What comes first – The Idea or The Entrepreneur?

This may remind you of the trick question: What came first – the Chicken or the Egg? I have an answer to that one, but you will have to wait!

As far as ideas go, most people have them. Ideas are over-valued because they mean nothing until they are implemented and proven. On the other hand, not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, many who say they do never become one, and of those who venture out on their own, some do so for the wrong reasons or may find that they don’t like it. 

True entrepreneurs are generally brimming with ideas and find some way to get started. Of course they need to focus on that one great idea at the start, but will often end up doing something quite different from what they originally intended. The eventual success or failure of their business too may not reflect on the entrepreneur's capabilities.

Entrepreneurship tends to be addictive. It is common for even successful entrepreneurs, especially in tech, to move on after an M&A or when they find that continuously scaling the business is no longer exciting. They and/or the board get new leadership to drive further growth. Instead of moving back to a regular job, they often start a new company (serial entrepreneurs) or becomes investors and mentors. The rare entrepreneur CEO who stays the course and builds a billion-dollar enterprise acquires legendary status (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, NR Narayanmurthy to name a few). There are exceptional ones like Steve Jobs who got fired as the Apple CEO in 1985 but had to be recalled in 1997 when the company was near bankruptcy. By 2011, he had taken Apple to a $300 billion valuation with a succession of innovative products. 

Can we measure Entrepreneurship Aptitude? Large companies often assess (and test for) managerial skills to decide whom to groom as future leaders, but I have not heard of them doing this to discover “intrapreneurs” who can drive their next generation initiatives. VCs are known to have Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs) - these are experienced senior execs from reputed companies or have exited from an earlier startup. The goal is for the EIR to create their next funded company or join a startup whose management team needs to be strengthened. A proven Entrepreneurship Aptitude Test may lead to new incubation models that can match first-time entrepreneurs and ideas. A few tests are available - here is an example.

Reverting to my original question, I think Peter Drucker answered it best:

I would say an entrepreneur will eat ideas for breakfast.

This comment resonates with me since in 1988 after working for a few years in the US and India, I decided to start my own R&D consulting firm. It was challenging since back then only public sector companies and a few large industrial houses were doing any technology work in India. I looked at getting assignments from the US, but in those days India had no credibility as a technology outsourcing destination. The nascent IT industry was mostly limited to sending people onsite to the US. But I got lucky and ended up partnering with Narendra Popat and Anil Singhal for my first start-up. Their US company (also a start-up then, and a billion dollar listed company now), Netscout Systems, became our first customer.

As to the trick question, the scientific answer to the "chicken or egg first" is neither and both, since both the chicken and egg have evolved and continue to evolve with time. If you feel that's a cop-out, here is a more definitive answer from a 7-year old: "The Egg!". Asked why, her response was: "Duh, Mommy! The eggs are for breakfast and the chicken is for dinner!"

PS: This is the first article in a planned series called I2B (Ideas To Businesses) intended to invite discussion about entrepreneurship and tech startups. I would love to get your comments and suggestions.