Reflections on Our Times

Igniting the.

en trepreneurial sparkBYPETERC. NEWMAN

"Only the professionally self-motivated

will inherit and enhance tomorrow’s economy,

Inside large organizations, that means taking

initiatives beyond job descriptions, while

individually advancing collective corporate

objectives,"

T HERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE ENTREPRENEURIAL

spirit was welcomed but not compulsory. Sur-vival was the main concern of most Canadians,and while much of business was competitive, therewas enough room to grow and space to expand.

But in the 21st Century, most of us have littlechoice about acting and thinking like entrepre-neurs. The global economy has become socompetitive that being entrepreneurial, whetherwe work for ourselves or for others, has become agiven. Only the self-motivated will inherit andenhance tomorrow’s economy. Inside large organ-izations, that means taking initiatives beyond jobdescriptions, while individually advancing collec-tive corporate objectives.

Whatever their specific goals, entrepreneurs inevery context and at all levels constitute a frater-nity joined by their quest for self-fulfillment.Rather than involving the exercise of any specificskills or talents, the entrepreneurial spirit placespriority on certain qualities of thought and atti-tude. Few are immune from taking part in theentrepreneurial ethic.

The most unlikely professions require entrepre-neurial talent. Authors, for example, who turn out

books every three years or so, are producing a $35product that nobody needs. To be successful, theymust be as much marketers as writers, scatteringtheir imagination along both paths equally. ThisRoyal Bank Letter attempts to isolate some of theessential, rarely defined elements that combine toignite the entrepreneurial spark, and more impor-tant, to keep that flame from flickering.

A Creed to Live ByAmong the most impressive of contemporaryCanadian entrepreneurs is Craig Dobbin of St.John’s, Newfoundland, because exercising thattrait literally saved his life. Started in 1947 with noassets hut his brawn and bravura plus a small bankloan, his CHC Helicopter Corp. now earns annualrevenues of $555 million, operating more than300 flying machines in 23 countries, mostly servic-ing offshore oil-drilling platforms.

A few years ago, when he was unexpectedlydiagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,Dobbin’s doctors blamed his potentially fatal dis-ease on the use of a faulty compressor during hisyounger days as a professional diver. "I was gradu-ally running out of the capacity to breathe,because my lungs couldn’t deliver C02 from mybloodstream," he said in a recent interview. "Thedoctors said I had four months to live unless I gotmyself a new lung. That’s when I decided thatdeath was not an option."

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Dobbin analyzed the North American hospitalsdoing lung transplants, got himself listed in 10 of

them as a "local resi-dent", by virtue of thefact that he was onlytwo hours away on hisleased jet, which hekept in Birmingham,Alabama, near the con-tinent’s mid-point.Dobbin is six footthree inches, and therewere few tall enoughdonors whose lungswould fit him. Eventu-

ally, he could only breathe through a full-faceoxygen mask.

But success was his. He got new lungs at theUniversity of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadel-phia, reaching the operating room two hours and10 minutes after he received their call. "It was avery hard chore," he recalls, "but the thoughtnever ever entered my mind that I wouldn’t beable to repair the inconvenience that was prohibit-ing me from having a full life. Now, I just boogiedown life’s highway and feel the same age [Dobbinis 65] as some of the young guys around me. I waslucky, I guess. But you make your own luck."

That’s hardly a typical case history, but the pri-mary formula of any entrepreneurial success, is thelesson Dobbin passes on: "Make your own luck."

Making Your Own Luck’You must believe that what you’re doing isbeyond failure," he insists. "And you need to becredible and you better be honest. Banks, whenthey lend you money, want security and a repay-ment of their loan. You have to give that assuranceand live up to it. Becoming a successful entrepre-neur means being both highly competitive andslightly insecure. By that I mean knowing that ifyou don’t make your own way, there is nobody outthere to do it for you. There are no safety nets."

Dobbin strongly advocates that people followtheir own path, but not at any risk. The trick islearning how to manage or at least minimize risk,so that the chances of success are at least as highas the possibilities of failure.

Entrepreneurs aren’t born with do-it-yourselfmanuals, but some guideposts on how to tilt theodds in your favour can be useful. Here is one ver-sion of the Ten Commandments of SuccessfulEntrepreneurship:

B Be adaptable. To discover this most basicrule of entrepreneurship, you must study

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, first pub-lished in 1859. Actually, you don’t have to ploughthrough that ponderous tome’s scientific argu-ments, but you must draw from it one essentiallesson. Darwin is constantly being quoted as hav-ing advocated "survival of the fittest". He neverdid, and it’s just as well, because in its modernmeaning that would endow those muscle-bound,macho individuals who exercise daily with barbellsas having the greatest chance of success. Darwin’stheory was based squarely on what he called "sur-vival of the most adaptable". Flexibility of thoughtand action in a world that’s changing as we walkin it, is what divides serious entrepreneurs whobecome long-distance runners, from one-shot-Charlies. Being and remaining adaptable isexactly what entrepreneurship is all about.

B You must see what others don’t. One exam-ple: William Zeckendorfwhen he was New

York City’s leading real estate broker, enjoyed ajustly-earned reputation for making his own luck.At one point, he purchased, at a ridiculously lowprice, an abandoned riding stable in downtownManhattan. The block-long structure was onceused by the city’s upper crust to exercise theirfavourite mounts. It had been on the market formore than 20 years without attracting a single bid-

der. Zeckendorf had heard that NBC was search-ing for new downtown TV studios that requiredlarge open spaces, unobstructed by pillars. Aquick glance at the derelict riding stable con-vinced him that, once refurbished, it would makean ideal TV location, and he promptly flipped the"useless" building to the television network for tentimes his cost. That story illustrates the twin,essential ingredients of successful entrepreneur-ship: vision and hutzpah.

O Launching an exciting vision doesn’t meanhaving to re-invent the wheel. Ted Turner

didn’t create the idea of television news, but in1968 he bought WjRj, a debt-ridden Atlanta,Georgia, television station, and changed its callletters to WTCG, ("Watch This Channel Go"). dozen years later, realizing that traditional familylife was becoming more hectic and fragmented, sothat viewers in any given home seldom watchednewscasts together, he established CNN, the 24-hour news network, which he sold 16 years later,to Time-Warner for $7.5 billion. What any success-ful entrepreneur must bring to the table, is not somuch a revolutionary concept, as energy, enthusi-asm and unbounded faith in him or herself.

D Take advantage of the most obvious oppor-tunities, but never be satisfied with the status

quo. One example is the story of Peter Arm-strong, currently CEO and major shareholder inthe Great Canadian Railway Tour Company. Thelargest privately owned passenger railroad inNorth America, it tours an average of 80,000 pas-sengers a year through the Rockies, employing350 in the process. Working as a doorman at theHotel Vancouver, Armstrong kept watching GrayLine, then a provincially-owned bus tour com-pany, turn away passengers. He leased his owntour bus, and eventually took over the Gray Linefranchise, but his big breakthrough was acquiring

the heavily-subsidized and money-losing VIA Railoperation between Calgary and Vancouver. HisRocky Mountaineer train rides are a success, andhe’s currently eyeing VIA’s trans-continental serv-ice as a possible follow up. This was hardly aprecedent-shattering idea, but it took guts anddetermination to make Peter Armstrong’s ambi-tious dream come true. True entrepreneurs cannever have enough of either of these valuablequalities.

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~! Take a lesson from our historically mostentrepreneurial Canadians, the cowboys.

They were the ultimate loners of the westernplains who made their own way, following highlyindividualistic lives. Their trail wisdom is worthrepeating. ’% cowboy who says he ain’t beenthrowed ain’t telling thetruth," they contend,stressing their hard,sweaty labors. "It takes alot of wet saddles to traina horse." But it is theirlament about how tougha life they lead thatmakes the cowboy expe-rience most relevant tocontemporary entrepre-neurs. "Cowboying is arough way of life," com-plains Buzz Kirkpatrick,who knows the trails welland still rides them."Despite the prevalenceof four-wheel vehiclesand high-priced machin-ery, the cowboy will neverbecome extinct... Theyjust ain’t come up withanything that will take asmuch abuse as a cow-boy." Many an entrepreneur, sitting alone in hisoffice at midnight, worried about meeting his pay-roll and how to fatten next month’s thin orderbook, will sympathize with that sentiment.

l~!While making money is a useful ambition, itseldom provides adequate inspiration for

greatness. "You can’t just want to succeed so youcan drive a Porsche," emphasized Paul Lum, theco-founder of Internet Gateway, one of westernCanada’s most successful Internet service

providers, in a recent interview with B.C. BusznessMagazine. "You have to be personally compelledto prove something to yourself, your friends oryour family. If you’re happy with ordinary things,if you’re happy with five percent growth a year,you’ll never succeed as an entrepreneur. You haveto be greedy." In other words, enough is neverenough, because allowances must be made forrainy days. They’ll come. Count on it.

D Be as eager to complete projects as you areto start them. "Too many entrepreneurs

abandon their enthusiasms too early - they aregreat starters but poor finishers," claims JuliaLevy, CEO of Quadra Logic Technologies, an up-and-at-’em biotech firm in downtown Vancouver."I think of myself as someone who puts opportuni-ties together." It’s the stamina and determinationyou invest that achieve optimal results.

~ You must cater to existing markets, but keepswitching your product and service lines to

reflect the newest trends. Timing is everything.The Panasonic advertising slogan "Slightly aheadof our time," is good advice. Michael Delldropped out of university in the early 1980’s tolaunch a mail-order computer company that tai-lored its units specifically to its customers’ needs,and promised virtually overnight delivery. He wasa billionaire by the age of 31, since everybody elsewas still selling only standard units, and marketingthen] through dealer networks that involved highcost structures, including wholesale and retailmiddlemen. He invented nothing, but made a for-tune out of reviving mail order sales, adistribution method that dates back to the days ofoutdoor privies. You must never rest on your lau-rels, no matter how comfortable they may feel.Not to grow is to slide backwards.

I~l Study your markets, but follow your fan-tasies. "If the barons of Silicon Valley were

not chronic fantasizers, all of our mail would stillcome in envelopes," point out James Champy andNitiu Nohria, in their recent best-seller, The Arc ofAmbition. "But dreams alone are not enough. Act-ing on one’s dreams, that’s the hard part. Thegood news is that daring is more often learnedthan inherited. To those who respond, life teachescourage, which then multiplies itself- as if bycompound interest. What unites all achievers isthat they see the world as it really is, without the

fears, constructs and constraints that inhibit oth-ers from daring to act out their dreams, much lessbelieve in them." That’s sound planning: actionshould always take precedence over dreams, butboth are necessary.

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WYour commitment must be so focused that itfilters out distracting and unforeseen risks

that might interfere with building equity in yourdream. "All I have is stubbornness," insistedAlbert Einstein. That "never-give-up" attituderemains a given, butthere is one otherquality without whichno entrepreneur cansucceed: plain, dumbluck. "Running a busi-ness of your own,"concludes The CompleteEntrepreneur, a recentlypublished handbookby Mark Peterson onthe subject, " hasmany of the same risksas picking up $100bills scattered througha minefield. There isno wealth without risk,but your best opportu-nity is the day youinvest in yourself." Good advice: you are yourcompany’s greatest asset. Keep it that way.

The above "Commandments" will be useful topresent and future entrepreneurs, but the mostessential and enduring quality is self-confidence.It takes courage to strike out on your own. It takeseven more courage to not be discouraged by theunavoidable pitfalls along the way.

The only dependable rule is that despite theinevitable disappointments and shattered illu-sions, it may be absurd to believe that being asuccessful entrepreneur is an attainable goal.But it’s even more absurd not to try.