Running Through Walls: Entrepreneur on a Mission
Are entrepreneurs born or made? A little bit of both, says Mark Gerson, cofounder and chairman of Gerson Lerhman Group, a technology-enabled learning platform that connects top professionals with experts. “The tolerance for risk is probably something innate,” Gerson tells Venrock partner Nick Beim. In addition, “certain people think of something that they wish existed, and they have this burning passion to create. They want to be the ones to fill the hole they identified.”
On the other hand, Gerson says, forces outside the entrepreneurial mindset also play a role. “It’s very helpful when social structures and society in general encourages those with this proclivity to become entrepreneurs,” he says.
While entrepreneurs may have natural passion, they need to guard against the tendency to keep their passion and ideas under wraps — at a time when they most need outside help. A common mistake made by entrepreneurs, Gerson says, is deciding not to tell anyone about their business concept because they’re afraid others will steal the idea.
“When they say this, they’re misunderstanding risk and reward,” Gerson says. The theory that listeners are eager to swipe new ideas is faulty, he says, because companies don’t usually want to sideline their own projects for an untested idea.
“The real risk is not sharing,” Gerson explains, because entrepreneurs then shut themselves off from potentially valuable feedback, such as how to refine a target market. “There’s a good chance someone will have insight into why the idea won’t work, or they’ll have a similar idea that might work.”
Another piece of advice for beginning entrepreneurs: guard against that passion turning into overconfidence. “An underrated virtue [of entrepreneurs] is humility,” Gerson says. “So much of what an entrepreneur has to do is listen. They need to have the desire to genuinely learn from those around them.” This doesn’t mean entrepreneurs shouldn’t be self-assured, Gerson adds, but “too much confidence can lead to arrogance.”
In his own career, Gerson has taken care to set aside time and resources for nonprofit work — for example, he co-founded Africa Mission Healthcare Foundation, which supports medical missionaries offering clinical care in Africa. Entrepreneurs who have their eyes on nonprofit work, Gerson says, should bring their same talents for business to the nonprofit venture.
“It’s an ROI-based calculation,” he says, noting that entrepreneurs should consider what their investment in a nonprofit venture will yield. “Think about how much social good will be accomplished with giving — and be very rational about it.
