Recently I have attended meetings with very seasoned business executives and with very inexperienced entrepreneurs. The nature of conversation in the room was enough to tell me I like being with the early-stage hopefuls over the tired, and waiting to retire, professionals. The entreprenuers at the TCVN meeting here in Orange County California, talked about their business. The professionals talked about their vacations. You can hardly stop a gung-ho entrepreneur from discussing their innovation. You can hardly get a tired executive to talk about innovation.
At the entrepreneur meeting the moderator asked, "Why are we here?" ...
As I was preparing to write this entry, I checked a few other blogs to see if there was something I that could add to it. I found 4 great pieces:
Seth Godin has a great post on "More and Least" where he talks about how the attitude of "Least" can be contagious. That is, people try to get away with doing the least amount of work they can for a moderate result.
One of the foremost experts on Innovation, Egils Milbergs, has a piece about the need for a change in attitude among the small to medium sized manufacturers in the US. (He has some great maps in there as well.) He is one of those people that used to be very hard to get advice from, but that now gives it away for free if you choose to search for and read what he has to say.
I had this post in mind as I drove home last night. So it has been a real treat to see so much about it being discussed today. Guy Kawasaki has an interview with Scott Berkun.
Scott Berkun worked on the Internet explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999. He is the author of a recently released book called The Myths of Innovation. He also wrote the 2005 bestseller, The Art of Project Management. He teaches a graduate course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, runs the sacred places architecture tour at NYC’s GEL conference, and writes about innovation, design and management.
. He also wrote the 2005 bestseller, The Art of Project Management. He teaches a graduate course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, runs the sacred places architecture tour at NYC’s GEL conference, and writes about innovation, design and management. This post would not be complete without a link to Marc Andreesson's "Moby Dick" analogy from his Pmarc Guide to Start-ups series a few days ago. Marc mostly focused on the perils and troubles of dealing with big companies, but I also saw the analogy and issues as something that small companies deal with. The whale they chase is a market. Like Ahab, these entrepreneurs have to have an almost maniacal devotion to the chase.
Despite the fact that several of the presentations at the entrepreneur meeting mentioned that greater than 85% of start-ups do not get funded, no one seemed phased or discouraged. There are some fantastic plans brewing. I hope that many of these do see the light of day. Our world will definitely change when they do. It would be nice to list some of these ideas but it is not my place or perhaps the right time for such a public disclosure.
If you need to change your attitude, try attending some of these meetings. If you do not catch the spark of innovation from being around these excited individuals then you may need to try joining one of these quests. One of the "Angel" investors, Frank Peters said that the reason he and others like him invest, "To be a part of a winning team." If you have been on a winning team, then you know what a rush it is. If you have not, then you need to find a great team and get on board. (BTW - Frank has a great weekly podcast, The Frank Peters Show, where he discusses start-up funding, VCs and Angels. He is currently the Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, and another of those people you want to get as much free advice from as you can. Currently about 25,000 people already do.)
To address Seth's plea not to seek the least, to fulfill Guy Kawasaki's theme of changing the world, to meet Eglis' call for innovative thinking, and to slay the whale Marc talked about - You may need to change your attitude. You can get a fresh attitude from innovative entrepreneurs, Modern Magellans, because theirs' can be infectious and the best have plenty to spare.
If you have a great story about infectious entrepreneurs please share it. You can post a comment here or, better yet, on your blog and just make a trackback.
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