MIT Sloan Professor Bill Aulet interviewed by Observador
Last week, Bill Aulet, distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova MIT Immersion program, was interviewed by the Portuguese web platform Observador.
Professor Bill Aulet first talked about his book, Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup, and shared his belief that a successful entrepreneur requires much more than a good idea – you need heart, head, hands and house, meaning you need wit, intelligence, execution capacity and a community of people around you.
He believes that we were all born entrepreneurs (we made things, for ourselves and for others). Then somehow society pushes us to work in companies, to own things. The fear of failing is also a big obstacle.
The entrepreneurial mentality is: if I see a problem, if something changes, I will see it as an opportunity. But innovation doesn’t happen without failure. The question is not whether one will fail, but whether one is willing to try and experiment, and learn. With a fast-changing ecosystem (climate, Covid, crises…) entrepreneurs hold the key to solving many of these issues. And “nothing lasts forever, even if you launched Netflix”. In a final word of advice, Prof. Aulet said to all young entrepreneurs suffering from the current pandemic situation: “invest in yourselves and acquire competencies. Anyone can be an entrepreneur, but you need to get out there and start trying. There are no rewards for easy jobs, but mastering these skills, the world will open and you can control your own destiny”.
Professor Bill Aulet is the Managing Director at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; Professor of the Practice at the Sloan School of Management and Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Immersion program of the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova. He was recently named Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Read the full interview, in Portuguese, here.