I’ve decided to move to a different blog. I don’t really like the term “technopreneurship” anymore (as I’ve mentioned many times in the past) and I want to have the freedom to expand my writing into other matters without wondering if it will fit the site’s name.
You will find all new (and old) content in my new blog at relaxdiego.wordpress.com.
“When your only surrounded by people who speak the same vocabulary as you or share the same set of assumptions as you, you start to think that that’s reality”
– Emily Levine, TEDTalks 2002
Is entrepreneurship really as glamorous as people make it out to be? I ask this question because all too often when I hear someone talk about starting a business or advocating entrepreneurship, they make it sound as if entrepreneurship or starting one’s own business is THE utopia all of us are looking for.
But is it?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not tryig to discourage anyone, but I think it’s worth a think before you jump into the deep end. Consider your reasons for going into business. If it’s because you want something more glamorous than your 8 to 5 job, better think again.
How many entrepreneurial gatherings do we have in Davao? I’m talking about those types of gatherings where individuals meet up and try to share ideas that can potentially lead to new ventures. How often do they happen and where? I’d like to try and take stock of all these events to get an understanding of what’s missing and what we can improve on in terms of the entrepreneurial spirit of the place.
Know of one? Add it here through the comment box.
I was watching Peter Reinhart deliver a talk at TED about the art of baking bread and was struck by one thing that he said about people wanting to eat healthfully but not liking very much the act of eating healthful foods because it feels more of an obligation rather than the pursuit of one’s passion.
I can relate. Many times in my adult life I would attempt to eat more healthy foods such as wholegrain bread, oatmeal, and many other high fiber, low fat food items accessible to me. I find that I’m able to sustain it for a few months but then revert back to my old not-so-healthy ways after some time. Is this because I have been so used to eating unhealthy foods that I’m unable to sustain it? I don’t think so. Is it because I just don’t care about my health? No. I try to eat just enough and go to the gym thrice a week.
I think the answer lies in Darwin. During his time, he has suggested that the reason we prefer sweet tasting food (e.g. white bread) over one that is not (e.g.wholegrain bread) is because our brains are wired up like that (sweet means sugar and sugar provides the energy that our brain needs to function properly).
This makes me wonder some more about how the rest of our brain is wired up. Are we really designed as pleasure-seeking creatures always weighting in the pros and cons of doing something and doing it only if it gives us seemingly more pros than cons to the best of our knowledge?
I’ve suggested in a previous post that perhaps we are all like this. I have to admit that it would be scary if it were true. But I can’t help but observe this in many places. People tend to gravitate towards someone or something that gives them a good feeling. Granted that different people have different things that make them feel good (some feel good from helping someone, some feel good when they buy new things, still others feel good when they have power) but all the same that would make all of us pleasure seeking creatures.
This makes one think further: could this be the reason why a few volunteer organizations are having a hard time recruiting hiqh quality volunteers? Because they don’t provide enough of an incentive for the kind of talents that they need? Is this why some managers have a hard time getting their organization to act on their mission? Because it feels more of an obligation rather than the pursuit of one’s passion?
I’m just rambling here and I really don’t have any solid answers. But I think it’s worth thinking about when you want to get a group of people to team up and pursue a common goal.
Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix:
Target a specific niche. When there’s an ache, you want to be like Aspirin, not vitamins. Aspirin solves a very particular problem someone has, whereas vitamins are a general “nice to have market” [The Netflix idea] was certainly Aspirin.
(from Fortune Magazine vol 159, number 2)
It’s interesting how one finds innovation in forms as unlikely as reruns in the Disney channel. I was accompanying my son in our living area earlier when I remarked that they showed one episode of a cartoon twice in a row. My wife was quick to point out that it was “spot the difference” night!
Imagine that. Disney was actually showing a rerun (and twice!) to kids who are lapping it up because it was turned into a game (and an old game, mind you) with little effort. When you look at it from a technical perspective, you won’t find anything innovative. But look at it on the whole, and you see a very good example of innovation.
It’s innovation because they were able to convert something that previously had little to no value (old episodes) and changed it into something more valuable many times over using a reasonably small amount of effort and with existing resources.
Related posts
People act on their own self interest whether that it lies in money, power, or the feeling of contentment and piece of mind. This is basically what an organization is: it is a collection of individuals pursuing their own self interests. They may let their self interests compliment one another (intentionally or not), eventually (perhaps accidentally) achieving a more collective goal but they act out largely on their own self interest nevertheless.
An organization may seem to have its own set of goals. But most of the time it’s really just the goals of top management translated to fit the organization. The vision and mission may be plastered on the walls of each conference room. Firms may hold annual gatherings designed to remind employees of these goals. But if the organizational goals do not line up with the self interest of the individuals comprising it, if management fails to show its employees how achieving the goals also helps them achieve their own individual interests, nobody is going to get anywhere.
Where else in the world can you find customers who are crazy enough to part with their money without even a the slightest guarantee that they will get back what they pay for, or at least be refunded should they not get what they think they paid for? When you buy an expensive watch or a new appliance, you want some sort of warranty. When you buy a web hosting service, you want to know of the SLA. When you go to the casino or invest in the stock market? Nada.
No big surprise therefore that a friend of mine who plays in the stock market regularly refers to the whole industry as being comprised of emotional, speculative individuals, driven more by gossip than in-depth analysis of the stocks they’re buying. I’m sure it’s not limited to just the investment industry in the Philippines. In fact, I was quick to argue that it’s not a Filipino trait, but a human trait: When you dangle hope in front of people, in this case the hope of making it big, and you do it convincingly, they will be more than willing to part with their hard-earned possessions in favor of that hope. Seth Godin will probably agree with me on this. As for the stock market, it comes with a facade of apparent smartness and a long history of respectable practice and conscientious decisions. Until the bubble burst.
An article in The Economist mentioned that most economic scholars nowadays have abandoned or started to abandon the idea of an efficient market: a theory that states that whatever route the free market takes is probably the most rational one. Now they are thinking about factoring in the possibility that most of these decisions may be driven more by “animal passion” than anything else. I’m not exactly sure what it means but I suppose it’s not too far from what I mentioned above: a tendency for human beings to cling to hope wherever it is sold convincingly.
So is animal passion a bad thing? Probably not. It’s certainly a good tool that a marketer can use. But as with many tools, it can be used for the good of man as well as to his destruction.
I’ve said this before: after working for more than a year for a very dynamic company that’s in a, likewise, very dynamic industry, I’ve come to realize that I’m learning so much more now that I’m in the field and that the stuff that I’m learning here, critical stuff, are things that my Master of Management program barely touched on back then.
But does that make the MoM useless? Heck no! Inadequate? Far from it. The stuff that I learned then, I liken to a pair of corrective glasses that an optometrist would recommend to a patient with less than 20/20 vision. It won’t make the patient an instant genius, but it will certainly help him study/work more effectively. For me, the MoM program I received allows me to see the entire organization I work for in a clearer way: I can see how Marketing, Finance, HR, and Operations work hand-in-hand to fulfill the business’ obligations.
I think this also should be the objective of any entrepreneurial course or program. It should be to teach students how to see a business in a more wholistic way. To require them to create business plans and usher them into business-making right after college? That *might* be doable given the right conditions but at the end of the day, the best person to decide is the student.
For now, I think that giving them an entrepreneurial lense is a noble enough objective and will improve their chances of taking the plunge and suceeding once the right entrepreneurial conditions are met.
