Entrepreneurial Lessons in the Holy City
As part of our curriculum on entrepreneurship, the Cornell Tech MBA program connects students to consulting projects with Israeli startups during the fall semester, culminating in an intensive two-week trek to Israel over winter break. Israel’s entrepreneurial primacy has been well-documented. Israel, often touted as the Startup Nation, boasts more startups per capita than any other country in the world.
In this corner of the world, any discussion of entrepreneurship generally begins with Israel’s unique geopolitical position throughout ancient and modern history, and continues with the resource-constrained state’s urgent need to innovate within ever-oscillating borders. The nation’s startup culture is immediately obvious in Tel Aviv and Haifa’s densely concentrated ‘high-tech parks’. On the other hand, Jerusalem only modestly participates in the startup ecosystem. However, a visit to the Holy City revealed its own unexpected lessons in entrepreneurship — technology can destroy, but also rebuild.
On the western slope of Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, Yad Vashem, which houses a memorial to the Holocaust, cautions that technology can be exploited for destruction. During the Second World War, unspeakable horrors gripped communities around the globe. Though, unlike previous wars and conflicts, this one was undeniably modern. For the first time, prototypical data analytics platforms were making their debut to manage massive ledgers tracking people bound for concentration camps. Highly efficient operation systems were installed at concentration camps to detach Nazi soldiers from responsibility. If a person’s only function is to manufacture equipment for the camp or to drive a truck transporting supplies, that person might believe their lack of direct exposure would absolve them of any wrongdoing.
Elsewhere, I saw that Jerusalem is a beautiful city of contradictions. Since its inception the city has birthed belief systems that continue to influence the moral fabric of contemporary society, yet it has also witnessed systematic destruction and loss. Numerous stakeholders have repeatedly vied for claims over the same land, with ownership passing hands through forces both metaphysical and brute. But, if there is a silver lining, it is that destruction is followed by rebuilding.
Across the sprawling capital’s Old City, structures stand on ruins, which in turn sit atop layered vestiges of antique civilizations. On the same block, churches perch where ancient mosques and synagogues once stood while synagogues and mosques tower over the lots of medieval churches. The perpetual motion of iteration, or building and re-building, forces a community out of its inertia and summons the courage for that community to forge ahead. Likewise, entrepreneurs rarely hit the mark on their first try. Many serial entrepreneurs whom I have encountered even pride themselves on failing fast but recovering faster. Adaptation to market conditions and user needs is critical in order to move forward with a product.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, I embrace all the incredible good that technology can create for humanity but also recognize the potential for technology to be soulless. For example, autonomous transport has a tremendous opportunity to disrupt an outmoded industry but faces a plethora of moral questions that have no easy answers. Entrepreneurship is difficult and I believe it should be. However, the next time I fail, I find solace in knowing that after destruction comes rebuilding.
