Entrepreneurship


Another difference between management and leadership

"What's the difference between leadership and management," people often ask. Here's one difference I often illustrate with. Most people I know haven't sold things and are afraid of selling. They fear rejection, failure, putting themselves out there, bothering people, and those parts of selling. They know most people feel the same. A great manager can create incentives for someone to sell, like with big commissions, training, resources, and a clear job description, but it's almost impossible to get someone who hasn't sold to sell successfully, putting their hearts into it. A great leader can inspire someone to feel such ownership of a project that they want it to succeed so much, that they'll do what it takes to make the project work. If that means…

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3 Obstacles Blocking Your Passion and How To Overcome Them

My Inc.com article today, "3 Obstacles Blocking Your Passion and How To Overcome Them," begins 3 Obstacles Blocking Your Passion and How To Overcome Them Do you wish you could commit to a passion like your role models? Here are 3 hurdles nearly everyone has to overcome. "Jane," a student in my entrepreneurship class, asked during office hours: Josh, I like how you're making this class experiential, but my project just isn't clicking. Can you just tell me how to get a good grade? She was working on a project to make a travel app. She traveled the summer before and found tons of problems an app could solve, as well as many potential users giving her useful advice and signs of demand. By all…

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Spodek Academy on Facebook!

See the new Spodek Academy Facebook page… My courses (available now!) and book (launching in February!) are growing beyond this blog and deserve their own site. Yesterday I announced the new Spodek Academy web page (despite my aversion to Facebook and LinkedIn). Today I'm announcing the Facebook page, which will host forums, discussions, and more on leadership, entrepreneurship, active learning, hustling, The Fundamentals of Hustling, and more. As subscribers, would you please click here or the image below and like the page? You'll be glad you did as the community there grows with alumni of my courses and other skilled, passionate leaders and people who get the job done with empathy, self-awareness, meaning, value, importance, and purpose. Please also connect to the Joshua Spodek LinkedIn…

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Announcing Spodek Academy!

See my new web page... My courses (available now!) and book (launching in February!) are growing beyond this blog and deserve their own site. Click Spodek Academy or the image below! You'll see videos, fuller explanations of the courses, testimonials, and more. ... And new social media sites! To create business connections with customers (and in contrast with my aversion to Facebook and LinkedIn), I'm creating Facebook and LinkedIn pages. So... Please like Spodek Academy's Facebook page Please connect to the Joshua Spodek LinkedIn page And connect to @spodek on Twitter You'll probably receive LinkedIn connection requests anyway.

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How to pivot like a pro

My Inc.com article from last Monday (sorry, I fell behind), "How to Pivot Like a Pro," began How to Pivot Like a Pro Think you have a good idea but facing resistance? Here's how to change it to a great idea your customers love and your competitors envy. Changing your business's direction is hard, especially when you love your current plan. It could be the difference between customers loving you and having to work hard forever without ever gaining acceptance. While most people associate the term pivoting with entrepreneurship, listening to your market to change your strategy applies to many areas, such as New product development Proposals to your managers for a project you want to lead How you present yourself in job searches You…

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Op/ed Fridays: 11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die

My Inc.com article today, "11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die" begins 11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die Who benefits when venture capitalists 'give' money away? Who loses? If the customer is valuable, who is the customer when a business plan competition sponsor pays its award? Whom did the contestant focus on--the long-term customer or the venture capitalist sponsor? Schools once didn't teach entrepreneurship. Then in the 1980s, two University of Texas MBA students wanted an equivalent of law schools' moot court, the business plan competition was born, and they grew fast. Competitions began as new and innovative. They woke people to new possibilities. Few people conceived of students creating business plans and starting companies from school. Those days are…

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See me on an entrepreneurial leadership panel, October 13 in Manhattan

See me on a panel on entrepreneurial leadership with the Columbia Business School Alumni Club (all are welcome, membership not required), Thursday, October 13, 6pm-8pm at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, 1301 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY. Register Here! I look forward to seeing you there. From the event page: Entrepreneurial Leadership: Leadership in Starting a New Business Effective leadership is of vital importance at all stages of a business. Particularly to a new venture, have you thought of the impact of leadership on transforming an innovative idea into a successful business? Do you know what particular leadership skills are key to building a start-up? Are you curious about what leadership lessons successful entrepreneurs have learned from their own experiences? This event provides…

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Teaching critical thinking: a high school example

Have you ever found young adults self-righteously holding ideas, unwilling to consider alternatives? I have. This summer I also saw a room full of them change their minds in an instant on an issue I know they would have been fixed about before. I taught a summer session of high school students entrepreneurship. One exercise is to project financials for your project for two years. I've gotten good at helping people who have never used spreadsheets to do the exercise, which is quick-and-dirty, to learn their project's most important assumptions, to see if they can reach profitability, and to learn the details, as only doing financials can. Before the exercise, most students look at their projects idealistically. They think everybody benefits so starting it will…

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Looking for a mastermind group?

Do you have ideas or potential you're looking to develop? Do you find having others help while you help them spurs more creativity and action? Then you may want to work with a mastermind group. My friend and fellow coach, Silvia Christmann, is leading two eight-week curated groups, one starting September 15, the other September 20. While I coach, I don't have any stake in her work. I can tell you that if you like my perspective and how I work, you'll like working with her too. She has helped me through difficult times with sensitivity and caring. She has effective entrepreneurial, coaching, and leadership skills. Click here to learn more and sign up Click here for a webinar to learn more Click here to…

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Video: Chris’s testimonial about my Entrepreneurship course

Ever wonder how much you can get from a course in entrepreneurial thinking and behavior? When it's not "just" entrepreneurship you learn a lot more, like how to take initiative and responsibility for your life and career. Here's a student from the class I taught last semester. Chris is a Cornell student who was taking a class at NYU for the semester. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-tHWToBb8E For written testimonials, click here: "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun."

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Video: Joe’s testimonial about my Entrepreneurship course

Ever wonder how much you can get from a course in entrepreneurial thinking and behavior? When it's not "just" entrepreneurship you learn a lot more, like how to take initiative and responsibility for your life and career. Here's a student from the class I taught last semester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOrdO2MJFMI For written testimonials, click here: "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun."

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Video: Jonathan’s testimonial about my Entrepreneurship course

Ever wonder how much you can get from a course in entrepreneurial thinking and behavior? When it's not "just" entrepreneurship you learn a lot more, like how to take initiative and responsibility for your life and career. Here's a student from the class I taught last semester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijES3FjqaoI For written testimonials, click here: "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun."

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Over the past few days, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined… I have met people I would have never met, made new friends, and learned valuable life lessons.

You know I teach entrepreneurial problem solving online and in-person, and that the course gets reviews, like This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun. Josh is an incredible teacher, mentor, and friend to everyone in the class who is passionate about the subject matter. If I could take this class all over again, I would Earlier this summer I taught the course in a doubly new way. For the first time I taught it as a block-week course, meaning a full fourteen-week university course in five days, 9am-5pm, which is intense. Also for the first time, I taught it to high school students, who were taking it as a summer college experience. One…

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Why “Entrepreneurial Problem Solving” instead of “Entrepreneurship”

Why do I call my class "Entrepreneurial Problem Solving" or sometimes "Entrepreneurial Thinking and Behavior" instead of "Entrepreneurship"? Entrepreneurship means starting a company. It's a subset of things you can do entrepreneurially. Solving a problem entrepreneurially means solving it without the resources at hand you need to finish it. Solving a problem non-entrepreneurially means you have the resources at hand to solve it. If Johnson & Johnson wants to introduce a new consumer product, it has all the resources it needs to research the market, develop the product, distribute the product, and so on. If someone has an idea for a new product, they put the idea into the machine and either the machine decides it won't work or it brings it to market. People…

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More problems with business plan competitions

Whoever created the first business plan competition was on to something. I applaud their idea and implementing it. That time passed. We know more effective ways to motivate learning entrepreneurship. Those competitions aren't helping. They distract students from starting businesses with one-time awards too often created in the interests of venture capitalists, not aspiring entrepreneurs. To illustrate, consider the question: Which would you prefer: to win a business plan competition, to get investment, or to sell your product and make a profit? These results don't have to exclude each other but pursuing competitions takes time from getting investment and selling your product. Students, I recommend looking at business plan competitions skeptically. Faculty, I recommend you consider other ways to motivate practicing entrepreneurship than competitions that…

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Why leadership, sales, influence, and motivation is about them, not you

People didn't follow Martin Luther King because he wanted equality and freedom. They followed him because they wanted equality and freedom. Elon Musk isn't so popular because he loves electric cars. He's popular because we love electric cars, and their benefit relative to gas-powered cars. Dwight Eisenhower didn't enjoy leading the D-Day invasion. The allies, soldiers, and their families feared Hitler and wanted to protect themselves. Eisenhower's description of leadership is one of the most concise and effective I've seen, not surprising, given his leadership experience beyond nearly anyone's: Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. Too many people take away from movies like Braveheart that leadership means putting blue paint on…

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Listen to Jim Harshaw’s Wrestling With Success podcast interview with me

I had a fantastic conversation with Jim Harshaw for his podcast, Wrestling With Success. I am honored and humbled that he invited me into the ranks of his guests. I recommend listening to many other episodes besides mine, including his early ones where you get to learn about him. Among other guests, he's had people in space. I've only helped build satellites. Jim is a Division 1 champion wrestler and coach who brings what sports and athletics brings to business and life. In his words, his podcast uncovers the secrets of the most successful people on the planet who are also former athletes and reveals how they used skills learned in sports to overcome failure and achieve a level of success not otherwise possible. Former…

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This touching birthday note shows why I teach

I can't tell you how honored and flattered I feel from the following message a former student sent me on my birthday. She took my class in her first semester in school, just months after finishing high school, and got her project running before the semester ended, still working with the partnership with the company she started forming that semester. Dear Josh, I would like to wish the most inspiring, hard-working, talented, and generous professor, friend, entrepreneur, and NYC marathon/world burpee champ the happiest and most wonderful of birthdays today. Your guidance and mentorship have meant so much to me over the last almost-three (I can't believe it's been that long, either!) years of my time at NYU. Anytime I email you--to update you on…

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Birthday role models

I turn 45 tomorrow and I've been saving up writing about two role models for the next few years. Vince Lombardi First is Vince Lombardi, according to ESPN and many others the Greatest Coach in NFL history. According to Wikipedia: He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons. Lombardi is considered by many to be one of the best and most successful coaches in professional football history. The NFL's Super Bowl trophy is named in his honor. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall…

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The Declaration of Independence: The Best Entrepreneurial Document Ever?

My Inc.com piece today, "The Declaration of Independence: The Best Entrepreneurial Document Ever?", begins The Declaration of Independence: The Best Entrepreneurial Document Ever? Would you be happy for your venture to last a few years and make a few million? How about 240 years and 3 trillion dollars? Nobody pulled in Benjamins like Benjamin. Any entrepreneur who has written a business plan knows the challenge. For one thing it has so many goals. Among others, a plan should: Describe the market need Describe a plan of what you're going to do Attract investment Attract a team Look good Be flexible Describe your competition I suggest the United States Declaration of Independence can claim to be the best entrepreneurial document in history, perhaps combined with the full…

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Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn’t Read This Article

My Inc.com article yesterday, "Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn't Read This Article" began Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn't Read This Article How great leaders who never learned leadership from science, books, or classes became great. As a leader, entrepreneur, and professor, I used to enjoy TED talks and learning about frontier science. Do you feel, watching them, like I felt: "This is forefront stuff. Since most people don't know it, I can use it to get ahead!"? Same with Malcolm Gladwell books: "He knows breaking research. When I know it too, I'll have an insight to get ahead." We want the latest research to get ahead, to give us an edge. Sounds great. Only that's not how greats get great. The Folly of TED…

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My number one criterion for quality of a complex solution or something creative you’re developing

I'm thinking of solutions that are the starts of entrepreneurial projects, but the creative thing could be a work or art, something you write, something you perform, and so on. In my experience, the best indicator of how well a solution solves a complex problem is how many iterations it's gone through. Solutions to simple problems may not need many iterations, but complex ones do and the more iterations the better they solve the problem, with some exceptions, of course. You've probably gone through enough iterations when the solution looks simple. I take for granted you aren't iterating for the sake of iterating, but listening to people with the problem, reviewing similar solutions, reflecting, and so on.

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At Princeton’s ELab: How to get job offers by acting entrepreneurially

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton's Elab recently. In this clip I describe how to use behaving entrepreneurially to get job offers. If you want similar experiences, take my entrepreneurship course. It develops you in small steps to work up to handling interactions like this. Even if you don't, call valuable people. Err on the side of making things happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6LbymltzNA

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The Unmistakable Creative podcast interviews me

Listen to the podcast The Power of Experiential Learning with Joshua Spodek The Unmistakable Creative podcast just released its interviews of me. The interview covered leadership, entrepreneurship, education, and a bunch of my life and growth. Their lead quote from the interview: "No one who is learning to play a musical instrument, no one who wants to learn a musical instrument would ever take a class where they would lecture you for a year on theory for putting it into practice. And in fact if you did want to learn piano theory or music theory, you still learn to play first. There's lots of fields like that. Constantin Stanislavsky revolutionized how acting is taught. I learned about him because just for fun I would watch…

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At Princeton’s ELab: Contact valuable people!

I got a few short clips from my presentation on entrepreneurship when I spoke at Princeton's Elab recently. I described a student's success contacting a valuable person in her field. The call got hairy, but she Benefited from the interaction Learned about how to talk to valuable people Learned about herself Would do it again Inspired her classmates If you want similar experiences, take my entrepreneurship course. It develops you in small steps to work up to handling interactions like this. Even if you don't, call valuable people. Err on the side of making things happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-gv7Oq7Vg

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