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The 10 Myths of Entrepreneurship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8gRkJ9cnzo
English Transcript
0:24 In the mid-nineties, a former investment banker declared that he was going
to become the world's
0:30 biggest online retailer. A university dropout tells us that he will show
the consumers which
0:36 products they want and then step by step revolutionizes the markets for
personal computers, music
0:43 and cell phones. In his student digs, a young man designs a comparison
portal for female
0:49 students, which is now the biggest communication platform in the world,
connecting millions
0:54 of people. And an author, who, by his own account, is hindered by dyslexia,
becomes
0:59 a pioneer of commercial space travel. Are Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's
Steve Jobs,
1:06 Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson
extraordinary people? Are
1:11 they Soldiers of fortune? Magicians? Rare super-entrepreneurs who change
our lives dramatically?
1:19 The purpose of research around entrepreneurship is to get to the bottom of
this mystery and
1:25 to explore the seemingly magical about successful entrepreneurs.
MYTH 1
1:30 Successful entrepreneurs are not necessarily male dropouts and secret
geniuses. No! The
1:35 potential for entrepreneurship is in each of us. The entrepreneur we want
to send on
1:40 a journey into an uncertain future is female and neither a visionary nor a
dropout. She
1:47 doesn't have much money either and no sudden brilliant idea that she puts
into action purposefully.
1:53 And still, she masters the uncertainty like our super-entrepreneurs.
Because she also
1:59 uses the entrepreneurial method, consciously or unconsciously.
2:05 The entrepreneurial method? What's that?
2:08 If Alice were a manager she would ask herself: what are my goals and which
means do I need
2:14 to reach them? By contrast, the entrepreneurial method begins with the
unique means a person already has.
2:21 These consist of their identity, competences, and contacts.
2:26
2:28 Beginning with these means, one imagines several possible goals to solve
specific problems.
2:33 It's like cooking without a recipe. The super-entrepreneur doesn't choose a
specific
2:38 recipe and buys the necessary ingredients. No, instead, she could look what
she can find
2:44 in the fridge and then makes up various kinds of possible creations!
MYTH 2
2:50 With
entrepreneurship, it's not the goals we focus on in the beginning but the means. By acting
without a single,
2:56 fixed goal, a Richard Branson is able to imagine a whole portfolio of goals
and possible ventures.
3:02 After all, he founded Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines before Virgin
Galactic.
MYTH 3
3:09 What's also important: Business ideas don't originate in the shower, but
develop in multiple
3:15 numbers when applying the entrepreneurial method. The idea is the easiest
part in the
3:21 founding process.
3:22 And waiting for the "right idea" can lead to waiting forever. Our
entrepreneur is already
3:28 equipped with everything she needs for founding a business. She just has to
get going and design the future.
MYTH 4
3:33 But there's a lack of money! Not if Alice
3:38 acts according to the successful method of the super-entrepreneurs. Even
Jeff Bezos started
3:44 on a shoestring and funded Amazon with his parents' guarantees, supplier
loans and
3:49 overdrawn credit cards. In other words, with his available means. Instead
of trying to
3:55 define the expected return like a manager, our entrepreneur defines her
affordable loss.
4:01 Affordable in a financial, psychological, and social respect.
4:07 Instead of going on vacation, she starts a venture. In small, explorative
steps she employs
4:13 the available means -- her money, her time and other people's trust. If she
fails,
4:20 she fails at an early stage and at acceptable costs for her.
4:25 With her stock of means, her subsequently conceivable portfolio of goals
and her affordable
4:30 loss, Alice has all the prerequisites to embark on her entrepreneurial
journey.
4:36 But wait! There are other people who are interested in Alice and her
venture. Surely they want
4:43 to steal her idea, so Alice shouldn't talk about her goals under any
circumstances! Wrong!
MYTH 5
4:49 What is she going to protect if she, herself, doesn't know exactly what
it's going to
4:54 look like? She has to talk about her venture to extend her stock of means
and her portfolio
5:01 of goals. Unlike in management, entrepreneurship is not about a win-lose
situation along the
5:07 lines of "Who gets the largest piece of cake". Neither is it about a
win-win situation:
MYTH 6
5:12 "Let's make the cake bigger together!"
5:15 In the entrepreneurial present with an uncertain future, the cake has not
even been baked yet.
5:21 Those who want to join become partners, bring in their means and decide
together which cake
5:26 to bake, the common shared goal. They negotiate the future together and
co-create the products.
5:33 By the way, don't we need a business plan with a clear understanding of
where the journey
5:38 is headed?
MYTH 7
5:40 An itinerary like that can be helpful, yes, but sometimes it prevents the
journey to India
5:45 from ending up in America, the promised land. So I'm sailing aimlessly in
one direction
5:52 or the other, depending on the wind? But entrepreneurship is a crapshoot!
Granted, luck is one element
5:58 in the formula of success. But if I act according to the entrepreneurial
method, I improve my
6:04 odds. It's about a learnable routine in dealing with the unexpected.
Learnable? But
6:13 aren't you born to be an entrepreneur? After all, entrepreneurial success
is rooted in
6:18 the genes!
MYTH 9
6:20 Wrong! The entrepreneurial method of our super-entrepreneurs can be applied
by any of us. Everyone has
6:27 a unique stock of means. It's what we make of it that determines the
success.
6:33 Entrepreneurs are made, not born.
6:37 Even Richard Branson has had more failures than successes in his ventures.
Success was
6:42 only possible by learning from his failures, which prepared him for the
uncertainty that
6:47 awaits him on his journey in his space ship. Maybe Alice from the
entrepreneurial wonderland
6:52 will be among his first partners. Not as a passenger, but as a collaborator
in creating the future of the world we live in.
MYTH 10
6:58 Entrepreneurs aren't prophets. They
don't have to predict
7:03 the future. They create it.
7:09 Ready for your own entrepreneurial journey? Here's a short summary:
7:14 First, entrepreneurship is not an extraordinary phenomenon, but lies
dormant in each of us
7:21 as an entrepreneurial potential to act.
7:24 Second, according to the entrepreneurial method, I start with the available
means -- who am
7:30 I, what do I know, whom do I know -- not with mystical goals or fictitious
ideas. So,
7:37 there's no reason to wait!
7:39 Third, as an entrepreneur, I don't submit my actions under one great idea.
No! on the
7:46 basis of my stock of means I constantly develop my imagination about
various possible goals
7:52 for the solution of specific problems.
7:55 Fourth, instead of an expected return, what do I want to earn, the "upside
potential",
8:01 I define an affordable loss, the "downside potential" and ask: how much is
it worth
8:06 to me, how much can I afford to lose?
8:10 Fifth, I don't keep my ideas secret, but exchange my goals on the basis of
my means
8:15 with others. The business idea is the cheapest (there are so many ideas!);
my stock of means
8:22 is the most valuable thing in the entrepreneurial process.
8:25 So, sixth, "co-creation" develops with the additional means and the new
goals of
8:32 the partners.
8:33 Seventh, business plans most likely do not reduce uncertainty, but surely
prevent reaching
8:38 unplanned, yet desirable goals.
8:41 Eighth, luck is a part of entrepreneurial success. But with the
entrepreneurial method
8:47 I turn the wheel of fortune more often.
8:51 Ninth, we're not born as entrepreneurs but can learn to deal with
uncertainty.
8:57 Tenth, if you co-create the future as an entrepreneur you don't have to
predict it.
9:10 Science has many parallels to entrepreneurship. Scientists also experiment
to get to the bottom
9:15 of something new or to create something new. Our entrepreneur "Alice" is
called Saras
9:21 Sarasvathy in entrepreneurship research. She is the discoverer of the
entrepreneurial method.
9:28 Other researchers contribute their means and goals to comprehend the
phenomenon of entrepreneurship,
9:34 where new things develop under great uncertainty.
9:41 What will the entrepreneurial society of the future look like? Don't wait
for it - co-create
9:46 it!
Published on 14 Dec 2012
Duration 10:18
In the second video of our series «Little Green Bags» we do away
with the ten myths of entrepreneurship -- and show how one can
create a successful start-up business without money, business
plan or even an idea.
© University of St.Gallen (HSG), Text by Prof. Dietmar Grichnik
(http://bit.ly/Grichnik),
Production:
http://www.zense.ch
To watch the first «Little Green Bags» video on corporate social
responsibility (CSR), please go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NkGt....
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