Small Business Entrepreneur Blog

I’ve got the chance to see opinions about subjects I’m familiar with in Fred Wilson’s Ten Questions About Entrepreneurs – as usual I need to comment as I’m not entirely comfortable with all of the items. And by the way, all the links in this article are links to bits and pieces I wrote over the time, hopefully valuable resources now to argument my comments. If you wonder who is Fred Wilson, here is his Wikipedia page.

I’m copy pasting the essential items so I have a framework for my comments (sorry Fred for the copy paste)

• What is entrepreneurship? It’s the art of turning an idea into a business.

Correct. Most people never get from the idea to the actual implementation. That’s why not everybody is an entrepreneur, and why if you manage to make a business from just an idea, you become one.

• Can entrepreneurship be taught/learned? I don’t think so. It’s like a personality disorder. You are born with it.

Don’t agree. As I once wrote on Business Opportunities Weblog, Entrepreneurship can be taught. Here is the final argument from that article: “I’m sure that if you learn in school how to approach investors, how to make a business plan or how to establish a price it will at least improve your chances to pass the “fail in 5 years myth”. You learn in school, you learn from your neighbor, you learn from blogs, books and everything else. In a way, Entrepreneurship IS taught. Just the teachers might be different.

Of course, entrepreneurship is like driving. Everybody can drive a car, but only a few are pilots.”

• Is entrepreneurship limited to small companies? No. Some of the best companies in the world are run by entrepreneurs, like Apple/Jobs, News Corp/Murdoch, and Microsoft under Gates.

Agreed. Entrepreneurship has nothing to do with the business size. In fact the bigger and more successful you make it, the most chances have to become a serial entrepreneur.

• Are entrepreneurs “control freaks”? Yes.

Yes. I wrote several articles on how hard is to hire your first employees and learn to delegate. Here is one on “Hiring in a bootstrapped company”

• Is there an ideal age for an entrepreneur? No, although most start at a young age since they don’t belong in big companies. But once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. We’ve got one entrepreneur in our portfolio who is approaching 60 and working on his fourth company.

I would say late 20 is perfect. Here is why – Entrepreneurship age – I would say late 20’s

• Are there many women entrepreneurs? Sadly, the answer in the tech/web business is no.

I got one here, on Entrepreneur Interviews. Ellen Craw from Ilium Software.

• Do entrepreneurs have balance in their lives? Often the answer is no. But as they age, it gets better.

Agreed. I wrote more about that in There is something wrong with entrepreneur’s minds

• What skills would you advise an entrepreneur to acquire? Technical and product skills. Focus on the core offering. Let others worry about the rest.

Completely disagree. If you want to be an entrepreneur (and not a business professional) you have to put some distance between the actual product and your mind. Because if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need business ideas and get them implemented. Coding hurts entrepreneurship.

• Are entrepreneurs happier than others? This one stumped me. I gave a half assed answer.

I think it depends. Mostly, all entrepreneurs go through a stress stage. Here is something I wrote about entrepreneurship stress.