perseverance
The greater the organization, orderliness, discipline, and control, the less you will control your ultimate destiny
Adhering to management best practice, especially staying close to the customer that created industry leaders in the 1980s, became a seed of self-distruction and loss of leadership to upstart competitors
To realize long-term equity value, you have to forgo the temptations of short-term profitability
Smaller means higher failure odds
Do not meet the notion of an entrepreneurship
Do not create, enhance, or pursue opportunities that realize value
They tend to be job substitutes in many instances
Undercapitalized
Undermanaged
Poor location
Don’t reach a critical mass of 10 to 20 employees and 2 to 3 million in revenues
Venture capital backing
Not essential to a start-up and not a guarantee for success
Private investors join venture capitalist
Find financial backers who bring more than just money
Look for backers