About Len Schlesinger – President, Babson College
In today’s climate of social and economic uncertainty, conventional approaches to problem-solving don’t work anymore. “The traditional way of thinking our way into acting is rendered essentially useless,” says entrepreneurial thought leader, Len Schlesinger. “Action trumps everything.”
A former executive in two Fortune 500 companies, Schlesinger believes that entrepreneurial activity, steeped in experiential learning, can transform the way leaders move forward in the face of unpredictability—and that entrepreneurial thinking can be codified and taught to anyone. Leaders hungry to stay ahead of the 21st century change curve are invited to unlock this entrepreneurial code for themselves and shore up their ministries or organizations for success, regardless of what the future may bring.
- Office of the President, Babson College
- Action Trumps Everything Babson Blog
- Babson College Facebook Page
- Len Schlesinger on Twitter
- Babson College on Twitter
- Action Trumps Everything - Len’s book
Session Notes
- Leaders get incredibly sold on a position and then don’t realize that most people are comfortable right where they are.
- There’s a standard vision speech heard all around the world. Do you know it? It’s the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I have a dream” speech.
- You can’t get There until you make it clear how unacceptable it is Here.
- Find out who your customers are! Find out what they want! Give it to them!
- What they don’t tell you in leadership school is that MLK spent 3-4 years smashing the current reality he was in to adopt a new reality.
- Engage in dialogue with people who share your vision for where you want to go, or getting there will be a very tough challenge.
- Entrepreneurs have a passion for discovering opportunities. Once they do, they act.
- Millennials are the first generation looking towards a future less attractive than their parents. This is unacceptable.
Believe in the Future By Creating it First
- If all you do is think, you are less interesting as a person. Action trumps everything.
- Entrepreneurship helps us create the kind of future we desire to have. Believe in the future by creating it first.
- I get asked: “How do you ever teach people how to do [entrepreneurship]?”
- When we look at the behavior of successful entrepreneurs over time, the really good entrepreneurs are good at reducing & spreading risk, not looking for it.
- An entrepreneur sees how to do something better. That’s it.
- Babson’s purpose is to educate leaders to make and find opportunities to create economic and social value everywhere.
- Entrepreneurship and ministry are not mutually exclusive.
- You cannot ride one business model for the entirety of your career. You must reinvent yourself 3-4 times during your career.
- The half-life of what you hear on the news won’t withstand the half-hour broadcast you watch.
- We need to develop mechanisms in entrepreneurship that allows us to address sustainability.
Experts and Schooling
- Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is almost all wrong. It’s simply about discipline.
- We are all entrepreneurs, so few of us get to practice it, however.
- Venture capital isnt’ necessary to be an entrepreneur. You simply need to unlearn everything you’ve learned your entire life in school.
- Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is all wrong. It’s not magic. It’s discipline.
- Schooling is based on cause and effect, or results. The future is an extrapolation of the past. What happens then? You become paralyzed.
- Successful entrepreneurs realize that you can’t predict the future. You simply see what is available to you and you act.
- Treating an uncertain world as if it were predictable only gets you into trouble.
- In face of unknowability, what would irrational thinking look like? How about sitting and thinking. You can’t think your way into an unknowable future.
- How do you create movement?
- Take small steps, not big leaps. Take a small step with what you have at hand
- Minimize the risk with each step.
- Build off what you find in each step.
- Maximize the results by utilizing the resources of the people around you.
Creating Movement
- Where do you want to find opportunity? Do what you want to do. Let’s start there.
- Entrepreneurs are always doing what they want to do or what they think will get them what they want.
- Pick something that you want to do and then act on it! It’s amazing how that works.
- Most people get completely caught up in what they’re trying to do. Which most people don’t know. Instead, focus on what you want to do next. What do you want to do next?
- We are deathly afraid of taking action because of failure. We have been educated to believe that failure is a dirty word.
- Smart people, with your money, fail 60% of the time. That’s up from 35% in the 80s. In other words, failture does not spell the end of it.
How to (Not) Guarantee Success, But Get You Moving
- If you try and try and try, you get more times at bat and increase the amount of times you succeed.
Further Thoughts
Overall, a good session. Way to hard to try and catalog everything he said, but the gist of it was “Don’t give up. Keep trying.” We all have an entrepreneurial streak inside of us, but so few of us ever take that risk. Why? Because we’re fearful. If the future doesn’t exist, why don’t we work hard to try and create the future we want?
If you've enjoyed today's content, I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing to my blog for the latest updates! While you're at it, why not follow me on Twitter. It's like a blog, but not.
.png)
Thanks for sharing your notes from all the sessions Justin. Am enjoying reading and learning from them.