Frequently Asked Questions

Can entrepreneurship be taught?

The short answer is yes. The medium answer is that there are some people who are natural born entrepreneurs while the rest of us can learn how to appear natural doing it. The longer answer is that even natural born entrepreneurs need to learn how to discipline and refine their natural aptitudes. Who is born knowing how to build a cashflow from a blank spreadsheet and why it matters? No one. Cashflows are just one of the tools in the belt of an entrepreneur; if you work to build a house with your bare hands and raw strength you will only get so far. There is an abundance of education (coaching and training) available in the world, some of it is outstanding and some of it is not. The trick is finding a skilled teacher who knows what they are doing and a safe place to explore what is possible while you learn. The bottomline: Anyone can learn how to be an entrepreneur....it requires being open minded and a willingness to work.

I'm risk averse and need a paycheck with benefits. Can I be an entrepreneur?

Absolutely. Paychecks and benefits are awesome. Most entrepreneurs work to build stability in their ventures. One of the goals when building a startup or turning around a failing company (for example) is de-risking the opportunity and stabilizing the company SO THAT it can predictably pay employees and offer benefits.

What is the most difficult part of being an entrepreneur?

Getting out of your own way. (We can be our own worst enemies.) Second to it would be knowing where and how to start. Most people never start because they aren't sure what to do, and those who do start are typically doing a little of this and that not entirely sure if what they are doing is the right thing to do. The book Survive & Thrive, Entrepreneurial Frameworks that Work is designed specifically to help with knowing how to start and in the process will hopefully help with getting out of your own way.

Is there a big difference between the different types of entrepreneurship (e.g., startup, corporate, social, etc.) or is the difference just the paycheck?

There are many similarities and differences. For example: good financial planning and controls and accounting are vital to ALL entrepreneurial initiatives. (Finance looks forward at what might and should happen. Accounting looks back as what happened.) If you run out of money, whether you are feeding the hungry in the developing world or building enterprise software in a major corporation, everything will stop. Needing to have good financial planning and controls and good accounting might sound intimidating because most people are not comfortable with numbers. You need to learn at least the basics about numbers so that you can participate in conversations around numbers, but you can find other people to do the heavy lifting for you. This is just one example of what is similar. A difference (not THE difference but A difference) is that entrepreneurs who build a social venture are most likely not motivated by making millions for themselves by selling their venture, a corporate entrepreneur might be motivated by advancement in the organization or bonuses, and a startup entrepreneur might be motivated by producing wealth for themselves and others. All of them might be motivated by building something that matters and makes something better than it was before. And so on...