Why You Should Become an Everyday Entrepreneur

With the Vancouver Olympics on the horizon the Canadian Olympic Committee supported by the Government recognized a need to change the status quo – a need to disrupt the traditional methods and find a way to achieve the winning performances expected from the host country. The situation demanded an entrepreneurial approach based on opportunity and determination. The opportunity was hosting the games – the determination to win existed with the athletes but the momentum to surpass previous achievement came from the Own the Podium program that created an ecosystem promoting pride, confidence and results. It worked – in Vancouver the Canadian team set a record for the most gold medals won at a winter Olympics and collected more total medals than they had ever won in a single Olympics. The key was creating a culture that nurtured success and established that success as a new normal, an expectation. In the simplest terms a philosophy or mindset focused on making things happen- the essence of being entrepreneurial.

On an individual basis this program is a great example of breaking free of prison thinking and letting your determination take you through to success. But Own the Podium is far more significant than that. It is a great example of the collective creating the support system that produces individual success to the benefit of the entire country. We must do the same in the business world. Did you know that over 350,000 Canadians live and work in Silicon Valley? Why? Because the Valley offers the most highly developed tech ecosystem the world has ever seen. Do you also know that there is a worldwide competition for talent going on? Governments around the world are building programs to attract entrepreneurs to their countries. Canada has already introduced a fast track system to provide visas and a path to citizenship for entrepreneurs/innovators who can attract venture capital investment from Canadians. However if we can just keep our best and most brilliant home we can do well in this talent war and improve our prospects and results. We need to Own the Podium in tech development and in entrepreneurship.

We have a good start with programs like MaRS , Communitech and The Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School but we need the collective will and the support of government to build an ecosystem that is second to none and that brings out the very best from the natural ability that exists here. If one per cent of our total population representing a much higher percentage of our intellectual capital are living in California than we have the tools here but we are both losing them and underutilizing them. More or less like our Olympic performance prior to Vancouver. If we can do it in sport we can do it in business.

 

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Most of what the average person reads about entrepreneurship sustains the mystique. We revere the outstanding successes achieved by extreme entrepreneurs — everyone from Edison to Jobs. Yet, reading about these giants colors our perception of entrepreneurship. We admire their achievements but consider them beyond reach. Their stories often sustain misleading myths about entrepreneurship that keep capable people from embracing an entrepreneurial career. People begin to believe that to travel down the entrepreneurial path, a person must be born with a particular mindset, take reckless risks to achieve high rewards, work all day, everyday and must fail to succeed. Don’t let these misconceptions scare you off.

Entrepreneurship can be taught, it should be taught and it is being taught.

After 50 years of a flawed model focused on churning out executives for large corporations, colleges and universities have turned their attention to promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship. These schools are focusing on teaching the entrepreneurial lifestyle; one focused on both the mindset and the skillset required to become an entrepreneur.

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 risk as you embrace it is critical. Not all ideas are opportunities and every opportunity is not viable. Managed risk is inherent in the lean startup focused on getting valuable feedback from potential end users before jumping into full scale operation.

Entrepreneurs need to find work/life balance and will have regrets if they don’t.

Having a strong work ethic and being willing to put in extended days when required 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 you need to find balance by building your team, easing control and empowering your staff. You must recharge your batteries. Never forget: You are your most valuable human resource. Without balance your performance will suffer, your business will be restrained and your personal life will be sacrificed unnecessarily.

Failure is not essential. Entrepreneurs manage their risk and avoid failure.

Describing failure as an essential part of success is rationalization but many entrepreneurs are motivated by the fear of failure more than the rewards of success. Failure only happens when we either quit or are forced to give up. Mistakes are part of the learning curve. We do learn from them because we take the time to analyze them. Success is elating and it masks our faults. Continually improve by understanding what you do right and correcting what you do wrong in good times and in bad. If you do experience failure you can and will bounce back, many have.

Being an entrepreneur is within your reach.

You can become a problem solver who is determined to find a way to make things happen? Understand: we can’t all be innovators but for every innovation there will be thousands of entrepreneurs finding applications that solve everyday problems producing jobs and independence. Being first is over rated. Doing things better and different often brings greater opportunity

Believe in your own ability.

You can establish the mindset of an entrepreneur by eliminating 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 is an option for almost anyone. If you can’t carry the full weight of your own business bring entrepreneurial thinking to managing your career and performing your role as an employee. You won’t regret it.

We have been in uncharted economic territory since well before we hit the wall in 2008. While we’re treading water reasonably well we are not finding the corrections that must follow every major downturn. Maybe it would help if we moved passed the Keynes vs. Friedman debate that still dominates economic theory.

Keynes died in 1946. We are starving for new economic thought to act as the driving force for new and appropriate economic policy. What other discipline has produced such a lack of innovation in the past seventy years? The question begs asking: with the onset of econometrics in the 60s and 70s did we confine our economists to conduct statistical analysis and prepare projections? Even In those areas, economics is a behavioural science so negative projections are almost always softened so as not to become self fulfilling.

Regardless in today’s fast paced global economy we need new theory and very different action plans. We need to revamp our organizational structures to incorporate greater resilience and adaptability. There is a pressing need to redefine capitalism or at least to reel it in so that the strong trend to increase the rewards for capital while reducing the rewards to labour don’t wreak social disaster . Frankly too Big to Fail is simply Too Big! Large corporations are truly multinational and chase profits above all else. Just look at the reward systems of the largest corporations. These same corporations are hoarding cash because they cannot move fast enough to build from the bottom up. The have to grow through acquisition buying up successful startups. In that sense entrepreneurs offer a lifeline for Big Business which also gains much needed flexibility by contracting out to independents. We have abandoned fundamental microeconomic theories like the Law of Diminishing Returns and the Optimum Size of the Firm, lost in a culture of control enhanced by market dominance founded upon effective branding.

All of this points to a much greater emphasis on entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurs as our economic saviours. It will be entrepreneurs who invest locally who will solve many structural issues. Entrepreneurship has become the economic wonder drug of the 21st century. For individuals this is the key to their economic well being and any hope of upward mobility. In our modern world dominated by globalization, technology and inherent rapid change enhanced by Big Data, we do need to establish new sound economic principles rather than continuing to make it up as we go.

I am a serial entrepreneur who believes that the free enterprise system is the best alternative for creating upward mobility, a growing middle class, the most efficient allocation of resources and the least costly production of goods and services to the benefit of society as a whole. But free enterprise is based on the principal of a free and open market. Theoretically the ease of communication today should create more opportunity and much greater competition. Free enterprise does not thrive in a monopoly or oligopoly both of which limit competition but in many cases that is what we now have. As a result the middle class in the west is in serious danger of backsliding into the poor class from which it came over the past hundred plus years.

Branding and Brand power are the main tools that are limiting competion, allowing capital to seize a much larger portion of the pie at the expense of labour creating the status of superrich and the growing disparity in the distribution of wealth. These are serious dangers because market control interferes with free enterprise and skews the results. Yes it is still possible to create a new brand but increasingly large organizations block the market and take advantage by acquiring up and coming companies and only then allowing them full market penetration.

On an individual basis it is now critical to become an entrepreneur allowing for self-determination and upward mobility that is in decline for employees. The most important skill anyone can learn today is the ability to create and manage your career. The problem is much bigger for society. We have created a society in the west with very high expectations and a philosophy of entitlement. A large percentage of the population will not put forward the effort and level of determination required to succeed as an entrepreneur – not without first experiencing serious pain and a major economic correction. We are vulnerable but collectively we remain in a state of denial.

The capitalist system which allowed the middle class to flourish in the west is broken. Rather than continuing to create opportunity it has begun to limit it. Rather than spreading the success to the developing world we are in danger of returning to a more rigid class system with the superrich having a disproportionate amount of economic power. Solutions are impossible as long as we remain in a state of denial compounded by governments which have become dysfunctional. A good start could come from consumers by becoming better informed and breaking the power of the brands. This should be happening through social media but it isn’t. Instead brand control of the market is being re-enforced by social media marketing.

I am very concerned that I have lived and worked in an era that has been optimum for the individual but is no longer sustainable. I am very concerned that my grandchildren will be denied the opportunity that my generation has enjoyed. One of the great challenges of capitalism is to moderate the influence of greed. If we don’t find a way to level the playing field it’s difficult to predict how social unrest will manifest itself in a society where expectations cannot be achieved.

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