Studying Entrepreneurship is something remarkably different than studying finance, marketing, or management. This course goes beyond the established and academically appreciated economic theories. It works with real cases and tells the stories of the real people who succeeded in doing something meaningful. Each business starts from an idea, and this idea should be really powerful to make a person spend all their free time and resources to make it work.
The Entrepreneurship course, to a large extent, studies the ideas that work. And this approach of striving to make the best ideas work can be helpful in spheres of life other than business, like health, personal well-being, and relations. Making the right ideas work is what unites entrepreneurship and personal relationships. It is because ‘making the right ideas work’ is a universal concept that stirs our lives in the proper directions. Entrepreneurship is pretty much about life and how it works rather than about how people are practicing economic theory.
Let us first discuss entrepreneurship (which at its root is the striving for changes and revival of good ideas) vs. friendship. The first thing that comes to mind is how many friendships were created and destroyed on the grounds of launching the start-up together. People are often united by common aspirations, as Seth Godin rightfully admitted (Godin). And being a successful entrepreneur means leading people to a brighter future, challenging the status quo, and introducing the changes together (Godin).
One of the most important things that every leader with a good idea admits at the beginning of their journey is that they cannot make their idea work alone – they need other people to do it (Godin). Therefore, being a leader or being an inspiring, motivating entrepreneur is an easy way to make new friends. And, if you already have ones, introducing the changes together is the easiest way to strengthen your bonds with those people.
Most entrepreneurs start from scratch; at the beginning, they usually have nothing but a good idea that is determined to work. And as Dan Pink rightfully noted, making things work does not require money incentives but instead requires sharing the freedom to create something meaningful with other people (Pink). Sharing the freedom of making something meaningful together… isn’t it the very essence of friendship, isn’t it the main thing that the friends do?
Therefore, the entrepreneurs are likely to be the best friends one can wish for. And studying the Entrepreneurship course allows us to surprise our friends with bright ideas and start changing our worlds for to better. Maybe that explains why some entrepreneurship projects are successful and others are not – a great entrepreneurship project should treat all its participants like good friends who gathered to change the world for the better.
Secondly, studying Entrepreneurship has a substantial positive impact on our family relations. There are plenty of charitable projects, such as the Yiddish Book Center, that create the prerequisites for strengthening family relationships (“Bridge of Books”).
Many people are sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of exciting and outstanding personalities. Most of us treasure the heritage of our ancestors, and entrepreneurial charitable projects are one way to show our love and respect for family and close relatives. Many people do not consider charity to be entrepreneurship because it is not designed to generate monetary income. Nevertheless, charity is entrepreneurship since this concept does not necessarily include the need for material benefits for the entrepreneur but implies creating an enterprise that will benefit people.
Thirdly, the Entrepreneurship course gives the students adequate advice on how to cope with their foes, since, as Frank Sinatra said, “The best revenge is a massive success.” Entrepreneurship is a good path for introducing changes through technological inventions, which can be highly competitive. Izhar Gafni, who invented a bicycle made of card boxes and created a company, Cardboard Technologies, together with his friend Nimrod Elmish gives us a nice example of a massive success that stemmed from one good idea (Caesarea). Therefore, as Michael Wilson said, there should always be hope for the hoops – intelligent people who bring new ideas that make this world better and remove the very need for rivalry (“Hope for Hoops”).
Thus, it was discussed how entrepreneurship positively impacts the students’ relations with friends, family, and even foes. First, studying Entrepreneurship helps you make new friends and strengthen old connections as you work together on a joint project. Secondly, the study and practice of entrepreneurship can strengthen family ties, especially when implementing projects related to family ties, traditions, and cultural heritage. Finally, entrepreneurship can help us free ourselves from enmity since the person who is doing what they love has no time for such meaningless pursuits as revenge. Moreover, competition does not cause anxiety among people who change the world for the better, since in such a situation, competition is a positive change.
Motivation has been my ‘candle problem’ for a long time, and I was very happy when it became a new compelling issue for many working people during the pandemic. On the one hand, we got more time and personal space, and on the other hand, we are no longer controlled as closely as before. One of the main reasons why CEOs require employees to work in offices is the assumption that people need to be supervised to perform well. But this is not true, as Dan Pink rightly states in his “legal case scenario” (Pink). The speaker emotionally presents the idea that although science knows that external incentives do not work for complex tasks and even decrease productivity, the managers go on treating people solely with sticks and carrots (Pink).
The coronavirus pandemic has been a revelation for many business managers and team leaders, proving that less control increases motivation! I have always considered myself the manager of my own life, and as a rule, I had to make an effort to allow external control into my life, as this consistently reduced my motivation. Now this problem seems to be almost solved, and not only for me but for the rest of humanity. The experience of independent work of millions of employees has become evidence of a simple idea about the predominantly internal nature of motivation. Interestingly, Dan Pink’s approach, which offers a broader view of things using peripheral vision, overcomes other similar ‘candle problems’ that can seem indestructible.
The ‘candle problem’ approach can be applied in many spheres of life other than business, work, and entrepreneurship. For example, during a pandemic, many people faced the problem of social isolation. However, look at the situation from a different angle, using a broader perspective. Forced loneliness can give an impetus to rethink the direction in life, stimulate creativity, and nudge a person to create a space where he or she can “ground” and find inner peace. In other words, forced social isolation helped people understand that a problem is simultaneously a solution when they accept it as a part of life and cease to perceive it as a problem.
Perhaps there is a similar internal logic in the matter of motivation and external control. When people are monitored externally, they are suspected of being distracted by “useless” activities, and not paying due attention to the required “useful” business. In this way, an individual’s creative space is divided into a “problem” – useless activities and a “solution” – purposeful activity to complete a particular work task, which significantly limits the focus.
But what would happen if the world began to look at things more broadly? How much free time would people have? What unprecedented horizons would a creative approach open to humankind? Many start-ups and established companies are increasingly accepting the need to be flexible in every way – to give employees flexibility in schedules, work-from-home alternatives, and promote independent ways to get things done. And every time managers take the risk, it pays off.
My other ‘candle problem’ is world peace. For some unknown reason, I feel responsible for saving humanity and leading it to a better, brighter future. So every time I come across legacy systems that don’t work, I feel like a loser, and every time I meet innovation, it inspires me immensely. Before, I only had a vague sense of what was the right approach to problem-solving and what was not. But now, thanks to Dan Pink, I can take his concept and apply it; the more, the better.
Works Cited
“Bridge of Books.” YouTube, uploaded by Yiddish Book Center. 2011. Web.
Caesarea, Israel. “Beginning of the Cardboard Bike.” the Switchers Community. 2018. Web.
Godin, Seth. “The Tribes We Lead.” TED. 2009. Web.
“Hope for Hoops: Michael Wilson at TEDxPurdueU 2014.” YouTube, uploaded by TEDx Talks. 2014. Web.
Pink, Dan. “The Puzzle of Motivation.” TED, 2009. Web.