Читать книгу Ageless Entrepreneur - Fred Dawkins - Страница 9

No Disappointment

For a moment I regretted my decision to let someone else introduce my brother’s best friend. Jim’s introduction was factual but lacked any personal connection. Gary would not have been pleased with me. No one else seemed to notice, so as Sam took the podium he received loud and warm response, one reserved for a local boy who has made good. His opening remarks suggested he was relaxed, seemingly reassured by the welcoming crowd in front of him. Quite a change from the shy kid who grew up a few blocks away. The scene reminded me of one of Gary’s favourite jibes delivered often to Sam to gain back an advantage. As a teenager Sam was a jock but despite his popularity, for his first date, he had to convince Gary to phone and ask the girl to go out with him. He couldn’t do it himself, just another thing my brother had held over his head for years. Today he was a different man, comfortable in his own skin. On the drive over he told me that he’d developed a PowerPoint presentation with visuals that people seemed to like.

“I really prefer a conversational interview situation but I’ve developed my own style for public speaking; basically I speak to the slide. That way I forget about the audience and stay focused.”

As the first slide appeared on the screen, I knew he was nervous but he hid it well. The image was a picture of Sam from a focus group he conducted at the University of Toronto. The writing beside the photo was a quote from his book: “The most important skill today is the ability to create and manage your own career.” That was one of his dominant themes and one that he hammered home at every opportunity. As the crowd quieted down Sam began.

“It’s one of life’s little ironies that writers write because they don’t like to speak. However, once you get a book published you soon get engaged in a process called ‘shameless self-promotion’ and before you know it you find yourself talking to anyone who will listen, whenever and wherever they want, including a bunch of old friends in your hometown.”

At that point there were a few chuckles and the stage had been set.

“When I was approaching retirement a few years ago, the only two things on my bucket list were to write a book then to get it published. As it turns out, those are two very different things. The most important advice I received was to write about something you know. For me that meant writing about my career and the experiences that I had along the way. My first reaction was ‘Who would be interested in my career?’ It’s been anything but high profile. In the meantime I started doing some pro bono consulting in my own way. I am grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had in my own businesses and I wanted to encourage others. My idea was to explain the world of small business to people considering it, so I started a series of short programs — no charge — for anyone who was interested, but limited to three at a time. That’s when I met Tim Davidson; he was in one of those first informal sessions. Before I knew it he had me doing online seminars or webinars. Some of you may have seen one of them.

“It turns out my career is relevant. You can see some of the highlights: forty-five years as an entrepreneur in several businesses in different industries. One of those was in the first wave that faced serious off-shore competition. We had to make a tough choice: either sell, if we could, or move the company offshore and manufacture overseas. Fortunately we were able to sell. Within ten years the domestic industry was decimated. I had to reinvent myself several times over the years but that’s the new normal we all face today. Now my goal is to encourage the broadest possible use of entrepreneurial thinking because we are already in this new era of entrepreneurship we’re discussing today. That goes well beyond starting or running a business. I can’t stress enough how important it is for every individual to become their own brand, making good strategic decisions along the way. So entrepreneurship for all, but entrepreneur’s such an awkward word isn’t it?”

Once again several people nodded as Sam took the opportunity to drink some water. As he continued another slide popped up: “Understanding Entrepreneurship.”

“It’s a long word, sixteen letters. If you hashtag it that makes seventeen characters, which plays havoc with your Tweets. Oh yes, I’m on Twitter. Every author has to be.”

There were many smiles and a few chuckles around the room as many in the audience, including myself, conjured up images of retirement age Sam pounding out tweets on his laptop.

“When you write about entrepreneurs, as I have, you are constantly using the words ‘entrepreneur,’ ‘entrepreneurial,’ or ‘entrepreneurship’ because there just aren’t good alternatives. If you look up most words in the thesaurus there will be eight or ten close options and you can choose the one that works the best for your situation. But there’s not even one appropriate entry for entrepreneurship — there are no good single word alternatives. One of the few alternatives given is ‘free enterprise,’ and that’s just plain wrong. Free enterprise does not define the word, it’s just one environment in which entrepreneurs thrive, but I assure you they will do well in any environment from dictatorship to communism because they’re problem solvers. In fact, in offering up that equivalent the thesaurus is reinforcing the idea that entrepreneurship only applies to business, which is just wrong. The guiding principles of entrepreneurship can be applied to every aspect of life. Take control and make things happen.

“Finally, if you look up the word’s derivation you will find that the word ‘entrepreneur’ derives from the French verb entreprendre which means ‘to undertake.’ However, if I was encouraging all of you to become undertakers very few of you would have come today, local boy or not.”

Most of the audience laughed at that.

“More than just awkward, the word is intimidating and it has an element of mystique about it. With all of these complications, it’s no wonder that the concept is so misunderstood. Worst, all of the publicity about entrepreneurs revolves around specific types that get all the attention. Most of the time we hear about the gamblers and misfits who strike out on their own either because they can’t or don’t want to conform. Or we read about the tech entrepreneurs tied to the world of venture capital where only one in ten succeeds. Together these two kinds have helped create the stereotypical idea that entrepreneurs have to take huge risks and suffer a high rate of failure. We rarely hear about the many other types of entrepreneurs running businesses in so many other areas in the mainstream economy. We only hear about them when we need them, at times when unemployment is high and we need them for job creation. Successful entrepreneurs in the traditional economy manage their risk and avoid failure. Being an entrepreneur is about the results that you get, not the risk that you take.”

There was some polite applause at that comment. Most people, myself included, were dissuaded from independent business because of the perceived risk. I could remember Sam and Gary arguing about this perception years ago. Sam continued on.

“Risk should not be a barrier to entry for anyone, whether in business, in social entrepreneurship, or in life itself. Emphasizing the need for risk makes for bad decisions, encouraging some people to take ridiculous risks because they think they have to, while other people let meaningful opportunities die because they’re risk averse. There is always an inverse relationship between risk and reward. That’s why only one in ten venture capital investments succeed so well, or, in other words, just 10 percent of the time do we see success in the risky high-tech community. High risk can provide high rewards if success is the result but the odds are poor. The chances are better elsewhere, but remember, having ideas just makes you a dreamer. Making those ideas a reality is what converts you to an entrepreneur. Every idea is not an opportunity. Every opportunity is not viable. Sustainability is a critical part of assessing any idea. Beyond the risk perception, there are so many myths about entrepreneurs that need to be dismissed because we’re in a new age where entrepreneurship has become critical. Why do I say that? Well, consider the world we live in. The two most dominant economic factors are globalization and technology.

“We live in a very competitive world. When I started my career you could run a very successful business entirely within five hundred miles of your home base. Technology was gaining momentum but it was evolving at a manageable pace. That was fifty years ago. Now there is one constant we can count on in our lives — rapid change. We have to chase markets around the world. We have to compete with competitors who we don’t know or understand. Technology is moving at warp speed as we flirt with a quantum world. Welcome to the era of Big Data. It’s no longer possible to know everything. In fact, most of us don’t understand much of what we do know. Success in our fast-paced society requires different traits than in the past. We all must become more adaptable and resilient. These are the traits of entrepreneurs who in a variety of ways follow a different life philosophy than others. Entrepreneurs will not give up until they find a way; they don’t have to know the way. It’s about the mindset, not the skill set. Entrepreneurs never ask if they will accomplish something but jump right to how they will do it. They literally make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen. Every problem is an opportunity, and through determination entrepreneurs are problem solvers. All of us can and must learn to think this way. There is no room for prison thinking in a world dominated by change. The ability to find a way within the quagmire of ever expanding knowledge is becoming an essential skill.”

There was a minor disruption around the room as a number of people muttered comments to their neighbour. It appeared that Sam had hit a nerve for many.

“For more than fifty years our business schools have been working on what is emerging as a flawed model that’s producing executives for large corporations mired in a culture of control. In my college days the word entrepreneur was never used. Twenty-five years ago it was rarely used. Now every college and university offers programs in entrepreneurship. There is a rush to find effective ways to teach the fundamentals and a pressing need for mentorship from people like me who have lived the life. The rush to embrace entrepreneurs started in earnest after the recession hit in 2008. Downturns call for corrections. When a recession attracts the adjective ‘great,’ correction needs to be swift and decisive. Our dominant and biggest organizations were failing us. Business leaders were preoccupied with profits and bonuses, making them far too removed from the impact of change. Finally, our education system recognizes the need to produce a different graduate who can embrace change, but at this stage our efforts are running behind the rate of societal change. We are engaged in a continuous process of rebirth, meaning we need to educate new-age renaissance men and women — people who can master a wide range of changing circumstances.

“There are lots of implications from our changing world. First let’s consider the micro world of the individual. Globalization had brought millions of people into the world work force, increasing the supply of labour. At the same time technology, through robotics, mechanization, and artificial intelligence, has reduced the demand for labour. Together these trends are putting downward pressure on real wage rates. The rewards are accruing to capital at the expense of labour, helping create a small class of super-rich while the middle class is under siege, reverting back to historic norms, which is not good for the majority of us. We have a serious structural unemployment issue in the west for unskilled and semi-skilled labour and no governments are addressing it. Job stability is disappearing. There are barriers for young people trying to get their careers started, while older people are being forced out of the labour force at a time when they need to extend their careers. As survivors of the Depression my parents’ generation developed a thirst for stability, which they passed on down the line. We’ve reached an era where we have to trade in stability for agility. As the first fades the other becomes essential.

“For all of these reasons each of us has to become our own brand. There is no upside to sitting on the sidelines and following the crowd. Most people will change jobs several times in their career. To do this well and maintain some upward mobility we have to make good strategic decisions: take those jobs for the right reasons, develop the skills to create and manage your own career. These choices are the essence of being entrepreneurial. If you feel you can’t do this, try anyway and make yourself link up with people who can. Big business will not tackle the structural unemployment issue. Multi-nationals invest for profit maximization, but entrepreneurs tend to invest locally and will see opportunity there when people who are structurally unemployed are willing to work for less. We are a key part of the transition to a true global economy and we will create jobs when and where neither big government nor big business can.”

Sam was twenty minutes into his presentation but no one in the room appeared restless. His slides were effective. He had told me that pictures constituted more than 50 percent of the impact of a PowerPoint, but his approach of talking to the slides magnified the impact of both his words and the images. I hadn’t expected his insight to impact me quite this way.

“So let’s look at the big picture — the macro world of large organizations and big government. We had a revelation in 2008. We were all scared … scared enough to support bailing out revered institutions like GM and AIG. For God’s sakes, it was not so long before that GM had been the nineteenth biggest economy in the world. Only eighteen countries generated more economic activity than GM. They were living in an insulated world but those in the ivory towers could not hide. Decisions made to maximize short-term profits came back to haunt them. So they invented a convenient new term. Perhaps ‘Too Big to Fail’ really just means ‘Too Big!’ These behemoths we’ve created work to a ten-year plan in a world that is moving beyond them. Why, I bet you can name a dozen different jobs that didn’t exist ten years ago, most of them related to the Internet or senior health. Big companies can’t adapt fast enough. Right now they are relying on outsourcing and acquisition for flexibility. Corporate culture has to change. Instead of suppressing individualism managers now need to nurture and encourage it. Mavericks should be welcomed not shunned. There is a pressing need for disruptors, or ‘intrapreneurs,’ people willing to challenge the status quo, to bring entrepreneurial thinking into both large firms and government. This will not come easily to organizations that rely on systems and rigid structure as agents of control. But it will happen. It will come from the top down, and it will gain momentum from the new graduates coming out of college and university who have embraced the need for and the mindset of entrepreneurship. One can only hope.”

At this point there were several hands in the air begging to ask questions, so Jim Hammond interrupted to confirm there would be time for questions when Sam finished before indicating that Sam should continue. Sam was revved, seemingly oblivious to the interruption.

“Incidentally, the good news for individuals is that both outsourcing and acquisition create opportunities for entrepreneurs to either provide services or to build an innovative startup and sell it at a major premium. Overall, the net result of our dynamic world is that we now see an expanding spectrum of entrepreneurship. Traditionally, startups stem from opportunities like those I just mentioned, but increasingly we are seeing new and different forms of entrepreneurship arising out of necessity. I salute and support every type of these new entrepreneurs. You don’t have to be a superstar to be an entrepreneur. That’s just one more misconception we need to get past. The image of entrepreneurs that the public perceives today is much too centred on the tech world.

“There is a difference between innovation and entrepreneurship. They are far from one and the same, which confuses many. Some great innovations never make it to market. The iPad was a great innovation, and it has led to hundreds of thousands of applications designed by individuals to solve problems at many different levels. Some of these apps have turned into meaningful businesses. For every major tech innovation there will always be thousands of entrepreneurs out there solving real problems by applying that technology. The tech world is fast and furious — a constant race to get to market before anyone else, highlighted by terms like ‘accelerator,’ ‘incubator,’ and my personal favourite, ‘burn rate.’ I love that one. It tells potential investors when you will run out of money, not exactly highlighting your strengths, just prior to negotiating a terms sheet. I equate it to doing a bungee jump without securing the top end while shouting out ‘I’m going to hit the ground in thirty seconds,’ hoping that someone will be listening and care enough to grab the bungee cord and save you. Tech is not the real world, but it gets most of the attention and it creates venture capital expectations that make it harder for the rest of us to raise capital. I prefer terms like ‘bootstrapping’ and ‘the lean startup,’ which are far more applicable in the mainstream economy where living within your means and getting feedback from real customers is essential. Generating revenue maintains independence. Raising capital sustains bad habits, reduces a sense of urgency, and dilutes equity, which is probably worthwhile in a world where the race to market is a critical element. For the rest of us focusing on sales and the market is much more essential for survival and success.

“Going back to entrepreneurs of necessity as opposed to opportunity, there is a lot of pressure on various groups to find their own way. Need is the problem that must be solved. The solution still depends on recognizing whatever opportunity you might have. Young people are finding serious barriers to entering the work force. Older people are being hit with downsizing and pressure to leave the labour force before they can afford to retire. Mothers are finding that the rate of change makes it hard to get back into the mix. Necessity is the mother of invention and problems are the source of opportunity. So now we have ‘mompreneurs’ starting home businesses grounded in social networking. We have ‘solopreneurs’ working alone focused on self-determination with no desire to build a company or employ people. Let’s face it, for a modest investment with a laptop, mobile phone, and a website, a resourceful individual can provide meaningful services and/or products on a very competitive, low overhead basis while looking very professional in the process. We also have social entrepreneurs applying an entrepreneurial approach to the problems of society. We expect too much from our governments and look to them for solutions that aren’t forthcoming. Social entrepreneurs are result oriented problem solvers who are not seeking re-election — quite a different focus. All of these groups are solving problems and making things happen in the process.

“So welcome to this new era of entrepreneurship. Embrace it. Don’t let the myths and misconceptions scare you off. Be your own brand because only you can manage your career and life. More than ever the world needs problem solvers who can act as catalysts to make things happen. Thank you very much for coming today.”

The applause was spontaneous. I am sure many people came that day not knowing what to expect, but one of their own had delivered a thought-provoking presentation that they could relate to on a personal level. Sam winked over at me, grateful to have crossed the finish line and ready to answer questions. As for me, I was ready to leave and have Sam to myself for a couple of hours.