Dream Big Dreams

 

This week in our Intro to Entrepreneurship class our reading assignments focused on dreaming big dreams.  A couple of important lessons learned with this week’s assignments:

1.      From Harvard Business Publications “The Heart of an Entrepreneur”.  This article examines the differences between administrative and entrepreneurial mindsets and actions.  Clearly both are going to be necessary for a successful business, but the article rightly pointed out that growth and innovation are usually achieved when a leader or leadership in the business or the business culture has the heart of an entrepreneur.  This willingness to push into the risk of the unknown, or create innovative solutions and then make them work lie at the heart of entrepreneurship.  Administrative mindsets are steady, lower risk and pragmatic.  Rather than grow and innovate, maintain.  If starting a business is the goal, administrative management and leadership will not be enough.  The measuring quadrants and chart of actions will be a good guide. 

2.      Interviewing one of my board members about their experiences.  This was a great learning opportunity and some interesting lessons learned.  Primarily, that while we are focused on dream and should dream big, preparation and execution will build that dream.  Don’t leave success to chance with your big dream.  Study, prepare and then execute very well.  Yes, mistakes and failures are part of the process, but lack of preparation and good execution will likely be a catastrophic mistake rather than a navigable one.   Taking action can be small steps and small successes and then grow and scale.  Learning the right lessons is the most important part of the journey, not how big the company is or how much money it makes.  The other part of the interview that surprised me is the time needed to get something off the ground and then delays that are out of your control.  Grit and persistence will be necessary to make anything great happen. 

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