I’ve now listened to nine years of Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series (listen to the podcasts here – I highly recommend them). With so many speakers (214 so far) of course there is going to be some conflicting advice but themes definitely have emerged. The importance of passion, innovation, and execution is what comes to mind. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the thought leaders had to say about some of the topics.
Let’s start with entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is…
…mostly a state of mind. – Jeff Housenbold (Shutterfly)
…something you need to do in your career. It is a time that is both the best and worst of your life. – Joe Liemandt (Trilogy)
…a tool that should be used sparingly. – Jeff Hawkins (Palm Computing)
…a management science. – Eric Ries (Author)
…about the state of mind of creating new products, of creating new markets, of creating new ideas, and creating new business and capturing some of the economic rents from that vision and the hard work. – Jeff Housenbold (Shutterfly)
…about how to minimize the risk. – William Hagstrom (Crescendo Bioscience)
…a combination of some skills and intense desire. The more desire the more your ability to overcome the lack of skills. – Evan Williams (Odeo)
…trying to find which way the surface is before running out of oxygen. – Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn)
…a risky game. – Hank Wuh (Skai Ventures)
…a global phenomenon. – Ted Zoller (Kauffman Foundation)
…a profession. – Randy Komisar (KPCB)
…about finding value in what you do. – Amit Chatterjee (Hara)
…chaotic, unpredictable, and will change from minute to minute. – Steve Blank (Serial Entrepreneur)
…an extreme sport. – Michael Goldberg (MDV)
…a journey. – Mark Jung (IGN)
