As a journalist immersed in Minnesota’s technology community for the past year and a half, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interviewing countless local technology entrepreneurs – those who initiate and assume the risk of new products or services within the high tech industry.
Probing people about something so personal as the nuances of their own company — from philosophy to finance — often yields rare moments of intimacy which can reveal fascinating insights into the entrepreneurial mind. I find that every conversation and interaction with an entrepreneur is a learning experience that results in sheer wonder, humility and admiration.
In many cases, the entrepreneurs existence revolves around extreme uncertainty, emotional isolation and painful sacrifice. Entrepreneurs not only move against the grain of the status-quo and entrenched systems, but often times, their own human nature.
A fine line divides the misfits and the heroes of the tech business world. Only when an entrepreneur has achieved a certain degree of social status (primarily driven by the mass media) do they begin to receive acknowledgment, acceptance and edification. Too often, this pop-media side of entrepreneurship paints an inaccurate picture of what the experience is all about, for it fails to grasp the realities of the journey. The get rich quick narrative only serves to establish false expectations and misguided motivations, setting aspiring entrepreneurs up for failure before they’ve even started.
The technology entrepreneurs of today embody a rare breed of character traits, most notably — raw passion, risk tolerance, and open-minded curiosity. Win, lose or draw, these entrepreneurs represent an increasingly necessary role in our world; beyond “job creation”, they exhibit intensely creative energy applied to economic impediments and human evolution.
Anecdotally, entrepreneurs are a reminder that it’s okay to dream. They show us what it means to believe in oneself and can inspire us all to explore our own realms of the unknown. Perhaps the entrepreneurs greatest downfall is that they are too human.
Lately, the notion of “innovation” is all the rage. Yet the term itself has been abused, diluted and rendered semantically ambiguous beyond tangible recognition. Without a working definition and applied context of its relationship to the entrepreneurial climate, we risk losing focus of what matters most (real entrepreneurs) in lieu of what matters least (others talking). An unintended consequence of the this dangerous trend is a shift in emphasis from the actual entrepreneurs to “intermediaries of innovation”.
In this vein, when I take a moment to reflect on one thing I’ve observed about Minnesota’s technology startup community thus far, I cannot help but think:
The real entrepreneurs aren’t discussing “innovation”, but rather, heads down and heels in the ground, defining it. Their contributions to our economy and society at large are far more crucial than any panel, committee, focus group, think tank, promoter or policy initiative can ever be. As we aspire to “win the future”, let us not lose sight of what’s real — those who are actively making, doing and creating new products and services in the market.
~ Jeff Pesek is a guest contributor.
The last paragraph of that article was wonderful.
Jeff – a passionate appeal. I’m reminded of Teddy Roosevelt and his passionate description of “the man in the arena”.
I don’t know if we can tap the experience of the man / woman in the arena, engage the innovators in the dialogue, or leverage his / her activities with the fruits of the debate… but it seems like he / she should be the locus and reference point of the discussion.
An attribute (not a complete definition) of innovation: Innovation changes us. If we haven’t been fundamentally changed by the experience in our essential human characteristics, then we haven’t innovated. Innovation requires the innovator to transcend his or her static characteristics — otherwise, they’re simply engaging in bureaucratic activity. The pursuit of innovation requires the courage to place essential human characteristics on the line — not just time / money / relationships / physical comfort — and be willing to accept whatever emerges at the other end of the process.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
- Teddy Roosevelt (4/23/1910)
Great post, Jeff. I’m reminded of an adage we learned as debaters: “The side that defines the terms of the debate, wins the debate.”
It always bears repeating that those of us who consider ourselves change agents must flesh out the terms we use constantly–and we must challenge others who attempt to dilute their meaning. We do this by re-iterating the essence of the terms that underlie what we believe.
So again, nice job bringing to the fore the debasement of the term “innovation” and for reminding us to pull ourselves away from our work to help frame the wider dialogue…
~RPS
Hi Ernest,
“The more “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” become abstractions separated from humans and their creativity, the less relevant the terms become over time”
Well said.
Great post, Jeff, and you are on the mark.
This is my concern as well – that there is a lot of buzz, now at the national level, on promoting entrepreneurship – but the real support begins at street-level.
Many entrepreneurs you will not see or hear from at events etc… because they’re too busy working day and night in launch mode.
My take-away from your post – keep the focus at street level if you want to support real entrepreneurs. The more “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” become abstractions separated from humans and their creativity, the less relevant the terms become over time…