A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance"
This has been one of my favorite sayings since I was a teenager. Back then, I was reading stuff like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Emerson's message of nonconformity and finding one's own path in life resonated deeply with me. As I have gotten older, and have dedicated my life to working with and studying entrepreneurs, Emerson's words strike me as describing the exact opposite mindset to that of a real entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs almost be definition do not follow the beaten path. This is not because they are "counter-culture" or "non-conformist," but because they don't think like other people. Entrepreneurs do not see this inconsistent behavior as risky because they have a strong belief in what they are doing. What would be intolerable to them is following the same consistent path that everyone else does. So they are deliberately inconsistent. Does that make them foolish?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Welcome to my Blog!
This is the first post of my new blog, so I'm going to use my first few posts to talk a little bit about who I am, what I'm planning to cover here, and why I've decided to embark on this journey. As for me, you can read my Google profile, or look at my biography and CV on my web site, but the essence of it is this - my undergraduate educational background was in biology with a concentration in evolution, behavior and ecology. After a 12 year career in finance ending as a Director at Charles Schwab & Co. (and earning an MBA on the side), I returned to academia to pursue a Ph.D. in strategic management and entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon. I wrote my dissertation on the emergence and evolution of nanotechnology as a distinct organizational field. I am currently Director of Entrepreneurship Programs for the University of Miami School of Business Administration.
I believe that my position and background give me a unique perspective on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process that may be of interest to some. For one thing, half of my career has been in business and half in academia. That means I understand and can speak to both of those constituencies. It is a unending source of amazement to me that businesspeople and the academics who dedicate their lives to studying business have so little to say to each other. This is especially true among entrepreneurs, who often believe that no one who hasn't been through what they have can possibly understand them; and entrepreneurship scholars, who often use arcane econometric models that serve no practical purpose in order to publish in top journals and advance their careers. I understand both of these perspectives, but don't agree with either. One of the things I hope to do with this blog is to argue for a new type of entrepreneurship research that is both useful to practice and sheds important theoretical light on who entrepreneurs are and what place they hold in society.
Secondly, I would like to focus on what entrepreneurship is, which is a specific way of thinking and viewing the world (I will post exactly what I mean by this in the near future). For historical reasons that I will also address shortly, our views of entrepreneurship tend to be economic - jobs and wealth created, industries destroyed or transformed, etc. There is nothing wrong with this, but it does get away from the actual act of being entrepreneurial, which is just as creative an act as any artistic endeavor, and often does not involve a profit motive at all.
Thirdly, I don't think I am alone in believing that we are living in very troubled times, and that we seem to be right on the edge of disaster on a number of fronts. I don't pretend to have all of the answers, but I do believe strongly that entrepreneurs and acting entrepreneurially is a large part of the solution, and I want to promote this view.
Finally, I've been looking around for a while and I just haven't found other blogs that address these issues. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place. If you know of any, let me know and I'll gladly link to them.
As I get rolling with this thing, please feel free to comment on anything I post, good or bad. Assuming I don't get ridiculous amounts of spam or hate mail, I'll post all comments without moderating.
I believe that my position and background give me a unique perspective on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process that may be of interest to some. For one thing, half of my career has been in business and half in academia. That means I understand and can speak to both of those constituencies. It is a unending source of amazement to me that businesspeople and the academics who dedicate their lives to studying business have so little to say to each other. This is especially true among entrepreneurs, who often believe that no one who hasn't been through what they have can possibly understand them; and entrepreneurship scholars, who often use arcane econometric models that serve no practical purpose in order to publish in top journals and advance their careers. I understand both of these perspectives, but don't agree with either. One of the things I hope to do with this blog is to argue for a new type of entrepreneurship research that is both useful to practice and sheds important theoretical light on who entrepreneurs are and what place they hold in society.
Secondly, I would like to focus on what entrepreneurship is, which is a specific way of thinking and viewing the world (I will post exactly what I mean by this in the near future). For historical reasons that I will also address shortly, our views of entrepreneurship tend to be economic - jobs and wealth created, industries destroyed or transformed, etc. There is nothing wrong with this, but it does get away from the actual act of being entrepreneurial, which is just as creative an act as any artistic endeavor, and often does not involve a profit motive at all.
Thirdly, I don't think I am alone in believing that we are living in very troubled times, and that we seem to be right on the edge of disaster on a number of fronts. I don't pretend to have all of the answers, but I do believe strongly that entrepreneurs and acting entrepreneurially is a large part of the solution, and I want to promote this view.
Finally, I've been looking around for a while and I just haven't found other blogs that address these issues. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place. If you know of any, let me know and I'll gladly link to them.
As I get rolling with this thing, please feel free to comment on anything I post, good or bad. Assuming I don't get ridiculous amounts of spam or hate mail, I'll post all comments without moderating.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
