This year has been incredible. It has also been insanely busy. I guess my main updates have moved to FB - still, I think it is worth keeping this blog alive. To avoid letting 2014 pass without any posts, I am putting up some of my MBA essays. The ad-essays I have written for Oxford and Harvard etc. are probably more interesting BUT are probably too personal to be splashed around. So, here are some last-minute postings:
Part 2: “Personal
Entrepreneurship Reflections” (800 words, i.e., 2 pages)
In this part you should describe your personal
reflections on entrepreneurship. This is a short essay on what entrepreneurship
means to you, and how it relates to your own life ambitions. In this essay you
should incorporate several of the concepts that were covered during the
lectures, and critically discuss how they relate to your own entrepreneurial
ambitions. You are welcome to challenge or deepen some of the theories that
were discussed in class, and you might want to explain how these concepts relate
to your own personal experiences and ambitions.
Throughout history, humanity
has progressed thanks to those
lone pioneers—the visionary, the prophet, the maverick scientist and the
courageous scholar who defy received conventions to revolutionize our way of
looking at and dealing with the world. The world did not spontaneously throw
‘common sense’ out of the window and come to the conclusion that time and space
are relative and that energy and mass are equivalent—it was one Albert Einstein
who changed our paradigm. A brutal world did not suddenly decide by a mass
election that effective political action can be non-violent – it was one Gandhi
who showed the way and, like Jesus before him, gave up his life to change the
world.
It may seem too much to put Steve Jobs,
Henry Ford or Larry Page in the same category as Gandhi, Einstein, Darwin or
Jesus Christ. Yet, the greatest entrepreneurs share much with the pioneers of
science and spirituality. I believe their defining essence is their drive to
upset the established order of things. They impose their unusual way of seeing
to do the 'impossible', bringing down the ‘impregnable’ economic castles built
by lemmings. They find new ways of production (Ford), bring wonderful new
products to the market (the Steves), sell cheap and direct (Dell) or build a
new kind of firm that organizes the information of the world (Page and Brin). A
flame of Schumpeterian creative destruction is lit, and the way we consume or
produce or distribute is changed forever.
The second characteristic of entrepreneurs
is a desire to make an impact beyond the
financial. Obviously there are some
barracudas who are in the game solely for financial gain. Yet, given our
self-rationalizing and altruistic tendencies, it is plausible (though I have no
hard research data) that the majority of entrepreneurs set up shop with
something more in mind. Of course, business must still be about business to
some extent – but in the founders’ minds, some element of the business will
transcend business. It is plausible that at least some legalized marijuana
dealers believe that they are delivering something socially valuable. And for
the greatest companies, they usually have “cultures of purpose” which strongly
motivates their staff (Deloitte,
2013). Apple, with its fanatical zest to build the best products in the world,
or Tesla, with its focus on ‘accelerating the advent of sustainable transport’,
are archetypes. So where do these cultures come from? Most of the time, their
founding leaders first inspired them – and they could do this because they sincerely
believe in making a wider ‘social’ impact beyond gold and gain. As such, I do
not believe in any binary distinction between ‘social’ enterprises and ‘for-profit’
enterprises. All enterprises are ‘social’ to some degree (the lowest degree
will be that they make their goods and services socially valuable solely to
make profits) but they differ in their commitment to making an impact beyond
economic gain for their owners. As such, visionary entrepreneurs are actually
quite similar to other celebrated revolutionaries.
Finally, to light a fire to
change the world takes great courage and resilience. It takes courage to lead a
Salt March; it takes courage to build a company. Jack Ma apparently had encountered
countless failures. He failed twice at the entrance examination for a local
college. He
applied and got rejected by 30 companies. At Kentucky Fried Chicken, 24 people
applied. 23 got jobs but not him. (George, 2014; Stone & D’Onfro, 2014).
But he persevered to build up Ali Baba. The inspiring stories of Steve Jobs and
Henry Ford are well known. Given the high failure rates of startups, it is true
almost by definition that successful entrepreneurs need to have the tenacity to
go through hell and high water.
To sum up,
entrepreneurs are the ones with the grit and heart to change the world. Of
course, they need skill and luck as well – but if the base conditions are
there, these others will usually come. I have already described my passion to
build a new kind of educational enterprise in my previous essay. I think I have
the heart, probably the grit, but not yet the skill. I am, however, determined
to build my skills and later, the team to incarnate my vision. Given what I have
argued earlier, I see no purpose in categorising it as a social or for-profit
organization. It is what it is, but let us get on with the task to change the
world.
Bibliography
Deloitte. (2013).
Culture of purpose: A business imperative. 2014 core beliefs
& culture survey. Retrieved from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_leadership_2013corebeliefs&culturesurvey_051613.pdf
George, Bill. (2014). New York Times DealBook: Jack
Ma on Alibaba,
Entrepreneurs and the Role of Handstands.
Retrieved from http://www.billgeorge.org/page/new-york-times-dealbook-jack-ma-on-alibaba-entrepreneurs-and-the-role-of-handstands
Stone, M.,
& D’Onfro, J. (2014). The Inspiring Life Story Of Alibaba Founder
Jack Ma, Now The Richest Man In China.
Retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inspiring-life-story-of-alibaba-founder-jack-ma-2014-10?op=1&IR=T#ixzz3Jt76J0HC
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