Today was classroom time at Trinity College in Dublin with five gracious, generous, and inspiring leaders/entrepreneurs.
Our good friend, Andrew Parish provided a number of words of wisdom – and I always appreciate his poignant reminder of the power of “If” – by Rudyard Kipling. It always reminds me of Craig M. Mullaney’s great book – “The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education.” My favorite lines from the poem:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Andrew also proffered up his best questions for start-ups:
- So what?
- Who care?
- How much?
- How soon?
Conor Toolan helped the students understand why you don’t burn bridges – especially in a small country like Ireland! He also facilitated a great scenario/brain-storming exercise!
Joanna Murphy talked about how challenges define you, and that the primary concern of an entrepreneur should be, “Who will buy my stuff?!” Her energy is contagious!
Paul Byrne discussed how important it is to be truly curious, and that your team needs to believe you believe. With four successful exits, there is something to be said for consistency and process.
Lastly, Enda Madden once again leveraged the collective intelligence of the class to brainstorm common challenges in start-ups in a highly interactive session!
The bottom line – it’s all about leaving your comfort zone, because “The default state of the world is to stay the way it is, which means the default state of a startup is failure.” – Chris Dixon, Cofounder of Hunch
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