True Essence of Entrepreneurship

In our previous discussions, I have learned countless things about entrepreneur, how to be a successful entrepreneur, how to deal with other people, how to start a business, where to start and the things to be considered. But what have made my mind cause a stir on dealing with this kind of situation are the ideas coming from the tycoons of technopreneurship or the premiere technopreneurs that really gave a mark to the world. In our past meeting our teacher introduced this video "Pirates of the Silicon Valley". From that movie I have known the two idols in this generation. I am talking to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. And now, our teacher let us watch this video about GUY KAWASAKI where he had a talk about what are the things to be consider when starting up a business. His talk was about "How to make meaning" and I would like to share this video especially to those people who are inclined in entrepreneurship. It's a 2 minutes and 52 seconds that talks about the real core of entrepreneurship. I am very lucky to watch a talk given by GUY KAWASAKI to the Stanford Technology Ventures Program in Stanford University (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQs6IpJQWXc)


Who is GUY KAWASAKI?

Guy Kawasaki is an extraordinary man that made a name at Apple in 1980's as the evangelist who helped launch the Macintosh Computer. He is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He is the founder and a CEO of Garage Technology Ventures and he has tested and proven his ideas to those start up companies.

Now back to his lecture, he talks about the true essence of entrepreneurship, which is basically about making meaning. According to him "If you make meaning, you will probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won’t make money." I believe all of us want to start our own business depending on our passion. It is a very important that we should have a proper idea of how to become a good entrepreneur and most especially we should have right reasons for starting a business not just to earn money. After watching this short video, I feel very lucky and I have learned a lot from him. What I like about this video is that it is very short but it is very meaningful. I can see that he really loves what he is doing, no doubt that he is a successful technopreneur.

Make meaning I think what he meant is that you have to really identify or understand your purpose on starting a business. These are so many questions to be considered like do you love what you are doing? Is that your passion? Does it contribute to our society? Is it helpful? I believe that most of us start to build companies to make money. But according to Guy Kawasaki if one starts a business just to make money, the result is that he will not be successful. He wants to tell us that if we want to start a business we should make meaning, like, "I start a business because I love what I am doing and I want to develop my passion" or "I will build a business because I want to help my society" By that, he gives meaning to the world and I am sure that he might as well make money out of it. He also noticed that from the big businesses in this generation, those companies who have succeeded are those businesses that make meaning.

Guy Kawasaki also mentioned the 3 ways to make meaning. The first one is to increase the quality of life. Second, is to right a wrong and last is to prevent the end of something good.

 Increase the quality of life

According to him if you want to start a business you must think how will you improve or uplift you life. How will you increase the quality of your life and what are the factors to make this realization come true. I can say that great innovations from the past greatly increased the quality of people's life, like for example, cell phones. What's weird from the past is normal today. Anyway, cell phone is a good example of increasing the quality of our life. Can you imagine yourself without cell phone nowadays? Make sense?

Right a wrong

All of us will experience or will see some difficulties in life to the point that some people will commit suicide because they think that it is the end of the world and because they think that they can't fix their problems. But, according to Guy Kawasaki if you will find something wrong with the world then you must fix it. And I totally agree to his principle. Let's correct every mistake that we've made and let's take it as a challenge. If you think that your businesses is the solution for a certain problem then push it through as long as you are doing right. In connection to technologies like computers, if virus enters your computer, it is probably a problem, a big problem, because it can affect your files. That's why experts come up with an idea to make an anti-virus which really helps the society. Thanks to them! Anyway, a wrong will be always be wrong unless someone will correct it.

Prevent the end of something good

In this present era, we slowly feel that the world changes like for example, computers. We can say that nowadays computer is something good and it has a big contribution to the world. It really made life more convenient than before. That's why experts will really find an idea to prevent it from being destroyed or to prolong its life and its legacy as well. That's why I really agree to what Guy Kawasaki said that we should prevent the end of something good. If we find something good, I believe that we don't want it to end. So, let's do something to prevent that end now that we have Mr. Google nothing is impossible.

"The goal is to change the world... if you do that, maybe you’ll be a legend.” Guy said. If we want to start a business we should think if your business will improve the quality of our lives, touch other lives or something that will definitely change the world. But before changing the world, you should first change yourself and make a meaning. I can really say that Guy Kawasaki is truly is a great man and a successful technopreneur in his generation same with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I really admire them.

Starting up a business can be hard, especially if one is clueless at all and don't know where to start. But I think that if you will listen to those successful technopreneurs this will definitely lead you to success because they have experienced those kinds of situations and they already know the do's and don’ts and of course as long as you love what you are doing and you have the passion and the determination you will truly be successful. And if the lessons we've learned from Guy Kawasaki, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will be integrated in making a business you will surely achieve your goals in life. Just believe in yourself!