Written by:
Joseph Seydl

The Key to Entrepreneurship: Just Do It

Roughly 40% of students entering higher education will dropout before earning a degree. At Stanford University, however, they don’t call it dropping out; they call it ‘stopping out’. And it is encouraged.

I recently attended the 2010 National Entrepreneurial Bootcamp held at Stanford, sponsored jointly by Business Today and Stanford’s Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (Bases). The Bootcamp included: nine rigorous academic workshops on entrepreneurship, four keynote speaker events, a whole host networking opportunities, and a business plan & elevator pitch competition. Throughout the entire Bootcamp experience we heard from founders of multibillion-dollar companies, successful venture capitalists & angel investors, entrepreneurs involved in small start-up companies, as well as noteworthy business professors. We learned about: risk-taking, entrepreneurial finance, distribution & marketing processes, the different legal structures of start-ups, and how to find complementary business partners. But if I had to sum up what we learned from the entire Bootcamp in three words, I would echo Nike’s slogan and say: Just Do It.

The key to becoming a successful entrepreneur is about spotting opportunities and jumping on them, period. The opportunity costs of leaving school or quitting a job undoubtedly can be high, but the opportunity costs associated with not jumping on a chance to bring a new business to fruition in the marketplace may be umpteen times higher. From the Bootcamp, we learned that there are typically two stages in the market for start-up companies: markets are either evangelical or they are competitive. Markets are evangelical when there exists a rare opportunity to bring a new innovation to the marketplace, whereas in competitive markets, companies are competing with each other to rectify existing innovations. What’s striking about these two market stages, however, is how quickly markets move from being evangelical to competitive. The opportunity to start a new company today may very well be discovered by someone else tomorrow.

At the same time, however, the road to becoming an entrepreneur is not for everyone. The importance of obtaining a solid foundation for education cannot be overstated. Therefore, a viable option for the more risk averse student is launch a company on the side, while remaining in school. In fact, some of the Bootcamp’s visiting entrepreneurs did just this, leading them to both entrepreneurial success as well as a college degree. It all boils down to how much risk a student is willing to bear. Students should consult with friends, family, and other entrepreneurs before deciding to ‘stop out’ of school to start a company.

To check out some of the videos filmed during the National Entrepreneurial Bootcamp click here.