Socrates Guide to Entrepreneurship

Socrates lived around 470 BC and is widely considered one of the wisest men in the history of the world. He was once pronounced the wisest man in all of Greece by a prophet at the Oracle of Delphi who, it was believed, spoke for God himself. Socrates, however, well aware of his limitations, couldn’t accept that pronouncement. He therefor set out to prove it false by seeking out and speaking with all the wisest men of Athens. Upon his return, however, he determined that he was in fact the wisest man in Greece. This was not because of what he knew, but because everyone else believed themselves wise, while he was the only one who recognized that he, and they, really knew nothing. 

Entrepreneurship requires a significant level of confidence in one’s own abilities, knowledge and intuition. Where this confidence becomes a hindrance to success, when it turns to cockiness, is when it extends beyond a person’s actual sphere of education, experience, or demonstrable expertise. These spheres include both industry knowledge, as well as functions within the general topic of business.

When it comes to functions like accounting, legal, technical development, engineering and computer programming, it is generally accepted that specific education, experience and expertise are required.

Conversely, there are business disciplines that are regularly and incorrectly viewed as “intuitive”. The common belief is that any smart person (me, of course, but not you) can perform these responsibilities at a reasonably high level, without specific education or experience. These “intuitive” functions include: 

• Management: A high percentage of people in management rose to their elevated ranks simply by being at the company longer than others, or by being the best at performing their previous, non-management function. The assumption is that the best salesman, for example, is the best candidate to manage the sales force. 
• Marketing: This critical function is so regularly disrespected that it is often a part-time function of sales management, the president, or even the CFO. Often the responsible person can’t articulate a clear differentiation between marketing and sales, other than to say “advertising”.
• Sales: Technical staff or even accountants, who see how much money the sales team makes, often decide to move into that function because they are “as smart as the sales guys”. It’s only those who have tried and failed admit their inability to sell, or at least their dislike for it.
• Business strategy: This is often overlooked completely, or is developed on the fly while reacting to the daily demands of the business.

In fact, these disciplines receive so little respect that most of those who can’t even clearly define the terms or specific functions required, still believe themselves to be very capable at performing them at a higher than average level.

Why do such a high percentage of business start-ups fail? I believe that this factor alone; the general disrespect for what I consider to be the most critical functions required in the success of an organization, is the most significant answer to this question.  I believe it also to be the reason so many entrepreneurial organizations fail to rise above the entrepreneurial rung on the business growth ladder.

Organizations, large and small, cripple themselves by creating an environment wherein this ignorant disrespect is cultivated into its culture by the very leaders who themselves are often a product of the same beliefs. They believe themselves to have above average capability in functions they have never learned formally or informally and/or never performed. Inherent in the leaders, managers and bosses of an organization with this culture is the inability to accurately self asses, and the propensity to assume more capability than their history suggests is valid. These leaders are then supported in their belief by subordinates for whom it is politically or financially advantageous to do so, rather than any measurement that might offer an objective assessment.

Who are the characteristics of the worst offenders? 

• The Highly Educated, but in irrelevant specialties: Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Teachers/Professors, Politicians, Scientists, etc. 
• The Successful in unrelated areas: Artists, Musicians, Athletes, etc. 
• The Wealthy: inherited, those with a one-time killer success, spouses, etc. 
• The Successful Business Specialists: Those who might perform one of these functions as a specialty within a business, but have no recognized capability in the others. 

Why are they the worst offenders? Because they believe their knowledge/wisdom/success spreads broadly across many areas. More often than not, entrepreneurs follow the example of the self-proclaimed “wise”, rather than that of Socrates. Many believe themselves to be exceptionally expert in not just one, but all of these functions, like the conductor who believes himself better at every instrument in the orchestra than the professional who has actually been sitting in the chair, with that instrument in his hand, for an entire career. 

Like Socrates, the truly knowledgeable know what they know, and recognize how much there is that they don’t know. It’s only the ignorant who don’t know enough to know how much they don’t know. 

So, time for an objective self-assessment. How much do you know about yourself, that you are willing to admit? Do you have: 

• Education: Which specific business functions have you received education or training for? 
• Experience: Do you have actual experience performing this function as a primary responsibility for any period of time? 
• Expertise: In that experience, is there any evidence, outside of your own opinion, of success performing that function? 

If your answers are anything like: No, but I’m smart, I’m intuitive, I’m rich, I am respected, I manage lots of people, I’m popular, and/or I’m very educated, you have to respect that none of these are evidence of your capability to succeed in the specific disciplines within business world. To assume any of these responsibilities and/or be calling the shots in any of these areas, you need either a combination of all three or a disproportionate amount of experience and evidence of expertise to over the come any lack of education. If one is missing, you’re fooling yourself at the expense of your business opportunity. 

Finally, ask yourself this question: What is there regarding this function that I don’t know, and need to learn more about? This might be counterintuitive, but the smaller your answer, the less you know. I have found that in nearly every case, the more I learn about something, the more I discover there is to know, and the more there is for me to learn. As Socrates would tell you, self-examination is the first step to the creation of a successful enterprise.  Entrepreneurs would be wise to take the lead from Socrates.