The madness of entrepreneurs
Well it’s official…or at least academically verified – entrepreneurs need a ‘touch of madness’ to succeed or so says William Baumol, an economist focussed on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Most innovations are merely incremental improvements on something that already exists: a slightly better mousetrap, as Mr Baumol puts it. A rare few represent discontinuous breakthroughs, such as the incandescent lamp, alternating electric current or the jet engine. All of the above, according to Frederic Scherer, professor emeritus at Harvard, were introduced not by the regimented R&D of established corporations, but by scrappy new firms, twin-born with the invention itself. Mr Baumol ventures that most breakthroughs arise this way—the offspring of independent minds not incumbent companies. He has two explanations for this. First, radical innovation is the only kind lone entrepreneurs can do; and, second, they are the only ones who want to do it.
In my experience, the ability to innovate is as much a state of mind as anything else. It emerges from curiosity unsated. From a diversity of interests. Having the courage to fail. Innovation happens at the edges. The edges of knowledge. The edges of industry. The edges of your ability. Where all the fun stuff happens. If that is madness, call me mad.
