As the economy starts to come back to life, don’t be misled by statistics on small business failure. Although the number of small businesses impacted by the current crises will be staggering, there is a slight-of-hand trick that may fool people when it comes to entrepreneurs’ contributions to rebuilding the economy. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the serial entrepreneur!
Don’t Just Watch the Businesses: Watch the Entrepreneurs
A serial entrepreneur is someone who starts multiple businesses over their careers. To understand the serial entrepreneur’s economic contribution we need to consider not each business started by them, but by their cumulative body of entrepreneurial work.
For example, over my lifetime, I have been a part of about a dozen and a half startups, including solo startups, partnerships, and family businesses. Of all of the startups I have participated in over my career, only two are officially still operating: my consulting practice and our educational content family business, Entrepreneurial Mind LLC. Were all the rest failures? Absolutely not! We sold some the ventures, and others just ran their course. Probably two or three of them could truly be called failures. They all created jobs, built wealth, and contributed to economic growth.
To understand my long-term economic contribution as a serial entrepreneur, you have to look at all that I have done over the past four-plus decades. You can’t just look at the outcome of one single deal, no matter what its outcome, good or bad.
A Current Tale
Two of my alums, Corey and George, are current examples of serial entrepreneurs at work amid the pandemic and accompanying economic collapse.
Corey’s current business lost most of its accounts during the first week of the economic shut down.
George had been doing gig work between startups. However, his employer furloughed George from his current gig.
Rather than define what they are experiencing as failure, they put their heads together and asked one simple question: What pain being created from the current crises could they provide a solution for?
Newly Created Pain
Organizers of most meetings, conferences, and other gatherings cancelled them due to the coronavirus. Corey and George’s hypothesis is that as we come out of the current crises, there may be a more lasting impact on such events. Sending people to meetings and conferences is expensive. If companies find that there are viable virtual alternatives to physical travel, there may be some level of permanent shift away business travel for meetings and conferences.
Most of the current alternatives in the market that offer virtual meetings focus on educational content delivery and training. While this is an important part of going to conferences and meetings, most people say the biggest benefit they receive is from the informal interactions in the hallway or over drinks with other attendees at the end of the day. Current offerings do not really offer this as a part of their virtual meeting platform.
Corey and George are feverishly working on solving this shortcoming.
Follow the Ball
Just as in the carnival “cups and ball trick,” we need to pay careful attention to see where the serial entrepreneur ends up next.
This is the essence of a serial entrepreneur. To a serial entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is a process, not an event. Even though the last business may no longer have enough demand to keep operating, the entrepreneur never stops. For the serial entrepreneur, their career is a journey from opportunity to opportunity.
I think this makes a fascinating point of how serial entrepreneurs can positively affect our economy. I feel that the concept is not commonly discussed, but it makes sense about how this would create economic growth. Especially during this time, I think it is the most creative that will be able to maintain an income. Similar to how your alums reacted, it is more important during this time to focus on how to help the situation than to focus on the hurt it is creating. I think your alums have a great idea on finding the holes that this “new normal” will have and trying to profit off of that. I feel confident that entrepreneurs will be able to find success on the other side of this by digging into the originality that convinced them to originally start their own business.
Because entrepreneurship is often thought of as separate from business- when it most definitely is not- it is easy to forget the impact of innovation and the importance of serial entrepreneurs. This post brings light to their contributions to society, particularly in these days. Serial Entrepreneurs will be at the forefront of designing out new normal, their innovations will inspire the world we walk into. However, I think most important are the lessons we can learn from them. Life is a process, not an event. Not everything will go to plan, and although it is nice to have a plan, we must always be prepared to pivot. Every encounter we have is an opportunity to shift our frame of vision and look at the world with a new perspective. This is what creates the lives we live. Serial Entrepreneurs redefine creativity and show us that “failures” have immense value, as do complete global shutdowns. We learn.
Wow this article really helped me understand the difficulties of becoming a serial entrepreneur. I personally like to do more than I can handle but being a serial entrepreneur requires more than that along with a strong work ethic and determination. I’m curious to see what Corey and George accomplish since I do agree the biggest benefit employees or company owners receive is from the informal interactions in the hallway or over drinks with other attendees at the end of the day. While online meetings are helpful you don’t get the personal interaction that is necessary to feel accomplished in your meeting. I am very interested to see what Corey and George do, I hope to see it in an article soon!
This was really insightful, Dr. Cornwall! As an entrepreneur, it is important to not look at the negatives and come up with the next idea. During a time like this would be a great opportunity to seek out what business would thrive once this crisis is over. My stepdad is an entrepreneur and started a roofing company about 35 years ago and he is really taking advantage of Zoom, which allows you to have virtual meetings and to still communicate effectively. It will be interesting to see what ideas take over after this pandemic is over. It is incredible to be part of an era where technology is so prominent in every day life, maybe virtual business meetings will become the norm!
I have found that serial entrepreneurs are particularly interesting people because of the wide range of knowledge and experience they have. The best thing about it is every serial entrepreneur is so different because they have been apart of a variety of companies that range from local surf shops to corporate CEOs. These types of entrepreneurs make the best mentors. There are entrepreneurs many serial entrepreneurs like Corey and George that are having a tough time during this pandemic. I think they would tell you they aren’t giving up because that just not what entrepreneurs do. They fail, and they fail, and they get hit with corona, but they don’t stop because quitting hurts more than failing.
This is very interesting article to me, I think being apart of business you should always look at the entrepreneur the person who is starting these businesses. The economy we run on in this world internally and externally hurts businesses today; which is shown all around us. Always pick up the pieces where you might fall and keep going.
Hey professor, I loved the ball and cup analogy. It really helped me visualize exactly what was going on with serial entrepreneurs. It is important to recognize the commitment of a true entrepreneur, as their commitment to their career truly is a journey that never stops.
I love that you used a metaphor to explain how sometimes an entrepreneurs move can be unpredictable; you have to pay attention and be focused on the end goal!
This is a good point! While many businesses will fail, the entrepreneurs don’t. I can think of so many entrepreneurs that had failed businesses prior to the one that took off. I can even think of bloggers that devoted their brand to something entirely different than what it is now. Each of these failures helps the creator to refine the plan.