I had the
fortunate opportunity a couple of years ago to attend an event at Cambridge
University called ‘Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge’, where some of the
world’s leading entrepreneurs gave some illuminating presentations on how they
made it in business. Many of these representatives were from huge global
business brands Google, Facebook, Mozilla etc and I was particularly struck by
three things: their youth; their energy; and that they all wanted to change the
world, for the better.
Wow! I had
never attended any event where you have the founder of ‘Linked In’ stand up in
front of an audience that were predominately students and actually say ‘ I want
to change the world’ this was just simply fantastic. And the great thing about
such statements is that they are actually in the process of doing just that,
changing and influencing the world for the better. Now, as you get older and a little more
jaundiced coming across individuals with new thoughts and philosophies on how
this can be done is very inspirational, they are ‘possibility’ thinkers, they
will have a go at new ideas and new ways of working and if one idea does not
quite work out they will have a go at developing something else. This is I
believe what entrepreneurship is all about which also includes one element
which is probably not so common in many of us, the ability to take risks.
I find it
very interesting, the ongoing conversation nationally, about how we develop the
next generation of entrepreneurs in this country, as they are very special
people. I wonder if we can really train individuals to become entrepreneurs, or
are they born to be entrepreneurs. Now I say this, as the people I have met and
would describe as being entrepreneurs have a natural drive and ambition to be
successful in business or whatever they choose to do. These business people
have usually used any asset that they have owned, investing in themselves and
their futures including risking losing their homes! Now how many individuals
are prepared to do that, risk everything for their business idea! This I
believe is the difference between an entrepreneur and us mere mortals, that
they are prepared to risk everything in pursuit of their ambitions, that is why
they have so much energy, so much drive, as it is exciting and the rewards can
be massive, their ideas can be wild, innovative and game changing for the world
in which we live.
So, does
that mean the rest of us cannot be entrepreneurs! Well, I do believe that we
can all be entrepreneurial and enterprising, we might not want to risk
everything, but we can come up with great ideas and great business concepts and
run very successful companies or be great employees, but whether this will be
enough to change the world, well that’s a question…