Innoveering Nebraska

My bookclub recently read The Lady and the Panda by Vicki Constantine Croke.  It’s a biography of Ruth Harkness and subtitled: The true adventures of the first American explorer to bring back China’s most exotic animal.  It’s a great read for so many reasons: there’s adventure, intrigue, romance, science and I even learned some Chinese history.   It’s also well written, although some of the transitions feel abrupt.

Most importantly though, it gives you a sense of what it was like to launch an exploration into the unknown when the world still had blank spaces on its maps.  And guess what, it didn’t seem all that different than launching a new business today.  There’s the idea (let’s bring a panda out of China!) the insight  (Harkin’s decision to aim for a baby panda which would be easier to feed and transport), the audaciousness of the endeavor (a 1930′s New York dress designer venturing into the wilds of China), putting together a team, the money concerns (Harkness did the impossible twice on a shoestring budget), the intrigue with competitors, the camraderie, the doubt, the excitement, the fear, the joy of success and the continual quest to repeat the experience.    

What I’m saying is that I believe entrepreneurs are the adventurers of the twenty first century.  Yes, I know you thought it was the extreme sport people or the astro/cosmonauts or maybe even the reality tv exhibitionists.  But really it’s the entrepreneurs.  They’re pushing back the boundaries of the known and unknown every day in ways big and small.  They’re risking it all on a gut feeling, careful research and tons of hard work.  They’re exploring new ideas and business models.  Entrepreneurs expand our world today, just like the explorers of yesterday.

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My friend Mary Kay and I have been walking at the local zoo (the Henry Doorly Zoo) every Sunday.  Lately it’s been cooler and we’ve been visiting the butterfly pavilion to warm up.  I’ve enjoyed it immensely.  The multitude of beautiful, varied, delicate, fluttering butterflies remind me greatly of entrepreneurial dreams.  Think about it, they’re both unique, erratic, ephemeral and yet hardier than they seem.   

Three weeks ago we saw a terrible site at the exit of the pavilion.  A boy crushed the body of a beautiful butterfly when his parents told him he couldn’t take it with him.   They seemed ashamed of his behavior, but didn’t reprimand him as he threw the dying butterfly down on the path where it fluttered its wings a bit before lying still. 

This disturbing image has stuck with me the last few weeks, popping into my head at unexpected moments.  It’s a powerful image and reminds me greatly of how alarmingly common it is for childish people to squash other people’s entrepreneurial dreams like that little boy crushed the butterfly.  It’s also common for the people around them to not like what they’re doing, but to not call them on their behavior. 

The moral of the tale?  The next time you see someone squashing someone else’s dream, speak up.  And if you’re ever tempted to squash a dream yourself, please pause and remember that little boy and the butterfly.  Is it really your place to kill that particular butterfly dream?

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P.S. The Henry Doorly Zoo is one of the many reasons I love living in Nebraska.

We’ve struggled with the flu at my house during the last week.  The dog got sick and then the cat and I got stressed.  It’s been unpleasant and I’ve had enough of cleaning floors. 

On the positive side, it’s led to a lot of thinking about how all sorts of things are contagious – including ideas and skills such as entrepreneurship. 

Seriously, I think people might catch entrepreneurship.  Well maybe not catch it in a viral sense, but in the sense of “Hey, if my silly neighbor and idiot brother-in-law can both have an idea and sell a product or service, then I bet I can too!”  Or “Hey, I think I can do what my friend is doing in her basement only with this other product that I know more about!”

And when enough people start thinking this way, a whole physical region might get a reputation for being entrepreneurial.  Which would draw more infected or want to be infected people to the area. 

The question is how do you intentionally spread the infection?  And how do you spread the infection most effectively?  How many typhoid Marys do you need and what exactly do they look like?

I suppose the real question is whether you’re contagious enough to spread the ideas and skills to transform others into entrepreneurs.  In other words, are you an inspiring innoveer?

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Yesterday I wrote about my belief that there are universal factors to waken entrepreneurs much like Sleeping Beauty was waken with a kiss.  I suspect the degree of intensity for each factor is unique to each potential entrepreneur.

Today I’d like to discuss what these factors may include.  Be assured, I don’t assert that this list is complete.  In fact, I’m very curious about what key factors I’ve forgotten – or which factors you don’t believe should be included on the list. 

In no particular order, here are the factors I think contribute to Sleeping Beauties waking up and becoming entrepreneurs. 

• A willingness to take risks (personal, financial, professional…).  This isn’t just big risks, but also a lowering of your internal threshold for taking small risks. 
• Believing so strongly in something (an idea, product, service, business model) that you’re willing to look silly or be belittled by others
• A dissatisfaction with the status quo in your current organization, situation, environment.  This dissatisfaction needs to rise to the level where you’re willing to take risks and venture out on your own. 
• An openness to and active interest in creativity and new thoughts, processes, ideas, strategies, etc. 
• Resolve to see the business through to its end - whatever that may be.  Entrepreneurs aren’t easy quitters, but they are smart quitters. 
• Flexibility to shift gears or change direction as needed.  This might be rephrased as an ability to roll with the punches – and the successes.

Is the man below a sleeping businessman or an entrepreneur waiting to be waken?  I suspect he’s an entrepreneur if his external environment and internal thought processes have increased the above factors to a level where he’s ready to take action.  Watch out world, the entrepreneurs are awakening!

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On January 7th I posted some thoughts on what qualifies someone for the “entrepreneur” label.  I still don’t have a firm definition, but I wanted to share a couple of opinions which have recently influenced my thoughts on this matter. 

First, two fellows I met at Awesome Camp in Lincoln on January 30th are very certain that someone can be entrepreneurial without being an entrepreneur.  If I understood them correctly (and I confess it was the end of an exciting day at the end of a tiring week) there must be several livelihoods dependant on the endeavor for someone to qualify as an entrepreneur.  To cite my earlier example, by these definitions my friend’s Lego operation is entrepreneurial, but doesn’t qualify her as an entrepreneur. 

This makes sense to me, but I find it unsatisfactory.  I think more words might be needed. 

In the meantime, I received an email today with a link to Hugh MacLeod’s new prints related to Seth Godin’s latest book, Linchpin.  In Linchpin: Are You Indispensable, Godin has a different definition of artist than Rocco Landesman, the NEA Chairman I quoted in my January 7th post.  Both Landesman and Godin believe artists are entrepreneurs. 

I’m going to quote MacLeod’s website directly, because I can’t say it any better than he has:  By Seth’s definition, an artist is not just some person who messes around with paint and brushes, an artist is somebody who does (and I LOVE this term) “emotional work.”  Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for. As a working artist and cartoonist myself, I know exactly what he means. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. – end quote

The idea that people doing “emotional work” are entrepreneurs resonates with me.  However, I have great respect for the two business men I met and their belief that entrepreneurial activities do not qualify one as an entrepreneur. 

I’m wondering if the words and definitions would line up to everyone’s satisfaction if we made a distinction between “entrepreneurs” (those with emotional work and/or entrepreneurial activities) and “business entrepreneurs” (those with livelihoods depending on their endeavor). 

Check out the rest of MacLeod’s prints here or order his book, Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, here. 

Read reviews or order a copy of Godin’s book, Linchpin, here.    

By the way, isn’t it fun to see how one creative work inspires another?  How creative are you feeling today?  Do you think we have any obligation to share our creativity with others?  Who inspires you to be creative?  Can you spend more time with them or their work?  Can you do it today?

Below is one of Hugh MacLeod’s prints inspired by Seth Godin’s Linchpin. 

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