Entrepreneurship: What Kind of Scientist Would Be Attracted to this Life?
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| Title: | Entrepreneurship: What Kind of Scientist Would Be Attracted to this Life? | |
| Author: | Timothy Joyce | |
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If you’ve got a solid background with an MD or PhD in the life sciences, you may be ready for a big change away from the academic environment where others have always told you what to do and where your creativity and ambition have been stifled by the educational process. Why not start a business? Become your own boss. Be an entrepreneur where risks can turn into big dollars, self-enhancement and exciting challenges. You’ve got the background and the right initials after your name. Now may be the time to take a calculated risk and become an entrepreneur. You’ll probably start out being a very small fish in a big pond, but, if you’re ready for it, there is no other place to go but up. Part of the challenge involves taking risks, believing in your skills and being prepared to fail once in a while.
Begin your journey into entrepreneurship by first spending time in self-analysis. Ask yourself, "What do I want to do with my life?" "Am I willing to be unnoticed or to fail to become successful?" "Am I willing to take a chance on myself with the understanding that I may wallow in failure at some time in this process?"
Entrepreneurship is, in fact, a process and not just a goal. If you choose to go where "the money" is or to see only the goal of money as the end result, you will miss the learning, the failures and the excitement of risk along the way. "Being" an entrepreneur, developing your ideas and taking chances on those ideas should be part of the process that drives you on a daily basis.
Successful entrepreneurs favor starting the process as early as possible. You may wish to try different types of businesses until you find one that best fits with what you want to be doing. Following your heart and your skills instead of where you think the money is will often lead to greater success in your own business.
Entrepreneurship is not about waiting until you have start-up money saved nor is it about taking out another expensive loan. If you have a great idea, raising money through venture capital and budgeting carefully may be all you’ll need to get started. If the idea or invention is good, the money will be there if you understand where to look for it. Really good entrepreneurs can start a business with little or no outside money. In some cases, you can begin the process of becoming an entrepreneur right out of graduate school. In other situations, you may want to limit your risk by working in another capacity while you pay off your educational loans.
Other initial decisions include finding a lawyer and building a solid team with other people of great integrity. Good business sense is imperative. Look to your friends and others you trust to aid you in the process. Higher goals require greater thinkers and better people on your team. You and your team can establish a budget and set a level of risk you are collectively willing to take.
As with any business, you can never really know the outcome of your efforts. There will always be risk. You can limit that risk through adequate research, planning, experience, having a good team and making good judgments. In the end, you may need to use your best judgment and then simply begin "somewhere" in implementing your plans.
It is never necessary to have an MBA, but it can be helpful. What’s really important is the application of the knowledge you have. Most people who get an MBA in order to be "better" in business never know what to do with it when they get it. Rather, think about what you really want to be doing and if you have the skills and knowledge to get there. Take on a member of your team who is business savvy if you want a solid financial background before you lay out your plans. There is nothing to say that everyone on the team needs financial experience.
Even so, getting an MBA somewhere along the way will help you set a foundation if you don’t understand business very well. You should also be reading the Wall Street Journal, IBD and the latest best sellers. Staying on top of what is out there will always be important. It pays to think, act and be like an investor. As a CEO of a company you will interact and be accountable to these people. There is accountability in all businesses.
Certain businesses fare better than others. New ideas in the Internet and software will require little capital to begin with and don’t require that you give up large portions of stock to employees or investors. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries both require a considerable amount of capital to begin with. Profitability of all of these industries can be huge, however, if all goes as planned.
No business is ever truly self-sustaining; all businesses fade out at one point or another. Having good people working with you and a fair amount of capital will allow your business to have as much vitality as possible. Businesses that become monopolies or those that add value to masses of people (e.g. EBay, Gilead, Microsoft and Google) will often lead to the greatest overall income and the greatest business longevity.
Creating a company that addresses such markets often requires a certain amount of luck. However, there are a number of businesses that can be started that will make you successful and rich that aren’t of this size. The business need not be a while collar business. Many businesses like car washes, dry cleaning businesses, window washing etc., can be quite profitable. (The point here is that some people can be very successful but no one ever really knows who they are. Others actively market themselves and their company and then leverage this into raising capital. Still others use a different approach that is more conservative and less focused on self or company promotion or marketing.
There is no one type of person who works best as an entrepreneur. All businesses are different. Each business and person brings unique skills that add value to a business. (This is particularly exciting in Silicon Valley because of its vast cultural diversity. This diversity brings in new ideas and people willing to take risks. It is the "super engine" of innovation). It simply takes a consistent desire to want to run your own business. People often give up when they see the work and little return. They quit and move onto what appears to be greener pastures. The bottom line is that there is no easy way to make money. You might as well focus on what you really enjoy doing. Only then will you put the added time into your work and your business. In the end, this will make you a feared competitor and successful in your business. It all relates back to the golden rule of giving more than you take, being persistent and having a long term plan.
In addition, it pays to actually write down your goals. Revisit them weekly and focus on what you want to accomplish. This is one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make. In certain cases, your personal goals and plans are more important than even the business plan. During the day it becomes very easy to get off track. I generally recommend keeping a separate "work list" for each job or company you may own and simply work down the list of tasks until you are complete. You can carry this list in your day planner and revisit it during the day to judge where you are and what you have accomplished.
Quality and value can make any business profitable. Time is your most valuable commodity. Becoming a millionaire is fairly common today. Becoming a multi-millionaire takes talent. Becoming a billionaire is hard. Only a limited few can get there. Even so, each of these roles begins with the first step. |
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Timothy Joyce, JD, PhD, MBA, is currently employed as corporate counsel for Agilent Technologies and was formerly a senior attorney at Baker and McKenzie, a law firm specializing in global commerce. He carries a PhD in chemistry, an advanced law degree, his Masters in Business Administration and a Certificate in Accounting. He currently resides in California. |
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Copyright, 2007, Timothy Joyce Published with permission |
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