Dilbert Creator Teaches Spot-On Lesson on Entrepreneurship without Mentioning the “E” Word

Dilbert Creator Teaches Spot-On Lesson on Entrepreneurship without Mentioning the “E” Word  

I have a PhD in entrepreneurship and I teach entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University.

A couple days ago, I heard a podcast by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. The podcast (which is also available on YouTube) included a 10-minute mini-lesson on how to increase your likelihood of benefitting from ‘luck’. Although Adams’ lesson never mentioned the words ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘entrepreneurship’, it represents one of the best succinct how-to lessons on the topic of entrepreneurship I’ve ever heard.

Here’s a quick summary of the lesson.

You can increase your ‘luck’ (which I translate to “increase your chances of becoming a successful entrepreneur”) by

• Having a positive attitude, expecting luck to happen in your favor.
• Going wherever the energy level is the highest (both in terms of geography and industry).
• Networking – meeting as many people as you can and keeping in touch.
• Continually developing and expanding your skill stack.
• Learning from every failure.
• Being willing to pursue a few ‘long shots’ along the way.

Below are some particularly insightful quotes from the podcast.

Positive Attitude

Dr. Richard Wiseman [found] that people who had a positive attitude and expected luck had a wider field of vision, … they simply noticed opportunities that other people didn’t notice.

So there is something about expecting luck to happen, that can tune your brain to notice things … that you weren’t noticing before.

Energy

go where the energy is

I found the highest energy industry that I could get into in the highest energy place ... and that worked out great.

Follow the energy. … You might have to move. … If you’re somewhere where nothing’s happening, getting lucky … is very unlikely.

you want to go where there’s just more stuff happening so that there’s more chance for things to collide.

Networking

You want to network. … If you are rigorous about meeting people and keeping in touch, then the opportunity for luck to find you happens again.

Skill Stack

Skill stacking, which I talk about all the time, if you … keep layering [skills] on top of each other, the things that you could potentially do, just becomes geometrically larger.

Failure

if you’re trying to get … yourself in a position for luck to find you, … you need to keep trying stuff.

But try things that won’t kill you. … Because then even as you’re failing … it’s like three failures, four failures, five failures -- you get to five failures, and learn something from every one of those failures, the odds of the sixth one failing, start dropping dramatically.

Long Shots

Try some long shots. I always tried some things which could pay the rent. … But I always had some long shots brewing. And I still do that.

I like knowing that there’s something in my world that even though it’s a long shot, man, if this works, if this works, this would be amazing, to change the world.

Steve Trost is Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise and can be contacted at trost@okstate.edu.  He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from MIT, a master’s degree and PhD in engineering from Oklahoma State University and a PhD in entrepreneurship (also from OSU).

Follow Dr. Trost on twitter: @TrostParadox

Disclaimer: All comments, observations, and statements presented herein represent the opinions of the author and in no way reflect the views of Oklahoma State University or the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise.