A Metaphor for the Entrepreneurial Life

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來自 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 的課程

你想如何改变世界？

133 個評分

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

你想如何改变世界？

133 個評分

Whether your interest lies in solving the world’s biggest problems, creating the next commercial success or addressing something closer to home, this course will give you a toolbox to vet your ideas and test them in the real world.

從本節課中

Iterate

This final step of the entrepreneurial lifecycle outlines a method to continue thinking, listening, planning, clarifying, and supporting your big idea.

A Metaphor for the Entrepreneurial Life4:42

The Entrepreneurial Lifecycle3:35

Testing + Pivoting5:36

Navigating Growth7:01

與講師見面

Professor Buck Goldstein
University Entrepreneur in Residence and Professor of the Practice
Economics
Dr. Holden Thorp, PhD
Provost and Professor of Chemistry and Medicine
Chemistry

Imagine two people have an hour to try to get through an obstacle course.

The first person walks up to you and says,

I got this thing figured out, I've taken a few

engineering and physics classes, so I think I have

a pretty good idea of how all the obstacles work.

I'm going to spend the first 55 minutes really planning out my approach.

I'm going to think through the contingencies and

draw up a few diagrams, in that last five

minutes, I'm going to go through the obstacle course according to my plan.

At this point, you're interest is peaked, so you walk over to

the second contestant and ask her what her approach is going to be.

She responds, I have a basic idea of what I'm going to do, but

ultimately, I'm just going to jump right in, see what works and what doesn't.

If something doesn't

work, I'll try something else.

At this point, the announcer calls the two contestants to the starting line.

The first contestant pulls out some sheets of paper and a

pencil and sits down, ready to plan his course of action.

The second contestant ponders the course for a

second, then crouches down, ready to jump in.

When the starting gun

fires, the person standing next to you leans over and asks, so

who do you think has a better chance of getting through the course?

What do you think?

We've talked about some of the challenges you'll face as an entrepreneur,

but I want to make sure I'm being clear enough with you.

It's not easy being an entrepreneur.

Anytime you're blazing a new trail, it's more

like running an obstacle course than running a marathon.

With a marathon, you know exactly what you're in for.

You can plan when you want to run faster,

when you want to take your water breaks, even what to do if you get a muscle cramp.

With an obstacle course, you just have to be ready for the

unexpected. In the case of our two competitors, the

person who spent all his time planing his approach ended up with a very nice

plan. Unfortunately, he wasted most of his time

working on his plan, which flew out the window as soon as

he real, realized that the course was much muddier than he expected.

Our second competitor, clearly the entrepreneur of

the two, discovered the mud soon after

the starting gun fired, so she walked

slower and spent more time picking her spots.

Later, after she fell off a balance beam a few times,

she figured out, if she crouched low enough, she could get across.

At the end of the course, after she got hit with

a few swinging medicine balls, she was able to figure out the timing and get to

the finish line. She took two steps forward and one step

back, but kept making progress, and learning, always learning.

The other competitor spent so much time working on his plan

that when conditions on the ground didn't match what he expected,

he was done.

Entrepreneurship isn't for you if you hate uncertainty.

I can't tell you everything that's

going to happen as you build your business,

but I can tell you this, it'll never end up the way you expected.

Instead of a linear progression from a to b,

it's going to look much more like a drunken walk.

You'll eventually get there, but it's going

to take some time and a few missteps.

The difference between entrepreneurs and everyone else is

that we don't think of stumbling as failure.

Instead, we view it only as the way to learn.

By taking our lumps, especially early in the

process, we'll be able to see the reality

as it is, as opposed to how we hoped it

would be, and we'll be able to adjust our plans.

The reason that investors generally care more about the team than the idea is,

we know, in our line of work, nothing happens the way we planned it.

A great team will be able to learn from their failures and come out even stronger.

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