How Great Entrepreneurs Think

[Rickson9]

For those who might be interested! A fascinating article from Inc. I strongly believe that being an entrepreneur is nature rather than nurture. This article appears to support this.



"...entrepreneurs don't start out with concrete goals. Instead, they constantly assess how to use their personal strengths and whatever resources they have at hand to develop goals on the fly, while creatively reacting to contingencies. By contrast, corporate executives...use causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently seek the best ways to achieve it."



Speaking for myself, I am not entrepreneurial - I use casual reasoning almost exclusively.



...



"Sarasvathy explains that entrepreneurs' aversion to market research is symptomatic of a larger lesson they have learned: They do not believe in prediction of any kind. 'If you give them data that has to do with the future, they just dismiss it,' she says. 'They don't believe the future is predictable.'"



I believe in the same. I dismiss predictions of the future fairly quickly. I just tune out because, for me, it is a waste of time.



How Great Entrepreneurs Think



Best regards.

 

[bizaro86]

[quote user=Rickson9]I believe in the same. I dismiss predictions of the future fairly quickly. I just tune out because, for me, it is a waste of time.




I completely agree with this, but I think that probabilistic thinking is something that can add value to a portfolio. I tend to use it when I'm risking my portfolio for downside. For example, what would the situation have to be like in variables that matter to me to cause an unnaceptable outcome, and what is the probability of all those variables changing against me at once.

 

[2ndstory]

Interesting. I wonder what separates successful entrepreneurs from the huge group of unsuccessful ones out there.



One of the books I'm reading right now is "How to Be a Billionaire" by Martin Fridson. Cheesy title and the book is actually shiny gold in colour, but it is interesting. He talks about billionaires as enjoying the pursuit of wealth much more than the wealth itself. Successful entrepreneurs and billionaires may have some things in common including the fact that they never really have that goal set that they will be able to gauge whether or not they've achieved what they set out to do. It's more about the journey and the adventure than making the Forbes list or whatever. The wealth is almost a by-product of the adventure that they've set out on.



Nik

 

[bizaro86]

[quote user=2ndstory]entrepreneurs and billionaires may have some things in common including the fact that they never really have that goal set that they will be able to gauge whether or not they've achieved what they set out to do


That's especially true of the very top end of wealthy (billionaires), they just keep going, well past when the money mattered. There are many people with a concrete goal, who, once they've achieved it, fade out of business life. They build their business up until it's worth 10,000,000 (or whatever amount) and then sell it, and retire somewhere warm. It's just a different perspective on life, but you don't hear much in the mainstream business press about a guy who started a business and sold it for 3,000,000 and retired.



Regards,



Michael