Budding Entrepreneurship

If you were about to graduate from college and had an interest in becoming an entrepreneur, what would you do?

That's the gist of an I received in an email from Taylor Brooks, an entrepreneurship major pondering the big questions and asking for advice. With permission, I am answering this openly and hopefully drawing in better experts than myself.

Change your major. I am kidding, but seriously, the best undergraduate studies can give you are critical thinking and communication skills. Entrepreneurship can give you exposure to concepts of risk so you might take the right ones. But surveying different disciplines from politics to art to science gives you different ways to look at the world, helps you understand different people and makes life more enjoyable. Innovations and business opportunities happen where disciplines collide.

Start a business. Lots of people will give you advice to just get out there and start doing it. The smallest of ventures will teach you big things.

Connect with the Net. Your business doesn't have to be in Tech, in fact, most things are not. But dorm room ventures that leverage the Net can produce, market and distribute with a minimal investment. You don't have to be Michael Dell to do this. Even a simple service with a web front-end can get you going. And in absence of code, elbow grease will get you a long way.

Take responsibility beyond your years. I have never had a job I have been qualified for. Strive to put yourself in difficult situations. Go work with a non-profit, where they treat and trust interns as full-time employees out of necessity.

Go abroad. Not only is the world a very big place and has much to teach us, but expatriates are given greater responsibility because who you are is of greater difference. Go teach and practice entrepreneurship in a developing country.

Experiment at the margin. This is what Al Osborne at Anderson, my professor of entrepreneurship, says entrepreneurs do. Start with what you know and can do, then extend it a little bit. Right now you at least know the market of students and their parent's money. Tweak the idea, implement, take stock and tweak again. Iterate.

Have fun with failure. Make mistakes and make them often. Make them early, because the only consequence decisions have early in life is what you learn from them. Persist.

Take time for strategy. When you are in the midst of blocking and tackling, its hard to step back and gain perspective. Understanding trends and focusing your mission can not only save you time, but even save your business.

Pay yourself. Its so easy to forget to pay yourself when you are driven by passion, but don't forget that is why you are working.

Service the desire. When I was a kid I bought a book, "how to make money with your Apple II+," written by some other kid. None of the business ideas made sense to me. Except publishing that book.

Do different. No matter what you do, do your own thing. Differentiation is perhaps the most important attribute of a successful venture. Not just for standing out in a crowded marketplace, but doing the little things inside the company in a way that is better than your competition. And if you can't invent a great positioning or process, you can always excel at personal service.

Work with good people. Life is too short for anything else, and good people do good things.

Stick to ethics. Money isn't worth getting into trouble or ill repute. And you will soon find out how small the world really is and how it iterates upon you.

Be a businessperson. In his last years, my grandfather told me: the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman is that while an entreprenuer is in it for the fast buck, a businessman makes a lasting contribution to his community. Times and terminology have changed, but the difference between a social entrepreneur and a self-interested entrepreneur has not.

Start a weblog. Had to say it, see below, follow the links, you get the idea. Have a learning journey with other people. I would recommend a bunch of books, but get to them in context.

Now by some measures, I'm not an expert, just a guy passing on a few learnings of my own. I'm hoping that some of the Entrepreneurs and VCs in blogspace can chip in their own.

Comments

[Alex Halavais]

Great advice to *all* undergraduates. It seems that there are few jobs out there (at least interesting ones) that don't require a degree of entrepreneurship, if not a degree *in* entrepreneurship. I've just printed it out and hung it on my door in the hopes that someone will read it and be inspired!

[Bill Seitz]

Students and new grads have a bit more flexibility on the "pay yourself" clause than 40-year-olds with kids and a mortgage. This offers the opportunity to do more with less money...

http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/z2004-03-01-MayfieldEntrepreneurAdvice

[sean bonner]

Great letter! It's funny because I dropped out of college to start my own company and when faced with the decision to either go to grad school or start her own company, my wife opted for giving it a shot rather than more schooling. Years later that was obviously the best choice, you learn things no one could ever teach you.

[denise]

i'm nowhere near being an undergraduate anymore, but i find the advice helpful, or at least affirming.

[Jacob Morse]

Thanks for the great insight. I am an undergraduate, and I can see the application of your advice even in the midst of my studies. I am actually a philosophy student, and while people often say "what are you going to do with that?" I believe that the critical thinking fostered by studies in philosophy seem very applicable to business.

Also, I know that whatever I end up doing, my business will have a blog! Keep up the good work.

[Frank Ruscica]

A key insight, via The Economist:

"Innovators who keep their eyes open for unexpected results—and quickly take advantage of them—reap the biggest rewards."

Follow the above link to learn about the research behind the above assertion.

And then, to see how it's done, visit www.opportunityservices.com ;-)

[Ross Mayfield]

Thanks folks!

Jacob, my first major was philosophy and completely agree it provides a good foundation for business. It helps think through questions, understand reasoning and develop a bullshit filter. Of course, it won't give you answers, but what is an answer anyway?

[Ravi]

I would be graduating soon, and actually have entered into an entrepreneurship competition this spring (ie before I graduate). I am sure that I have already put into practice some of your suggestions, I will make sure that I follow others too.

Thanks a lot for sharing the thoughts!

http://beingdesi.rediffblogs.com

[Robert Paterson]

Thanks Ross - I am going to post this for my course.

Rob

[Danny Nelms]

I wish that I could get beyond being scared of failing. Obviously this was written with a younger crowd in mind (I am a grad student 14 years out of undergrad), but I just can't fathom the thought of having fun with failure. I know there is much to be learned from failure from a business perspective, but financial failure is really scarry to me. I have learned that being an entrepreneur is not all about taking risk, but it still feels risky to me.

[Jovan]

In reply to Robert Paterson's post on March 13, 2004 05:31 PM:

Robert,
Why are you scared of failure? Have you ever failed? (at anything) I am assuming you are in your early-mid 30's. My advice to you is to go get tanked at your local PUB and pull a Fight Club. By this I mean start a fight and lose. Live a little and take a risk even if it is only for 10 minutes. (20 if it is a good bar fight)

entrepreneur - An associate of mine, as well as myself, are both succesful entrepreneurs. Why (?!), you might ask. Well, I will tell you why because poeple like you make it easy for people like me to be successful. Growing up people on my block had a saying, "Don't talk about it be about it." If you thought about that for a few minutes in your case hours, perhaps, you mihgt understand the point I am trying to get across. Without offending you that is as "nicely" as I can state it.

[Jovan]

Sorry Robert.... I meant as a reply to

Danny Nelms March 25, 2004 02:46 PM:

My apologies to you

[Seun Osewa]

Hi,

Well I left school about a year ago and all the time I've been on the net trying to train my understanding of business while looking for the perfect opportunity. I work alone.

I find weblog entries like this one, written by practicins entrepreneurs, really useful; compared to web magazine articles written by professional writers.

Regards.

[jenny]

really nice place here.

[thabo mathebula]

as i was browsing on the net i cane accross your weblog and i find it so amazing ,so wuold you please e-mail me some more straight foward tips on becoming a successful young entrepreneur.

[Beef Jezos]

This is excellent advice.

I'll just add that there are career risks involved in trying entrepreneurship early on. If you fail it may become very difficult to go find a job afterwards. Many employers are not willing to hire entrepreneurs. They see them as too independent. They may also suspect that the entreprteneur is just seeking a paycheck to live off while planning his next startup.

[Salomon]

No coment

[Baktash Fazelzadeh]

Hi, I was wondering if i could get some information on the Social, Financial and Pyschological risks that an entrepreneur takes and how they affect him/her.
Thank you

[Dan Koifman]

Great post. "I've never had a job i was qualified for" made me "hmmm" aloud.

[will golden]

i am 18 and have had a passion to be a successful buisnessman since i was 13 and would like some words of advice as to what choices to make.

[zila]

i would like you to tell me more about diferrencess between entreprenuership and bussinessman...i need this for my assimgment.hope ypou can help me...thanks