Myths about entrepreneurs • Hacker News Board

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#11

Post by craigmc » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 3:33 AM UTC

georgieporgie wrote: post #6

America’s typical tech entrepreneurs are in their 20s. It seems to me that media is absolutely in love with this notion. The scrappy, brilliant kid who's going to change your world (e.g. Diaspora). Why is that?

Everyone loves the story of the overnight success. No one wants to read about a 10-15 year struggle, with liberal doses of failure and setback. They'd rather read about someone who had a 'light bulb' moment and cashed out six months later. The reason is perhaps that everyone likes to think they too can do it - if amazing success is available almost overnight to other people, why not to them. Not as cool to dream about years and years of toil...

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#12

Post by jpdoctor » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 3:34 AM UTC

Most important one imho = #5:

Our analysis of more than 500 companies in high-growth industries revealed that not even 11 percent of these companies took venture capital at any stage of their existence. The Kauffman Foundation ran a similar analysis of companies on the Inc. magazine 500 list and found that only 16 percent of them raised venture capital.

The results speak for themselves.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#13

Post by Shenglong » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 4:30 AM UTC

There's a way to skew the representation of data in just about any way imaginable. You can change sample sizes, adjust test criteria, and even replace tests when they don't generate the desired result.

I think it's obvious that you don't need to be an ivy league drop out to run a successful start up. However, representing data this way portrays the image that this stereotype actually hurts the start up model - which I doubt is true. I'm not speaking quantitatively - just from my sense of logic.

If the goal of the article is to promote non ivy league drop outs to found companies, then I'm all for it. If it's trying to convince us that ivy league drop outs perform worse, then I don't buy it. People tend to drop out to start a company for a reason - and that reason is usually boredom.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#14

Post by patricel » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 4:36 AM UTC

#2 is interesting: both the thesis and the antitheses are wrong! There can hardly be an "entrepreneur gene", but at the same time, what makes an entrepreneur is its ability to break rules, and breaking rules can't be taught.

I followed a couple of courses about entrepreneurship in a top B-school - not too many, though - and I am quite sure none of them turned corporate exec, engineers, consultants or lawyers into entrepreneurs if they were not ready for it in the first place.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#15

Post by jeffdavis » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 4:42 AM UTC

patricel wrote: post #14

#2 is interesting: both the thesis and the antitheses are wrong! There can hardly be an "entrepreneur gene", but at the same time, what makes an entrepreneur is its ability to break rules, and breaking rules can't be taught. I followed a couple of courses about entrepreneurship in a top B-school - not too many, though - and I am quite sure none of them turned corporate exec, engineers, consultants or lawyers into ent…

"breaking rules can't be taught"

Really?

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#16

Post by rjd » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

georgieporgie wrote: post #6

America’s typical tech entrepreneurs are in their 20s. It seems to me that media is absolutely in love with this notion. The scrappy, brilliant kid who's going to change your world (e.g. Diaspora). Why is that?

The dream of get rich quick I'd put a wager on...

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#17

Post by wisty » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 4:54 AM UTC

jeffdavis wrote: post #15

patricel wrote: post #14

#2 is interesting: both the thesis and the antitheses are wrong! There can hardly be an "entrepreneur gene", but at the same time, what makes an entrepreneur is its ability to break rules, and breaking rules can't be taught. I followed a couple of courses about entrepreneurship in a top B-school - not too many, though - and I am quite sure none of them turned corporate exec, engineers, consultants or lawyers into ent…

"breaking rules can't be taught" Really?

Yeah, it looks like a bit of a cop-out.

You don't need to teach people to break all the rules. That's not what you want. You want people to take calculated risks, and break the rules that need breaking.

You could teach the history of rule-breaking, and explain how why those rules needed to be broken. Teachers could do that pretty well.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#18

Post by patricel » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 5:13 AM UTC

wisty wrote: post #17

jeffdavis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"breaking rules can't be taught" Really?

Yeah, it looks like a bit of a cop-out. You don't need to teach people to break all the rules. That's not what you want. You want people to take calculated risks, and break the rules that need breaking. You could teach the history of rule-breaking, and explain how why those rules needed to be broken. Teachers could do that pretty well.

Entrepreneuship is not a really "calculated risk", its a deeply uncalculated one on the contrary: leave your job (or your normal career track), get no revenues for an undefined while, bet most of your credibility on idea that may change or become irrelevant, etc...

Teachers can tell stories about all of those, but they won't really "teach" them, since there are too personnal to be replicated.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#19

Post by jeffdavis » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 5:20 AM UTC

craigmc wrote: post #11

georgieporgie wrote: post #6

America’s typical tech entrepreneurs are in their 20s. It seems to me that media is absolutely in love with this notion. The scrappy, brilliant kid who's going to change your world (e.g. Diaspora). Why is that?

Everyone loves the story of the overnight success. No one wants to read about a 10-15 year struggle, with liberal doses of failure and setback. They'd rather read about someone who had a 'light bulb' moment and cashed out six months later. The reason is perhaps that everyone likes to think they too can do it - if amazing success is available almost overnight to other people, why not to them. Not as cool to dream abou…

"Everyone loves the story of the overnight success... the reason is perhaps that everyone likes to think they too can do it..."

Perhaps it's the opposite. If they turn founders into mythical characters, then it's much easier to disregard the idea of ever starting a business. They don't have to take responsibility for their own lives or accomplishments.

Re: Myths about entrepreneurs

#20

Post by patricel » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 5:22 AM UTC

jeffdavis wrote: post #15

patricel wrote: post #14

#2 is interesting: both the thesis and the antitheses are wrong! There can hardly be an "entrepreneur gene", but at the same time, what makes an entrepreneur is its ability to break rules, and breaking rules can't be taught. I followed a couple of courses about entrepreneurship in a top B-school - not too many, though - and I am quite sure none of them turned corporate exec, engineers, consultants or lawyers into ent…

"breaking rules can't be taught" Really?

until you make it a rule... and that's not entrepreneurship either