Going forward we are all entrepreneurs...

Social scientists say we can learn a lot about ourselves by identifying who we most wanted to impress growing up. For me this was my father. He was a self-made man, the first in our family to go to college. Only recently have I fully understood what it took for him to provide for our family all those years. For example, while I was in college the small company he founded was undergoing a disruptive period that forced my parents sell their dream home while loading up every credit card to the max. It turns out that the desire to downsize had nothing to do with an empty nest and everything to do with an empty bank account.

Thankfully, being an astute entrepreneur, he was able to create a new path for his company and sell it which enabled the comfortable retirement he enjoys today. Tim Urban makes a great analogy about entrepreneurs in his Nov. 6th, 2015 ‘Wait But Why’ blog post about Elon Musk and the difference between cooks and chefs. Most of us are cooks, we look at the recipe and copy it to the best of our ability. Monkey see, monkey do. Chefs on the other hand are constantly experimenting with new combinations of flavors and textures. They don’t merely produce, they create!

So, just like my father experienced, what happens when the destination at the end of a well-worn path no longer exists? What about all these recipes that no longer work (let’s say in retail, or banking, or healthcare, or virtually every other industry that is having their recipes changed right before our eyes)? Either by desire or by need, it appears businesses are headed towards a future where having too many cooks in the kitchen will be more than a frustration, it will be a death sentence.

Social scientists also tell us as humans we’re propelled by a strong desire to connect with one another. So, it’s no wonder with the evolution of technology we’ve started to connect everything. The industrial age gave way to the information age… which has even more quickly given way to an intelligently connected one. We’re at the dawn of this new era and trying to make sense of it all. What does it mean to do business in a world where everything is connected anyway?

The answer to this question is revealing itself quickly. Digitally native startups are challenging convention across every industry as the pace of change continues to accelerate. At the same time, the great companies who created the world we inhabit today, and the people who run them, are at a crossroads. What brought success in the past – namely, structure built to optimize process and maximize efficiency – will be insufficient.

Future success will require the innovative mindset of an entrepreneur who seeks to break traditional models and create new recipes (pathways to value). Jeff Bezos himself makes clear how different the mindset of a new era executive can be when he states that Amazon’s success is a function of how many experiments they do per year, per month, per week, and per day. For this simple fact, it seems we all live in a time where we will be tested as entrepreneurs in one way or another.

Juxtapose this with the recent conversation I had with a C-level exec of a Fortune-100 company where he asked me to avoid the word ‘fail’ or ‘failure’ when talking about the innovation agenda with his team. I get it, nobody wants to encourage failure, though please understand that perfectionism is the kryptonite of innovation. It is here where we can find our calling as entrepreneurs…

We will develop new businesses models propelled by curiosity and a willingness to dare greatly. Rather than fearing failure, we will celebrate the learning that comes from experimentation. This begins with identifying discrete opportunity areas or challenge statements. We will then unlock the creativity and wisdom of teams to craft unique solutions that will be prototyped immediately and iteratively customer tested. The ideas that fail to generate the anticipated impact will be quickly harvested for any insights and then shuttered. The ideas that rise to the top will be rapidly implemented and brought to market.

In taking these steps together we’ll begin to evolve the mental model of our teams and executives. These leaders will become the torch bearers for the future of our businesses. To be inspirational, one simply needs to find something that inspires them and share it with others.

So I leave you with a few important questions to consider:

– What do you believe in?

– What does that mean for the future of your business?

– What is one experiment that you can start today to get you closer to that reality?

Until we speak again I wish for you much curiosity, courage, and connection.

Best, Rob

p.s. If you enjoyed this article please check out these others: What I Learned About Leading Innovation by Starting a Band and Think Like a VC to Accelerate Corporate Innovation.