The ShermCast: What Makes a Great Entrepreneur? (S4E1)

Welcome back to another season of the ShermCast! Hosts Izzy Stepanek and Sam Yip are excited to be creating and sharing another semester's worth of content for you all! In this week's episode, Izzy and Sam talk about the tools and experiences shared by some of our times most well-known entrepreneurs and what "success" means in the entrepreneurship world. 

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Episode 1 “What Makes a Great Entrepreneur?” Published 2/4/21

Izzy: Welcome back to another season of the ShermCast. This season is going to be full of so many deep and interesting conversations. So just a little background on the ShermCast and on the Sherman center. The Sherman center is right here at Northeastern and we work on enabling interdisciplinary student entrepreneurship in the broadest sense by providing education about tools, concepts, and different resources to foster an environment that starts with creativity and the ability to develop commercially super viable ideas through ventures. 

Sam: And the ShermCast is the Sherman Center’s own podcast. I'm Sam, a first year industrial engineering student 

Izzy: and I'm Izzy, a third year mechanical engineering student.

Sam: And today's episode is going to be focused on entrepreneurship. And kind of the qualities that make up a good entrepreneur almost like a how to guide. We'll deep dive into some of the most successful entrepreneurs and how you can follow in their footsteps. So if you're an aspiring entrepreneur or maybe you're just curious about how to start a business, keep on listening.

Izzy: Uh, yeah. So another season of the Shermcast. This is super exciting. So I did the ShermCast I want to say about a year ago, less than a year ago. So I'm excited to be back from co-op to continue another season. And I'll just first start off by asking you Sam, what does entrepreneurship mean to you?It doesn't have to be deep or anything. But like, you know, what do you think of kind of like right off the top of your head when someone says the word entrepreneurship? 

Sam: I feel like when I think of entrepreneurship, I think of kind of public speaking, it's a confident industry where entrepreneurs have to pitch their ideas.

And talk about why they believe in their idea but I also kind of think about my mom because she owns her own salon. So I guess she's a business owner  and kind of entrepreneur in a service kind of way. 

Izzy: Yeah, that's awesome. My dad actually is completely doing a whole change in careers so he used to be a physical therapist and now he's a home inspector. And don't know where he's going with that, but I know in the future he really wants to start his own business. So I definitely get that, but right off the bat, when I think of entrepreneurship, For me, it just seemed like I immediately think of people starting their own business. And also like the show shark tank, it's kind of hard to not think of that when you think of the word. But yeah, it's just like the first thing you think of is someone who just has an idea and they want to start their own business, you know, for a variety of different reasons. Webster's dictionary actually defines entrepreneur as "one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise."

Sam: I would agree with that for sure. Cause entrepreneurship is like such a fancy word. But I think of like entrepreneurs as inventors and innovators and they've kind of taken an idea or a product and somehow gotten people to believe in supporting them, whether they're buying a product or kind of having a service and I give them definitely a lot of credit because it takes a lot of work to become an entrepreneur. I don't think I could do it at all.

Izzy: I know, I don't think I could either. Anybody like really anyone can come up with an idea  and it's those people who have those really, really successful ideas and basically fill a really niche topic in a market that is the most successful.

Sam: And that kind of like also makes up the difference between how to become a good entrepreneur versus a great entrepreneur, because really anybody can be an entrepreneur, but it's kind of what makes you, like you said, a great entrepreneur. 

Izzy: Yeah. And there's, what's really nice is like, there seems to be a lot of resources out there. It kind of seemed like maybe five, 10 years ago, like the people that were entrepreneurs, it seemed like such a, almost like what we think of like influencers now. It's like, how did they, you know, get all that, you know, How did they get all the success? And it's kind of strange how they came across all this money and you're like, "Hey, like I really want to do that too.". But what's nice is there's like a bunch of different books and resources online, that are basically other, you know, really successful entrepreneurs, sharing their ideas and stuff, which is really cool, which I think is a big influence on why a lot of people become entrepreneurs now is because they see a job that is super enticing. And rather than, you know, being discouraged and not having the resources to like go for it, there's a ton of stuff out there now. So there's like, you know, a ton of books and things online, um, for, you know, different experiences of entrepreneurs. I don't know which ones to follow and to trust because there's just literally so many resources from also much different perspectives. And obviously some ways worked for others that may not work for you. 

Sam: Yeah, I know that there's a book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey. And there's also like so many different podcasts nowadays that are creating. I know there's one called "How I Built This". Um, and there's just like so many different entrepreneurs or professional and successful entrepreneurs that kind of tell a story of how they made it or how they got to the point that they are now. I would also say each book doesn't really explain how you can be an entrepreneur because that's not an exact science, but it kind of explains how you can improve to start maybe becoming an entrepreneur. 

Izzy: Yeah. And I think what a lot of these like books and podcasts and resources have in common is the fact that a lot of the process of becoming, you know, an entrepreneur is a very similar mentality in confidence. When it comes to, you know, having the guts to like make, you know, risky decisions with your business, or like just having like a good, strong, like good business background and knowing like, you know, when the market's down, like what to do when the market's up, what to do, it's a lot of, it's a lot of skills that I certainly don't have.

And like, it's crazy how people, like, you know, also you can think of like stock market stuff. It's just crazy how people have that, like mentality and Skilton, like know exactly what to do with the company. Um, but that's why I'm not a business major and I'm in engineering. So, you know, there's a ton of like million different types of entrepreneurs. People who've, you know, have small businesses that are really successful, large, massive corporations that are really successful. So honestly, like they're all different and they all went through different paths, but I think, yeah, I think having a similar mentality is definitely, um, very apparent in all these journeys.

Sam: No, I would definitely agree with that. That's why I'm not a business or entrepreneur major. Definitely not. Uh, engineering's the way to go. Um, But they're, like we said before, there're so many books that can kind of help inspire you, and kind of give you different perspectives. Um, and that kind of goes into like one of the first ideas about entrepreneurship is failure, um, where every entrepreneur, like you said is different and they've had different experiences, but I think each and every one of them has had, has failed along the way and failure is definitely okay. And even if you're not an entrepreneur, failure is still part of, kind of our journey.

Izzy: Yeah, definitely. I mean like I, it's like something that I've had to kind of overcome, I guess, in my two, three years now at Northeastern as a student. And also just like, as a person in general, realizing that failure is okay. Um, especially in engineering, it's like tough when you know, you think you're doing really well and you study a bunch and you think you're doing all right and then you go and take an exam and you fail. And you're like, it's hard to like, not use failure on an exam, or like failure in a class as a measure of your worth. Which I think is definitely, like, I think a lot of that same mindset is apparent in a lot of these like successful entrepreneurs, kind of like Steve Jobs. Obviously he wasn't, he didn't invent like the Mac or the iPhone on his first try. And then there's also that quote, I think, by Thomas Edison. And it's like, "I didn't fail "like, what is it like "I didn't fail 10,000 times. I just found 10,000 ways that something doesn't work." which honestly, like I think is as cliche as that quote is, I think it's just really important when it comes to, you know, wanting to take the leap and start something like a venture.

Sam: Yeah. Thomas Edison is probably like one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever too. Yeah. Um, so the fact that he was failing and he had, has become, so successful. It's kind of just an example of like, well, if you fail, it's not the end of the world. Like gotta get back up and try again. And that's kind of, the idea of entrepreneurship is like, it's not going to become successful within a night, it takes time and it takes failure and takes success and it takes improvement. And I remember reading an article from CNBC about how overcoming failure allowed the best entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to end up succeeding in the end and kind of getting them where they are now. Because you know, Steve Jobs actually dropped out of college and then he started Apple and then he got kicked out and then it suddenly just became so big, how it is today. And Bill Gates kind of had a similar experience  when he dropped out of Harvard, although he has since graduated. So, you know, but he started a startup called Traffo data and his first company ended up being a failure. So Microsoft  wasn't his first kind of stab at the, um, entrepreneurship industry. But he said that he was able to learn and accept the challenges that he faced and that kind of ended up helping him create Microsoft, which is now a multimillion dollar company.

Izzy: Oh, yeah. He's super successful. And like, I think, you know, these two people, specifically Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the fact that they dropped out of college I think that concept of dropping out of college is seen as such a failure in society. But then we think of, you know, a lot of people use like, Oh, like, you know, if you like all these really successful, famous people dropped out of college and they look how successful they are. So I think a lot of people look at those success stories and like, see that as inspiration, which I think is really great because a lot of people may, they may not like dropout of college and take the exact same path, but they definitely like take the, you know, they see that experience of like using failure as a part of the, you know, as a part of their process. And it's, you know, what matters when you're able to learn from failure and to go from there  and I think that's what's really important is to be able to learn from your mistakes and I know like literally every adult tells you that as you grow up and I'm sure, like, I'll get to do it way more in the future. But I like, honestly the more I go through classes and the more I basically grow up, I guess if for lack of a better like sense, I realized that, yeah, it's you take your failures and learn from them then, how failure, you know, affects you in a negative way. 

Sam: Like how you were saying kind of successful entrepreneurs inspire us and that kind of motivates us to be, kind of follow in their footsteps, but also make our own paths and our own journeys  and I kind of think about like the most successful entrepreneur, kind of in my mind, Jeff Bezos. At the same time, I feel like success is also just a loose term that you can say like, "Oh, who's the most successful?". Is that terms like money? Is that in terms of who has gotten the most product sold, stuff like that, but I know there's so much like different opinions about Jeff Bezos, but he is the founder and CEO of Amazon. And if you just look at Amazon as a company, it has grown tremendously since its creation back in 1994, which is older than me. 

Izzy: Yeah. And Amazon has reached like so many aspects of our lives. You know, a lot of us have like echo dots and  you can order pretty much almost anything over Amazon groceries, like everyday products and I don't know if Jeff Bezos ever imagined Amazon would become this successful.And even more importantly, this influential in everyone's lives.  Especially now during COVID so many people are ordering stuff online because they'd rather just not go to the store. And I think Amazon, part of its success is its ability to adapt to changing times. And I think Amazon came onto the market and filled I would say like a niche, need  in society, but  he just came on. I think it was like the right place at the right time. I think Amazon became available to a lot of people at a time, you know, a couple of years back or I wouldn't say a couple years back, but early two thousands where the internet was really, really popular and people were starting, you know, the internet was starting to it to be available to everyone. And I think Amazon just filled up a market and filled like a need in society that suddenly just blew up like crazy. You can get packages in two days with Amazon prime and it's crazy. Now universities offer like really cheap Amazon prime memberships to students. So yeah, he really touched a lot of aspects of people's lives.

Sam: Yeah. And that kind of also goes into the idea of like success again, how though Amazon has definitely made so much profit in the last, however long it's existed, but it's also just, like you said, become so  innovative and so influential on our lives every day. I feel like every time you think, "Oh I need to change a light bulb or I need some printer ink " and even immediately  you think of Amazon rather than Staples or a Walmart., just because it's more convenient. Where you don't have to really leave your home or like go anywhere. And I have Amazon prime and I can just get my packages in like two days, which is crazy. But that kind of also makes you wonder if Amazon is ethical. How, what kind of sacrifices do highly successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos have to make in order to have a career that they're proud of maybe,  and how they define success in their own terms. 

Izzy: I think a lot of people define success as money and how rich someone gets, which I think is just like a product of a capitalist society that we live in, in the United States, which is fine. I think most people would define, at first, maybe define success. That's like not their personal, you know, definition for it, like personally for their own success. But it's hard to not agree that success, you know, does factor in money? And there's a lot of ethics that revolve around Jeff Bezos and Amazon and although that could probably be its own entire podcast episode, because like it's absolutely crazy.And how Sam mentioned the sacrifices that a big company makes and I'm sure a lot of those sacrifices negatively affect a lot of people, both, you know, in here in the United States and also overseas when it comes to production.

But then this also brings up the topic of shopping from small businesses during a pandemic, because, you know, why would you give money to rich billionaires during this time when they're continuously making money? When there are a ton of small businesses,  both  online shopping, like Etsy or Depop. Or also just shopping, like local, small businesses and local restaurants and stuff like that, that help keep them stay afloat. And there's a lot of initiatives that are coming out now during the pandemic that help people afford kind of taking that route when it comes to consumers. 

Sam: And I would say that  people that have small businesses are also entrepreneurs or having their own startups and they have become successful, not as successful as Amazon or as Jeff Bezos maybe they didn't go to an Ivy league or maybe they didn't have a position at a hedge fund like he did, but they still have slowly started to make success in their own way,  just not in money like we were saying. And again that kind of just says like, anything is possible no matter who you are, no matter where you're from. If you just believe in your idea or your product and you kind of have the work and the determination, then you can really see your idea go pretty far. 

Izzy: Yeah, I think another key component about entrepreneurship is the ability to ask people for help when you need it. I know that's like something that I'm sure a ton of people struggle with. I know I struggle with it too, still being a pretty stubborn person. That's just like, you know, you have this mentality that you think, you know what you're doing and  you can do it on your own, but obviously this goes for everyone. It's something that a lot of, I think entrepreneurs, a lot of really successful entrepreneurs specifically, it's a skill that they end up learning and using it in their tool bag as they go on with whatever that's  growing the same company or starting a  new one, whatever it is. It kind of goes back to shark tank and how each person that gets in front of their, like is not scared to like, that's a scary experience that I would not be able to just like go up there and like basically pitch an idea and with the possibility of like some of the most successful people, when it comes to entrepreneurship, shoot you down, that's super daunting. But they're going there also cause they know that they're like we need help and these are the people that could best help me. And so I think that's like, you know, a skill that we see every day and like a TV show is people are going to shark tank because they're, you know, asking for help. And in return they give these entrepreneurs  a percentage in, uh, or like a stake in the company. 

Sam: I agree with that like shark tank and stuff like that, where you kind of have to ask for help if you think you need it, because it's so hard to work on your own and kind of carry that entire weight of the company and all the workload on yourself. Whereas like, if you have a team or like a partner, like a shark, you know, working with you, you can have ideas to bounce off of each other and kind of work together where two brains are definitely better than one. So don't try to work alone or work on your own because. Sometimes it'll, you'll end up struggling so much, um, where you just can't handle it. And I would definitely say that also, that kind of goes, yeah, into the percent of the company and profits that you were saying. It's really important for an entrepreneur to have good financial management. And I know that's such like an adult thing to say, but as an entrepreneur, money really does come into play  in your business where it's ,whether it's like putting, investing the money into your product, whether you're buying things that you need to make your product or your service or anything, or also just saving it, you know, to pay your workers or your team. The whole idea of like money is, seems so important, but also you don't want to, I don't know, have this idea that money is everything. 

Izzy: Yeah, no, I definitely agree with that. Although it's  tough to kind of push money aside and not think of it as a measurement  for success, it definitely is. So, I mean, you really have to like, Sam mentioned a sense of like financial management and I think that's not necessarily that is learned, I mean, it's something that can be learned like on your own, but I mean, a lot of people go to school specifically for finances and to learn about that and so I know like, like, you know, going back to Jeff Bezos, he invested a lot of money into Google and into real estate, et cetera. So he obviously is an incredibly decisive person and obviously it's pretty well-educated, I mean he's made a lot of important decisions for his company and they obviously turn out really well. So I think it's probably a good culmination of just like experience and also his own mindset and what he thought would work, research studies done and, you know, basically just different avenues that he takes and he put them all together and I think they just were the perfect combination for a successful business, as successful as Amazon is. 

Sam: Yeah. That kind of ties into everything too, where it's like finance ties into partnerships and that ties into failure and success. Whereas when you are saving money or when you're spending money, you have to kind of talk to a team of people, to kind of like bounce ideas off of, like we said before, and also you should be doing a ton of research, based off of, "what should I be investing in?", and similar to what we said before, the books that you should be reading, maybe not exactly an exact science or things you should be following, but they can definitely help you in making decisions that could affect your business and success. 

Izzy: And also as we're talking about what makes entrepreneurs successful, another important thing is the improvement of an idea. So whether that's like market research,and different prototyping, product development, user experience, things like that. I think it's super important that once you have an original idea that you've come up with that, you go ahead and turn around and find, ask for the help or the finances and whatnot and make the decisions that'll turn your idea into something that is really, really successful. So obviously your original idea is like a good, basic starting point, but there's a lot that goes into, what people are looking for and like how your idea specifically fits into a market and how it fits financially into a market and the people that it reaches, and will this idea serve a purpose to a lot of people?

And that's kind of the main reason why a lot of entrepreneurs go into starting their own ventures is because they have an idea and they really want to help people. And that's why I think and when a lot of people think of entrepreneurship or like entrepreneurs, I know sometimes they have a negative aspect of it and a lot of people just go into it just to make money.

But I think, you know, with this, like obviously if you have the idea that you just want to make money off of, but you're not helping people, there's no way that your idea is going to be successful at all. I truly think that once you have an idea and you start to like find the help and the resources and the money to, you know, make your idea into something, look into fruition, put into fruition, you start to realize like, if you're really in it for the money, I don't think you'll end up becoming super successful, but when you're trying to help people and you like truly find a niche market where you can help people, I think that's where you truly become successful. 

Sam: And we were talking about this before, like how success is kind of your own definition.

Um, not based off of money kind of based off of what you believe. But that also kind of goes into play, nowadays, so many entrepreneurs and so many company owners and their CEOs are kind of making more decisions to help the community, whether it's environment, whether it's, you know, inequality, everything in between. But it's the idea of improvement that once you start with one idea, you have to kind of improve upon it. Not just because of money, but because you want to help your idea grow and help people with whatever they need. And that also we were talking about before Amazon and how they started with books, but now they've had like prime membership, they've had Kindle, they had Amazon Alexa, they've had grocery deliveries. You can even make charity donations based off of the products that you buy. So they've definitely grown their business and improved their business so much since they've started. And that goes for any entrepreneur in general, like Apple, they started off with one iPhone and now there's what like 11 to 12 different ones, you know? So the idea of improvement and constantly kind of just like seeing what other people need so that you can help them, do whatever they need to do. 

Izzy: And I think that's something that's like another like tool in the toolbox for entrepreneurs is the ability to. You know, make decisions that, you know, end up helping people in your community or the people that you are like specifically targeting with your idea or your venture.

You know, it's hard to become super successful when your idea is stagnant and stays stagnant for a couple of years. So I think just the tool of being able to change with society. And I think we see that a lot with like, the change in times right now. So like with the black lives matter movement and a lot more support and the changing administrations when it comes to the government and a lot of different like policies in different basically ideology start to form as we like, obviously get further into the 21st century. So a lot of things like LGBTQ plus rights and black lives matter helping trans individuals and things like that. I think that a lot of companies are using their resources using their time and using a lot of their own, basically, backing and their influence as a company to be able to help these communities out. Yeah. If people say like, they're only doing this as a marketing scheme to get people in and sure, there's a pretty, you know, very true argument that falls with that. But I also, you have to look at the positives. I think a lot of these companies, when they go to make things like pride merch, things like that, where they go to like, donate like massive, massive amounts of money to, you know, movements like the black lives matter movement. You know, although it might seem like they're just doing it because they want to get the sympathy or get the support of the people who have that same ideology, in the end I think they also do a lot of good with that. And I think that's a tool that a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of successful entrepreneurs learn is their ability to make decisions that make their venture successful but also help out people in different communities that are in need as you know, society continues.

Sam: Yeah. No again, it's this idea that we keep going back to how success isn't measured by money.  I think that's kind of maybe a common stereotype that entrepreneurs only care about money or making their business grow. But entrepreneurs are also just like regular people, you know, like we could be entrepreneurs, even though we're not.

They’re regular people and they just had an idea that they've made into reality. Just because you're an entrepreneur doesn't mean you're just a business person or you're just all about money. It's also about using your platform and your company to help other people, because that's kind of what it was all about from the beginning. You had an idea and you just wanted to see how it could help people in their daily life.

Izzy: Yeah, I think it's easy to look at entrepreneurs and immediately think of all these, you know, Jeff Bezos and  Bill Gates and all these now famous people and they're influential in society to see them as celebrities or whatnot.

But I mean a big thing of what I learned working with the Sherman center and also with Generate, one of our programs, is that entrepreneurs are like amongst us. I mean, there's a lot of students that I meet and you get to talk to them and they're obviously students, they aren't celebrities, anyone. They go to school with us and everything and you go to talk to them and they're like, "Oh yeah, I started my own business." And I think that's, what's really cool is that, you know, anyone can start their own business. And also what's really cool, is I think not, not all paths are the same when it comes to entrepreneurship. And I think a lot of that is just like the different paths that you take and the different mindsets you have and how your venture helps the people around you.

Sam: Today we talked about so many different things and went on random tangents, but I feel like. eNtrepreneurship isn't an exact science again, like you were saying, but there are things that you can do to help you improve or become maybe work towards success, whether it's accepting failure.

Cause it's kind of not a matter of if it'll happen, but when it will happen and when it hits you,you just kind of have to take the opportunity to learn and grow and then improve on it. Cause failure isn't going to stop us no matter if we're an entrepreneur or not, so we kind of need to be able to take it and then just kind of grow with it.

Izzy: And obviously, there isn't a specific algorithm that makes you super successful and there aren't certain definitive personality  traits or types of people who become entrepreneurs. It also  clearly doesn't matter what school you go to, whether you even graduated from that school, as we  talked about before. I just think a successful entrepreneur is someone who is confident about their product and the business, and they believe that their products or service is needed in the world. That's super important and they think that they, you know, their product really helps people. And I think that's, you know, what successful entrepreneurship is all about. 

Sam: Yeah. And we talked a lot about today, how successful entrepreneurs don't work solely for money. It's just because they had a vision and they've kind of done their best to make their vision a reality or their idea a reality. And  going back to what you said about like there, aren't certain personality traits that make up an entrepreneur. It's not like you can just read a book and be like, okay, I want to be an entrepreneur because I am confident because I, you know, am a business major, anybody can be an entrepreneur. So it doesn't really matter whether you said like you go to college or not. Entrepreneurs is all about just the idea that you have and making that idea into reality. 

Izzy: There's also so many different ways to become an entrepreneur. And it honestly just depends on you, your idea and the path that you want to take and  the role that you want your venture to play in your market. And I think anyone who is just starting out just needs to, you know, really take a deep dive into research and finding different ways in which their idea or venture can help out a specific group of people. And to be able to take that idea and go out and ask for help, whether it's finances or like reaching out to contacts. There's a ton of different organizations, even like here at Northeastern, we have a whole entrepreneurship community that helps people in a lot of different ways.

We have E club, which is our entrepreneurs club. I mean, there's IDEA, that's like a venture capitalist. There's generate where we build prototypes for growing ventures and then there's IP co-lab, which helps with legal matters. So even just like at a university here in Boston, there's a ton of resources for entrepreneurs. So I think it's really important that entrepreneurs, like once they have a venture or they have a product that they really want to put out there that they just really go out and get the resources, they need to be able to make that venture successful and help people. 

Sam: I know you were saying earlier that there's millions of different entrepreneurs and there's so many people on different levels whether, like how you were saying, a small committee on Northeastern or in a big community, like Amazon and Jeff Bezos. But there are so many people that you can take inspiration from.

And I know that I can't say from personal experience, just cause I'm not an entrepreneur, but through research and just through curiosity, there's so much that you can learn about being an entrepreneur and everybody has their own journey and different experience with it. From the books that you read, you might not have the same experience as somebody else, but it is good to take inspiration and motivation from one person. You kinda just gotta find what works for you, because this is kind of a waiting game where you have to be patient, you're not gonna become successful overnight. And it just takes time and it takes a lot of determination to become an entrepreneur and a good one at that.

Izzy: I totally agree and this was a super great conversation. We really dived into a bunch of different topics and we really got a good understanding of the different tools that it takes to be a great entrepreneur. 

So make sure to  check us out on a bunch of different platforms. We're working on updating our Instagram and if you head over to the Sherman center website, you can read our weekly newsletter. You can find out what's happening with the Sherman center in our very own Northeastern community and check back in two weeks for our next podcast episode on Apple podcasts and Spotify.  And we will see you next time on the ShermCast!