Entrepreneurs Wanted

The more I write and speak about entrepreneurship the more I realize how mainstream the topic has become. Whether you know it or not you and everyone else has to become more entrepreneurial in their thinking. We live in a fast paced global society that requires all of us to be resilient and adaptable. Those are the critical attributes that make us entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurship applies to far more than business and business issues. We are talking about a mindset not a skillset. A mindset focused on solving problems. A mindset grounded in determination to make things happen. It’s about being proactive not reactive. Most important it is about self-determination!

In an extremely competitive global world, in the era of Big Data, we can never know enough and we will never understand much of what we know. We cannot have the answers but the answers will always be there for us to find. There is no time for prison thinking. If you think like an entrepreneur you will find the way and that’s just as true about your personal life as it is about your career. As for that part of your life, in the face of declining job stability and the entrenchment of wealth disparity, the most important skill you can learn today is the ability to create and manage your career. There is a very good reason that every college, every university and now even secondary schools are offering courses in entrepreneurship.

When I wrote my first book Everyday Entrepreneur I had the ambitious goal of doing for entrepreneurship what David Chilton did for financial planning with The Wealthy Barber – to write a book that applied to all of us in a form that everyone could read understand and enjoy. The jury is still out but the endorsements received are encouraging that I have come close. The second book in my entrepreneurial series Family Entrepreneur comes out later this month. Dealing with the dichotomy of family and business brings entrepreneurial thinking into both settings. Remember family was the first “crowd” and still offers funding and nurturing for many entrepreneurs in a startup situation.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to mentor and encourage would be entrepreneurs both in their business and private lives. It is really all about taking charge of your life in the midst of a roller coaster world. You have to learn to capitalize and enjoy the highs while defending against the lows. Entrepreneurial thinking is the tool to do it.

Fred Dawkins is a serial entrepreneur who is best known as one of the co-founders of the olde Hide House in Acton Ontario to which “it’s worth the drive”. He is a partner in The Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and is currently writing a series of books entitled The Entrepreneurial Edge published by Dundurn Press, which focuses on encouraging and preparing would be entrepreneurs for challenges in their careers and in their private lives.

Indisputable: We live in a global work space – an economy where timing is everything and competition comes from every which direction, blindsiding us, especially where Tech is concerned. There is tremendous pressure to be first out to fill a market niche and tremendous pressure on innovators around the world to become instant entrepreneurs OR to give up the lion’s share of the economic benefit of their innovation to others who can get them to market in a hurry.

If there is a lesson from the Blackberry debacle it’s that being first gives you a head start but the pack quickly turns to finding ways to do it different and better. There is no time to rest on your laurels. Your advantage is short lived- even much less than ten years ago when Blackberry was first riding high.

Are the expectations of the market achievable or are we simply seeing a new reality where companies come and go with a greatly reduced life expectancy. Apple did fail once. How much longer will it stay at the top this time?

When you visit an incubator/accelerator you will often see tired young people committed to a 24/7 work ethic, working in small space shared with other start-ups focused on perfecting their innovation with little understanding of the fundamentals required to operate a business or build a foundation for a company that can last. Did Blackberry ever establish that foundation? After all it was always in a dynamic state of rapid change initially positive but for the past three years negative.

Can humans really continue to cope with the rate of change that technology allows? Are we being forced to abandon stability in favour of short term success? Overall we find ourselves in an integrated global economy, still wrestling with the ongoing effects of the Great Recession, managed by leaders who are challenged at best, incompetent at worst, where the only sure thing is uncertainty.

For all of these reasons becoming an entrepreneur is an important option. The economic world will place increasing value on resilience and adaptability. In the face of instability and uncertainty the most important skill we may develop will be the ability to create our own job. Big will not be better. Small and flexible will become the key to individual success.

Whatever happened to the optimum size of the firm? You know the size at which the company was it’s most efficient? most productive” most manageable? Economies of scale did dictate making the firm larger UNTIL the company hit the law of diminishing returns meaning the optimum size had just been passed. It seems that somewhere along the line it was decided that the best way to compete in an evolving global economy was to keep getting bigger regardless of inefficiency and loss of control. Ironic isn’t it. Free enterprise following the example of bureaucratic Big Government. Build behemoths. If you get big enough there’s no way to get rid of you. But how? Well in order to make this happen create a wage pyramid so that those at the top who have very little idea what’s going on below them make outrageous salaries well beyond any possible contribution they can make to the organization. Sound good so far?

But what happens if things really do get negative? Don’t worry as long as you get big enough your cousin Big Government will have to bail you out. If small companies or individuals get hurt in the process they’re, well, collateral damage, just not as important as Big Business is to the world-expendable. This approach is pretty much out of touch with reality. Businesses do not last forever. Just look at the original list of the Fortune 500 to see how many have survived. In this era of 24/7 hyper-connectivity manifested in an ever increasing rate of change their life expectancy is going down. Size does matter but it’s becoming “Too Big to Survive”. Flexibility and Adaptability are the essential traits of business today. Social media is critical to deal with this new fast paced reality. The real watch words should be “Too Small to Fail”.  Entrepreneurs focused on opportunity, flexible enough to change quickly,, in touch with their business and all the key players are designed for the current environment.

Technology has opened up communication around the world making global business possible for small well lead companies who can gravitate to that desirable optimum size. For Big Business more independent divisions under a corporate umbrella, sized properly, will help but the era of domination by huge entities will weaken. Careers with one organization have already disappeared. We are a society of individuals. The most important skill for an individual will be the ability to create your own job. We are entering a New Age of Entrepreneurism.

Series: The Entrepreneurial Edge
Book one: Everyday Entrepreneur – making it happen
Book two: Family Entrepreneur – easier said than done
Book three: Ageless Entrepreneur – never too early, never too late

Ten Things These Books Will Do For You

1. Get you out of a mental rut and into new opportunities
2. Show you a path to self-determination
3. Increase your earning power
4. Enable you start a business, manage your career or accomplish your bucket list
5. Make you a problem solver
6. Enable you to build teamwork in your business and at home
7. Explain the dynamic of the fast paced global economy we live and work in
8. Prepare you for all of the fundamental issues you will face in a business
9. Provide common sense solutions you can accomplish
10. Inspire you to strike out, create your own brand and control your career

“Fred Dawkins has written a wonderful book about entrepreneurship unlike any other on the market. He brilliantly uses his storytelling skills to illuminate his subject in a way that makes the book a joy to read. You’re so wrapped up in the story that you may not realize how much you’re learning until you’ve turned that last page.”
— TERRY FALLIS, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE BEST LAID PLANS AND UP AND DOWN.

“Fred has pulled together a wealth of knowledge and advice crucial to the successful entrepreneur in a highly readable fashion. It is a must-read for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs who are facing today’s complex, volatile, and uncertain world. I especially appreciate the emphasis on thinking globally and adapting proactively. We have seen too many examples of yesterday’s winner relying on old models to their detriment. It isn’t easy … but it is exciting and gratifying to create your own business and work to see it flourish. The summary at the end of the book should be bookmarked on every entrepreneur’s computer.”
— Dr. Sherry Cooper, former executive VP and chief economist for BMO
and author of three books, including The New Retirement: How it Will Change Our Future

Utilizing his exemplary storytelling skills, Fred Dawkins has written an excellent book about entrepreneurship in a family setting environment and the many challenges that it places on the entrepreneur and the family
– Jeff Sheehan- author of HIRED! Paths to Employment in the Social Media Era

Most of what the average person reads about entrepreneurship sustains the mystique. We revere the outstanding successes achieved by extreme entrepreneurs from Edison to Jobs. Reading about these giants colors our perception of entrepreneurship. We admire their achievements but consider them beyond reach. Their stories sustain misleading myths about entrepreneurship that combine to keep capable people from embracing an entrepreneurial career. Here are some of the distortions that deceive us:
– Entrepreneurs are born and cannot be made
– Entrepreneurs are gamblers who take reckless risks to achieve high rewards
– Entrepreneurs work 24/7 and have little or no personal life
– Entrepreneurs need to fail in order to succeed
These established stereotypes derive from two specific types of entrepreneurs. First are the misfits or rebels who either cannot or will not conform; the gamblers to whom few of us can relate. Second and even more prominent are the tech entrepreneurs immersed in the world of venture capital where risk is high, failure is frequent and the rewards for success are dramatic. However Silicon Valley is not the center of the universe and these are not the definitive entrepreneurs; they are but two types of many, both removed from the traditional economy and the rock solid problem solvers that collectively form the engine that drives the economy. Those are the achievers that make things happen especially creating jobs while big business is chasing lower costs around the globe.
Let’s set the record straight
Entrepreneurship can be taught. It should be taught and it is being taught
Becoming an entrepreneur is all about the mindset not the skillset. Entrepreneurs find the way to make things happen they don’t always know the way. This is a teachable philosophy, entirely appropriate in a world dominated by change which generates knowledge and new problems at a phenomenal rate. Finally after fifty years of a flawed model focused on turning out executives for large corporations, colleges and universities have turned their attention to promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is not about the risk you take but the results that you achieve
It’s a startling paradox. Too many good opportunities die prematurely because so many potential entrepreneurs are risk averse. At the same time businesses are failing because of absurd risks fostered by the idea that being an entrepreneur is nothing more than a gamble. Entrepreneurs succeed through determination not by taking unwarranted risk. Managing your risk as you embrace it is critical. Not all ideas are opportunities and every opportunity is not viable.
Entrepreneurs need to find balance and will make mistakes and have regrets if they don’t
Having a work ethic is critical. During your startup phase and later when you encounter bumps in the road you will work long hours with great satisfaction. But as things progress and you don’t find balance you are missing something – failing to build your team, keeping too much control or limiting your own development. Both you and your business will suffer. Never forget: you are your most valuable human resource. Balance is a subjective decision but dividing your time does not preclude you from succeeding as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs do manage their risk and avoid failure – if they fail they learn and move on
Describing failure as an essential part of success is pure rationalization. Admittedly many entrepreneurs are motivated by the fear of failure more than the rewards of success. Avoiding failure is a powerful source of determination. We do learn from failing because we take the time to analyze it. Success is elating and it masks our faults. Entrepreneurial infallibility is another myth that leads to bad decisions and setbacks that result from forgetting the basics.
What is an entrepreneur?
Most of us will never reach achievements like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. That does not demean what we do achieve. Society needs to recognize a broad definition of entrepreneurship at every level and value entrepreneurship of every type because in a world dominated by globalization and technology the one thing that we can count on is change across every element of our economy. Resilience and adaptability are important entrepreneurial qualities that allow us to embrace the ongoing pressure for change. In the simplest terms entrepreneurs are problem solvers who consistently make things happen. They are agents of change in an era of change. They are disruptors at a time when the status quo is a moving target. Do you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem? We can all become more entrepreneurial in our beliefs, break out of prison thinking and think outside the box. The alternative is personal stagnation and uncertainty evolving from lack of job stability, declining upward mobility and the shift in income distribution toward the rich. The most important skill you can develop is the ability to create and manage your own career,
Do understand: we can’t all be innovators but for every innovation there will be thousands of entrepreneurs finding applications for it that solve everyday problems producing jobs and independence in the mainstream economy. Being first is over rated. Doing things better and different often brings greater opportunity. Remember that coffee shops existed in London in 1650 but Starbucks found a new appeal and a great market niche for this old product that resonates in today’s economy.
Believe in your own ability. You can establish the mindset of an entrepreneur. You can eliminate the word ‘can’t’ from your vocabulary. You can approach problems by skipping right over the question “if” it can be solved and skip directly to the question “how” it will be solved. You can find opportunity and you can analyze to make sure that opportunity is viable. All of this can be done within the context of the traditional economy and you don’t have to be a tech genius to do it. Technology is not a threat but offers a great tool for you to use. We are entering a new era of entrepreneurship which means it really should be an option for almost anyone.