(380d) Entrepreneurial Perspectives

To be an entrepreneur is not easy. The vast majority fail. It requires discipline, passion, a positive mindset and the right confluence of events. It requires a careful and systematic analysis of the technology need, benefits, and competitive landscape. And, most importantly in our industries, it requires significant financing. The biggest challenge, however, is human: creating and motivating a team, coping with increasing organizational complexity and size, communicating with many constituents, and doing this from a foundation and training in engineering and science, not in business. It tests our capacity to deal with uncertainty, especially in domains outside of our expertise, our ability to attract and lead others, our tenacity against innumerable – and unfamiliar – hurdles. Yet for many of us these very challenges make entrepreneurship one of the most exciting career paths. We will review the personal characteristics that make for a good entrepreneur, the task of becoming entrepreneurial leaders, and some of the ways to cope with the loneliness that we feel as our businesses succeed and grow.