The Ten Fallacies They Teach Entrepreneurs

Fallacy Number One

The odds of success as an entrepreneur, inventor, professional musician, sportsman are one in a hundred, or even better.

They are much less. Less than one in a hundred. Perhaps one in a thousand.

So what? You still need to believe in yourself. You need to look at it as a journey, and acquire skills along the way.

Every patent has someone’s name on it.

Fallacy number two

You need to be very focused. You need to think outside the box.

You have to be focused only part of the time.

The rest of the time you have to make unexpected connections. Innovation is thinking ‘between the boxes’.

IN other words, it’s finding new ways to connect existing things.

Fallacy Number Three

Entrepreneurs learn from their mistakes.

Entrepreneurs and scientists don’t learn from their mistakes. They seek them out. They look for them. They use them. They patent them.

Fallacy Number Four

Entrepreneurship depends on a team.

Ideas come from individuals, not from teams. The teams can stimulate discussion, raise issues, provide information. Ultimately the new idea or approach is from an individual’s mind.

Fallacy number five.

Get excellent grades.

Get good enough grades. Spend your valuable time studying outside the core curriculum. Acquire ‘unexpected’ skills – you already know why!

Fallacy number six.

Embrace knowledge.

Challenge knowledge. Most of the things we think we know, we don’t really know.

Fallacy Number Seven

Develop the skills that are expected of you.

Develop the unexpected skills. The ones that others don’t develop. For example, learn the universal language of music.

Fallacy Number Eight

Tame your demons.

Why just tame them, when you can recruit them and put them to work for you?

Fate is fate. There is nothing you can do about it.

Of course there is. You can create your fate. Moving to a new city or country is just one example.

Fallacy Number Ten

Learning to speak is key.

Listening is key. Become a better listener.