The Good, Bad, and Ugly: What Should an Entrepreneur Expect?

Entrepreneurs generally commit themselves full-time to realizing their vision. If they are unwilling to make this commitment, then they probably haven't developed the vision to the point where they are confident that it will be realizedor else they are not entrepreneurs. True entrepreneurs cannot rest until their ideas have succeeded.

During the journey from idea to success, entrepreneurs will experience many feelings and emotions. The hours are long and the personal commitment is usually complete, especially in the early stages of the vision's development. It is not unusual for the entire journey to take many years. Entrepreneurs wake up in the morning thinking about their vision and go to sleep at night thinking about their vision. Work, play, and family blur together. The single-mindedness of purpose an entrepreneur feels is hard to explain to others. A supportive, patient, and understanding family and social network are helpful. Finding somebody to talk to who is familiar with the entrepreneur's vision, but without a personal stake in it, is also helpful as a means to test, practice, and refine thinking and communications skills.

The best idea and vision in the world will not be realized if others can't understand it and can't become excited by it. Sometimes the vision is too complicated to explain easily, sometimes the markets do not exist or are not fully developed, and sometimes institutions and organizations are not ready for the changes that are necessary for the vision to be realized.

It is important for entrepreneurs to understand the worldview and language of the audience they are trying to influence. Scientists, engineers, finance people, salespeople, and marketing people all have very different mental models and views of how the world operates and behaves. These differences manifest themselves in many forms, particularly in language. Entrepreneurs must use this knowledge and make an effort to communicate using the target audience's own worldview and language, which are not necessarily the entrepreneur's own, to influence those things that need to be influenced. Indeed, an entrepreneur must be prepared, especially at the leading edge, to create and teach a new vocabulary so that the vision can be understood and embraced by the target audience.

Entrepreneurs generally lack some or all of the information, knowledge, experience, and skills they need to realize their vision. Entrepreneurs learn very quicklyif they don't know it alreadythat they can't do everything by themselves. A large part of entrepreneurship consists of on-the-job training and building a team to do the things entrepreneurs can't do themselves.

As they build their team, an interesting question entrepreneurs in nanotechnology must consider is whether they should use proven experts from other fields or novices from nanotechnology itself. The former may bring experience to the challenge, but the latter may bring energy. Time and windows of opportunity are usually short and moving targets, so points of view must be established and decisions usually must be made under uncertain and ambiguous circumstances. There are high degrees of uncertainty, risk, and ambiguity in trying to realize a vision, and it is important to recognize and accept that mistakes will be made. If they aren't made, there won't be progress. Sometimes taking an informed, calculated risk is the best thing an entrepreneur can do. It is also important not to take false comfort in numbers, because they can be manipulated to represent or support almost any point of view.

The world of large companies is very different from the world of small companies. Resources (people, capital, and support), systems, awareness, and reputation can vary dramatically. The transition between these worlds, although not impossible, can be difficult. Large companies offer an opportunity to learn and make mistakes in a relatively safe environment. They have already established themselves as part of the ecosystem, and their survival is usually not an immediate concern. Small companies, on the other hand, tend to be focused on their survival and on establishing a niche in the ecosystem. This means that day-to-day operational issues take priority over more strategic or long-range issues. Small companies have the advantage that their small size and organizational looseness provide them with adaptability and flexibility to move through the ecosystem in ways a large company cannot.

As a practical matter, whether self-financed or investor-financed, entrepreneurs can expect, at best, to sustain their existing lifestyle. The financial rewards of pursuing your vision, if they are ever realized, probably won't come for many years in the future through some form of liquidity event such as an acquisition, public financing, or buyout.

At its heart, any successful business depends on its people. People and their behaviors are not always logical or predictable. Engineers and scientists sometimes have a difficult time dealing with this. During the development of a business an entrepreneur will experience the full breadth of human behavior. Small organizations tend to be self-selecting and usually don't represent the entire range of human behavior. As an organization grows, the odds are that a broader range of human behaviors will be encountered and in some instances will be surprising and challenging.

Delegating responsibility and authority and letting others do things their own way is also a difficult transition for many entrepreneurs. Once they get through this transition it can be liberating, because they are able to give up tasks to others and free themselves to do new and interesting things. They must understand their own and evolving value and niche within the ecosystem of their organization and anticipate how it will change over time.

Moving a vision forward is fraught with skepticism, criticism, conflict, surprises, and mistakes. Entrepreneurs must listen to skepticism or criticism openly and not take it personally, and they must understand, accept, and deal with any truths that may have been expressed, no matter how ugly they might be. It is important to learn from adversity and delight in the surprises. Confidence in your ability will develop over time.

Leadership in its simplest form is about getting people somewhere they don't know they need to be. Inertia will be a strong counterforce to change, and the act of overcoming it may take large amounts of time and energy. There will be a constant need and opportunity to change and adapt to new situations.