(2011-03-31) Blank Entrepreneurship Is An Art

Steve Blank notes that all the barrier-reducing going on doesn't make creating a Start Up that much easier. Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile Development and Customer Development, Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. I’m beginning to suspect this assumption may be wrong. It’s not that the tools are wrong, I think the entrepreneurship management stack is correct and has made a major contribution to reducing startup failures. Where I think we have gone wrong is the belief that anyone can use these tools equally well. For the sake of this analogy, think of two types of artists: creators and performers (think music composer versus members of the orchestra, playwright versus actor etc.)... It may be we can increase the number of founders and entrepreneurial employees, with better tools, more money, and greater education. But it’s more likely that until we truly understand how to teach Creativity, their numbers are limited.