This blog space is usually reserved for entrepreneurial posts, experiences and knowledge. But today is going to be different. It will be a reflexion on Geddo (grandpa in arab).
Geddo is 92 years young. He's lived 2 World Wars and participated with Egypt in the second one, under the English. He has intense diabetes, is quite overweight, smoked a good part of his life, had a couple of heart-attacks, through-the-roof cholesterol and a weak liver to boot. Theta (grandma in arab) passed on over 20 years ago, so he moved to Canada from Egypt so that my parents could take care of him. So for over 20 years, he was dependent on others.
In short, he's had every valid reason to NOT be alive today. His body and his heart were broken - and that alone would have done in the best of . But his spirit, ahhh his spirit...
Many clichés could describe his spirit:
- Live and let live
- Don't worry, be happy
- Irie (Jamaican)
- Hakuna Matata (Lion King)
- Ké sera, sera
- Finding the silver lining
- Eh, whatareyagonnadoaboutit
- (insert own phrase here)
He was the epitome of selective worrying. He understood there were things we could do to change the world around us, but that there was much more we couldn't do - so why eat ourselves up over it ? He understood his limitations, accepted them, and made the best of the cards he was dealt. He always had a smile and I think he wasn't apprehensive of passing on.
I am writing this post now (and I have deliberately changed the verb tense in the last paragraph) because last week, his heart-attack put him in the emergency ward at the local hospital. He was barely able to speak and stay awake, yet he would still smile and ask me about my wife and kids. And today, I got a call from my mom that he entered a semi-comatose state. I am unsure if he will be able to hear us or not, but I do know he is at peace. He was content with what he was and what he had during his life, so my biased grandson mind tells me he must be content now.
Maybe this is a post about entrepreneurship after all. Learning to take the events of startup life (and life in general) in stride is an important take away from this man's example. Kinda brings me back to the famous Serenity Prayer (1942) and it's most popular variant:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Update: On Nov 8th 2008, he left us for a better place. He kept going a full 11 months after the posted heart-attack. I am happy to say that, while concious, he kept his positive outlook on life and will forever be an example of finding the silver lining in some very dark clouds.
R.I.P. Geddo. You deserve it.
I often coach entrepreneurs when they start their businesses and, in doing so, get to the core of 'why' they want to go out on their own. I love it when dreams of boatloads of money surface.
And then I ask THE question : 'How much is enough ?' I continue : 'If I give you 1 million dollars right now, would you be happy ?' 'How about 5 million ? 10 million ? (etc)' The conversation quickly turns to how much is needed to live well, what living well means and what the real priorities in life are.
Somewhere during the entrepreneur's soul-searching, I take out a fantastic study that was done many times and taken up by a University of Wisconsin group. There are similar stats on the web, this one comes from the good people at www.100people.org.
Miniature Earth have also made a video with older stats but still very poignant.
It's enough to make the entrepreneur reflect on his true priorities and just how much is really enough.
Important note : I'm certainly not coaching entrepreneurs to NOT make money. I am simply getting them to reflect about their situation on a global scale and realize just how blessed they already are. I also try to bring the entrepreneur to develop other reasons than money to start a business.
IF THE WORLD WERE 100 PEOPLE:
Gender
50 would be female
50 would be male
Age
20 would be 0-14
67 would be 15-64
14 would be 65 and older
Geography
5 would be from North America
9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean
12 would be from Europe
61 would be from Asia
13 would be from Africa
Religion
31 would be Christian
21 would be Muslim
14 would be Hindu
6 would be Buddhist
12 would believe in other religions
16 would not be religious or identify themselves
as being aligned with a particular faith
First Language
17 would speak Chinese
8 would speak Hindustani
8 would speak English
7 would speak Spanish
4 would speak Arabic
4 would speak Russian
3 would speak Bengali
2 would speak Malay-Indonesian
2 would speak French
45 would speak other languages
Overall Literacy
82 would be able to read and write
18 would not
Literacy by Gender
87 males would be able to read and write
13 males would not be able to read and write
77 females would be able to read and write
23 females would not be able to read and write
Education
76 males would have a primary school education
72 females would have a primary school education
66 males would have a secondary school education
63 females would have a secondary school education
1 would have a college education
Urban/Rural
47 would be urban dwellers
53 would be rural dwellers
Drinking Water
83 would have access to safe drinking water
17 would use unimproved water
Food
17 would be undernourished
Infectious Disease
<1% would have HIV/AIDS
<1%would have tuberculosis
Poverty
53 would live on less than 2USD per day
50 would live in poverty
Electricity
69 would have electricity
31 would not
Technology
34 would be cell phone subscribers
17 would own a computer
1 would be be active internet users
I have the joy of teaching a Technology Entrepreneurship class at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal. Picture a class of 50 students who have been trained for 4+ intensive years to think inside the Engineering Box, to memorize what the box holds and to apply standards of the box in their jobs - and you get 50 minds hungry for creativity. My class is usually the last one of their engineering studies so it puts me in a great position to counter-act the brain-washing years they were subjected to. I know... I've been there.
The class is not a hard one. I believe the theoretical principles of entrepreneurship are quite easy. Everything is in
- the discovery of our personal values
- the application of those simple principles
- the determination to keep at it until the company has been built into something of value.
Their task is to come up with an idea, prepare a sensible business plan and, most importantly, present it convincingly to myself and a panel of VCs. They have 12 weeks to do that - and I know most of them wait till the last 2 weeks to really get started.
After almost 4 years of teaching the class, I've come across some surprising ideas and business opportunities which never ceases to give me hope in the fascinating inner-creativity engineers have when given the chance. Here is the list of projects from this year's creative crop.
- An innovative way to present science to primary school kids and elders alike
- A spit-alyser that measures marijuana consumption of drivers
- A Canadian-specific online movie rental and streaming solution
- An advanced, yet simple, pill-reminder and distribution system for elders
- A turnkey system to create an video inventory of your personal assets for insurance purposes
- A wireless SAAS system to collect hard-to-find data from municipal water infrastructures
- An interesting automated wall painting solution
- A unique 'gypse' recycling solution
- A tire-changing machine to avoid the back-related injuries of mechanics
- A power-consumption optimization solution for corporation and consumers
- A head-hunting firm specializing in the placement of semi-retired / retired individuals
- An ad network using LCD screens in public places
- A life-brokering solution for elders at home to increase their at-home quality of life
- An innovation-based network for corporations and individuals to promote sharing and learning
- A process-optimizing solution for corporations
- An in-grocery store and web solution to quickly enter the basket, see the specials and map out the optimal route to fill the said basket
I get at least 2 groups a year that actually start a business project and take the next post-academic step into the world of entrepreneurship... and it makes me so proud. I end up coaching these teams in their growth to profitability and when it happens, I get that paternal 'snif-snif-my-kids-are-all-grown-up' feeling.
Feeling lonely at the top is a natural by-product of being an entrepreneur. There are so many issues to deal with on a daily basis and a dozen different actors to satisfy, all at the same time. The need, therefore, for like-minded individuals and confidential sounding boards becomes imminent.
EO - Entrepreneurs' Organization - is a 7000+ member network of, well, entrepreneurs in all industries, shapes and sizes. It's based on the principles of confidentiality, experience-sharing (Gestalt protocol), networking and trust. Every month, I meet with my forum - which I've had for over 6 years now - to talk about issues and candidly share. There are once-in-a-lifetime local and international learning / networking events as unique benefits that leverage the huge network. EO is also a sister company to YPO (Young Presidents Organization) - which increases the network effect to 25 000+ members!
Here is the video-reporting from CNBC about this wonderful organization. A good succinct 2 minutes on the principles talked about above.
The official web site is here and the youtube channel is here.
If you're an entrepreneur and you're lonely... there's help ;)
There is a story I often use to talk about true commitment.
'A chicken and a pig were walking down the street one day and noticed some poor children who looked as if they hadn't eaten anything for days. Moved with compassion, the chicken said to the pig, 'I have an idea! Let's give those children a nice breakfast of of ham and eggs.' The pig contemplated the chicken's suggestion and said, 'Well, for you, that would involve a small sacrifice : but for me, it would be a total commitment!'
I love it. Total commitment. This notion permeates everything I do. As an entrepreneur, am I totally committed to the satisfaction of all the actors involved around me ? As a father and husband, does my family see me enough to say that I'm committed to them ? Does my social involvement limit itself to donating money or do I also give my time, my knowledge, my experiences and my feelings ? Do I just pay lip service to my values, or am I willing to die for them ?
I don't want to be a chicken who just lays the eggs and then leaves.... I want to be a pig who gives himself to the cause.
I often ask the question to my university students : "'Why do you want to be entrepreneurs, to start your business ?"
We then go through the usual more money, more power, more glory and more pleasure arguments. And then, inevitably, one student says : "I want to be my own boss".
I love that answer, mostly because I get to burst a well known bubble.
The entrepreneur is not his own boss. At least not in the sense the students usually means it. We have to be able to manage a dozen different relationships at one time and make sure EVERY single one is a happy one. It is an absolute necessity for the entrepreneur to maintain healthy ties to the actors in his environment. Failure to do so results in ... well... corporate failure.
Here are the actors in the entrepreneur's world that are actually his collective bosses :
- Suppliers
- Clients
- Associates
- Employees
- Bankers
- Investors
- Shareholders / Stakeholders
- Boards
- Unions
- Business partners
- Government
- and most importantly, the family.
That sound you hear is from entrepreneurs-to-be's bubble bursting.
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