The video recounts a compelling narrative about an accomplished individual who, despite financial success, felt unfulfilled and desirous of entrepreneurial pursuits. This person, despite appearing prosperous, discovered that wealth and professional respect did not equate to personal happiness or a sense of purpose. The speaker delves into profound inquiries concerning personal impact, relationships, prominence, and avoiding a life filled with regrets.

An exploration into the entrepreneurial spirit follows, discussing how many individuals, despite expressing initial desires to own businesses, find themselves distanced from such paths due to societal and financial restraints. The speaker advises on aligning personal attitudes with entrepreneurial pursuits and outlines characteristics vital for success as an entrepreneur, emphasizing commitment, confidence, competence, attention to detail, and tolerance for ambiguity.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. inconsolable [ˌɪnkənˈsoʊləb(ə)l] - (adjective) - Unable to be comforted or alleviated. - Synonyms: (heartbroken, devastated, desolate)

Regret for what you have not done is inconsolable.

2. impostor [ɪmˈpɒstər] - (noun) - A person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others. - Synonyms: (fraud, pretender, charlatan)

I'm an impostor, he said, and I'm miserable at work.

3. entrepreneurialism [ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜːriəlɪzəm] - (noun) - The spirit or state of being able to create, develop, and manage a business venture. - Synonyms: (business acumen, innovation, enterprise)

Sitting just outside this wave of entrepreneurialism, many of us have hoped that someday we might become entrepreneurs

4. meticulous [məˈtɪkjələs] - (adjective) - Showing great attention to detail; very careful and precise. - Synonyms: (diligent, scrupulous, thorough)

They may be broad brush in some areas, but in critical matters, they're meticulous.

5. ambiguity [ˌæmbɪˈɡjuːəti] - (noun) - Uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language. - Synonyms: (vagueness, obscurity, uncertainty)

And finally, five, perhaps most importantly, a tolerance for ambiguity that should not be confused with the love of risk.

6. exogenous [ɛkˈsɒdʒənəs] - (adjective) - Originating from outside; derived externally. - Synonyms: (external, outside, extraneous)

I don't like what the economists call exogenous risks, uncontrollable risks.

7. conviction [kənˈvɪkʃən] - (noun) - A firmly held belief or opinion. - Synonyms: (belief, persuasion, assurance)

What they have that is distinctive are vision and conviction.

8. altruism [ˈæltruɪz(ə)m] - (noun) - The belief in or practice of selfless concern for the well-being of others. - Synonyms: (selflessness, philanthropy, benevolence)

But we can attain perfection in short bursts of altruism, of kindness and compassion.

9. proclivity [prəˈklɪvɪti] - (noun) - A tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition towards a particular thing. - Synonyms: (tendency, inclination, penchant)

If you aspire to have your own business, don't bring capital. Don't bring money. You say. How can capital be anything other than an advantage to a would be entrepreneur?

10. benevolence [bəˈnɛvələns] - (noun) - The quality of being well-meaning; kindness. - Synonyms: (goodwill, charity, generosity)

Devote your time and your abundant skills, which you've been given to something worthwhile, really pulling on the oars and making a difference.

Last Lecture Series - Class of 2023, Professor Irv Grousbeck

Regret for what you have done can be tempered by time. Regret for what you have not done is inconsolable. I want to tell you a story. A few weeks ago, a former student from a number of years ago made a Zoom appointment. I was pleased and a bit surprised, since we hadn't been in touch for quite some time. He appeared on the screen at the appointed hour looking like a million dollars, well dressed, confident, with a big smile. After exchanging pleasantries, there was a pause. I'm an impostor, he said, and I'm miserable at work. I was stunned. His story came pouring out. 42 years old, happily married, two wonderful children, prosperous, earning a seven figure income, spending most of it living well respected by his partners and other professionals, and he's a domain expert. However, he knows he is neither as wise nor as knowledgeable as people think. And more importantly, he hates to get up in the morning and go to work. It's boring. It's repetitive. What he does has no impact to speak of. It doesn't move the needle, and he can't point to anything that's truly his. Until recently, he believed he would become an entrepreneur, truly leading and making a difference. But now that dream has died, he feels trapped. How sad. That story raises a few questions for us. When the counting is done in our lives, what will be left? Will what I have done matter? Will who I made the journey with matter? What about the quality of my relationships? What about my prominence? What about my legacy? And since you mentioned it, how can I avoid living with regret? Oh my go. These are daunting questions.

So, on a lighter note, here's one formula for living some of you are familiar with. These three lines. Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobody's watching? Those are words of Bojangles Robinson, who was a 1940s and fifties tap dancer and a friend of the legendary musician Duke Ellington. So let's take a step back. These are indeed extraordinary times. Despite the recent market downturn, our economy is generally vibrant. New employment opportunities are being created, and those jobs arise largely from entrepreneurial efforts. They arise because individuals had visions they pursued, and people in the marketplace were willing to buy the products and services flowing from those visions. Yet most of us feel that we may be destined to become observers, highly paid managers, investors, advisors. Sitting just outside this wave of entrepreneurialism, many of us have hoped that someday we might become entrepreneurs. Yet statistically, most GSB graduates do not pursue entrepreneurial careers. In fact, fewer than 35% of our graduates 25 years out classify themselves as having undertaken something entrepreneurial or been self employed. Yet some 90% of entering first year MBA students express a strong interest in owning their own businesses.

What happened to derail these ambitions? Well, reality intervened. How can I think about being my own boss? I'm focused on getting a good job, having some kind of life, and paying off the student loans I've incurred. I understand. I do understand. I offer for your consideration this afternoon two of my very favorite quotes. They describe sharply contrasting attitudes which are likely to lead one into very different careers and, indeed, lives. The first is from TS Eliot's the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. No, I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be. Am an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two, advise the princess. No doubt an easy tool, deferential, glad to be of use, politic, cautious and meticulous, full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse at times. Indeed, almost ridiculous almost at times. The fool. I grow old. I grow old. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach I have heard the mermaids singing each to each I do not think they will sing to me. I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker. Such a powerful line. I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker and I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat and snicker. And in short, I was afraid. End quote. Penetrating words.

An attendant lord advising the princess. Deferential, politic, cautious, glad to be of use, afraid. Elegant, evocative lines, but a sad portrayal indeed. In contrast, here are these words of wh Murray, who led the scottish himalayan expedition. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves to all sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events, issues from the decision raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamt would have come his or her way. I've learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets. Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. End quote. Well, you might say, now that I'm at the end of my MBA or Ms experience, how would I become an entrepreneur if I wanted to?

Are they born like, 300 hitters are said to be in baseball, or can they be made? Before we talk about steps to take, I'd like to identify one thing that you should not bring. If you aspire to have your own business, don't bring capital. Don't bring money. You say. How can capital be anything other than an advantage to a would be entrepreneur? Well, one of the things we teach is that the functions of the entrepreneur and the capital supplier are very different. Nowhere is it written that an entrepreneur needs to supply capital. The disadvantage of having some money is that one tends to define the scope of one's venture according to the size of one's resources. Our working definition of entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources currently controlled. Now, if you think you might want to own your own business, match your outlook with five attitudes that we've observed in most entrepreneurs. One is an unending dissatisfaction with a status quo, and that has two elements to it. You're not happy with the status quo, and you think you can do something about it, something better than is now being done, and build a business around that notion.

Two, a healthy self confidence, a willingness to be lonely, to make tough decisions, to stand on a level of the organization chart with no peers, to have the buck stop with you, to be sometimes wrong in a big way. Three, what I would call responsible competence, that you feel good about what you do, you think you can do more, and you're willing to stretch. Four, a concern for detail. There are very few successful entrepreneurs I've seen who are broad brush people in all aspects of their lives. They may be broad brush in some areas, but in critical matters, they're meticulous. And if they're not meticulous by nature, they're astute enough to find a partner who is critical. Details do matter. And finally, five, perhaps most importantly, a tolerance for ambiguity that should not be confused with the love of risk. Because the best entrepreneurs I know are constantly asking themselves how to shrink risk out of a situation. It means a willingness to accept an uncertain future. You're not sure you have a job tomorrow. You're not sure you have an income. You're willing to give up the corporate environment, which you know, the peer group, the customer base, the routines, and you'll take on the ambiguity of attempting to buy or start a venture. Okay, you say you've matched your attitudes with those that I've just described, and you pass generally. Maybe not a perfect correlation, but a pretty good match.

How would you begin to become an entrepreneur? How does one get from here to there, from employment to self employment? I don't have an idea. You say, I don't have money, which you say is a good thing, and I just don't know how or where to start. I have to pay off my debts. I have, or hope to soon have obligations to others, personal obligations. But I am determined to own my life, not lease it out in sections. My life is not for sale when I go to work every day. I shouldn't have to leave my heart at home. The future is uncertain, but the best way for us to predict it is to invent it. Okay, then. Don't be afraid to take a big step. If one is indicated, you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. There's only one basic requirement in terms of the process, and that is to figure out how to buy yourself some time to be able to establish yourself apart from your present job so that you can use the morning, your energies on your new venture. If you're going to work full time and want to have any life outside your professional endeavors, you're only going to be able to give the evening of your energies to pursue your new venture if you remain employed, and new ventures demand first class morning energies, first class enthusiasm, intelligence, decision making, you've been given those capabilities already. You have those capabilities.

They just haven't been called on fully. So you need to be able to leave your present position and live for some period of time while you translate your dream into reality. Stepping back a minute, I hold firmly the belief that entrepreneurship is a reasonable career alternative, not for all, but for any who might choose it. You don't need to be impulsive, headstrong, bombastic, or flamboyant. You need no operating experience, though it usually helps. In short, to be an entrepreneur, there are no external barriers, only those we internally impose. Ask yourself this question, what would I do with my life if I knew I wouldn't fail? I'm reminded of these words of Seneca, a sage of ancient Rome. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult. A principle for you in charting your career path is, will I be in someone else's organization or in my own? You know, in many of our courses here, we are, one way or another, examining the risks of entrepreneurship, and properly so. But just for a minute. Can we please examine the risks of employment?

Well, the company you work for will hopefully challenge you, promote you, compensate you well, flatter you, and give you buttons to push and increasing numbers of people to manage. It may also insinuate you into its culture, envelop you, and consume your entrepreneurial ambitions, energies and perspectives. And remember the uninvited intruder in your lives that doesn't knock before it enters risk aversion. It creeps imperceptibly into your consciousness and decision making as the next few years unfold, many, although certainly not all, larger company executives are anything but free. How many of them, like the former student I zoomed with, would love to leave, but don't know how to, where to go, can't afford it, and in many cases, don't dare to. I've rarely met an unhappy successful entrepreneur, but I met many unhappy, successful executives of larger companies and partners of consulting and financial firms against which I have nothing. I'm just reporting what I've seen. You know, your career should not only be fun, it should be fun to go to work. Your career should not only be fun, it should serve your life. It should serve your life, not the other way around.

In effect, we've just described a few of the risks of not following the entrepreneurial path, tilling their soil in their various locations, creating further value for their shareholders, and often not being challenged and not having much fun. Wouldn't you like to wake up when you're 40, 45, or even 55 and go to work with a skip in your step? To use a warren buffet phrase that's in, you know, you read his annual reports. I see skip in his step about every third annual report. It's one of his favorite phrases, and I think it's a wonderful phrase indeed. Someone else's company versus your own is more than a matter of how you'll spend your work days. It will reverberate to every facet of your life. And yet, the decision to become an entrepreneur is even made more difficult. Because each of us labors under the burden of high expectations, of close friends, of family, of ourselves. Each success in our career brings puts more chips on the table. With each victory come greater expectations. And in order not to disappoint others or oneself, a quote, safer, more customary, lower risk career course is often charted.

But surely we recognize that there is no absolute career safety, that risk cannot be avoided. We see that there is no right career choice. Many of the choices we've made in the past up till now have been easy ones. Choosing among attractive alternatives, places to go to school and places to go to work. Now wait a minute. Where are the guideposts? What. What am I supposed to be doing? Most of us realize that there's no right choice. We realize that intellectually, but we find it hard to accept emotionally. Certain risks, in fact, must be assumed, must be assumed consciously or not. And thus, to me, the operable question to ask is, what set of risks can I best control? I don't like what the economists call exogenous risks, uncontrollable risks. I know I have to assume risks, some risks, but can we please make them? Execution risks. That's what I like. If I perform, I'm rewarded. I start with a premise now that one of our goals in life is to die young as late as possible.

Therefore, what are some of the important questions to be asking oneself? If the door to an entrepreneurial career is to be left open, how would I define my ideal work environment as a good place to start in terms of partners? ambiguity, risks, peers, status, power, smaller versus larger enterprises, the culture structured versus unstructured, the importance of money, some things like that. As I sort through those things, what are important and what are less important to me? What skills of mine need supplementing? Secondly, do I think of supplementing them by recruiting a partner or by making myself more ready to go it alone? Three, regarding the jobs now offered or potentially available to me, let's take a look at the daily routine I would follow, the avenues of advancement, the availability of a mentor, and two very important things. What doors are opened or closed in my career path? By assuming this job, I mean, some of them produce awkward transitions to places I might want to go. What are the natural transitions out of this job, and what are the ones that are more difficult and larger leaps?

The next question is, how will I keep my perspective, my entrepreneurial perspective, and my dream alive when I'm working for someone else? How difficult will that be for me? I've learned that the easier a change is to make, the less it usually matters, and that the older we get, the harder it is to choose change. Change, indeed, is one form of hope. To risk change is to believe in tomorrow. So it behooves us to set a course whereby any job we take moves us closer to our career goal by building our skills. But the path must be visualized in advance.

Now back to the question of how to get from employment to self employment. Well, the most difficult part of any task is, Plato once said, is the beginning of the work. And that means both beginning the search and sustaining the search for one's entrepreneurial venture, whether it's a startup or a buyout. And maintaining a search, in a sense, is like maintaining spiritual beliefs. They die if they're not nurtured. Atrophy sets in. If you don't freshen that entrepreneurial mentality by reading and staying in touch with other entrepreneurs and other searchers, atrophy will indeed set in, and the quest for one's venture will be abandoned as that naive idea I had back when I was at the GSB.

One of the really important guidelines for the near term is don't spend five years getting two years experience. You require alternatives to be in a strong position to make good decisions. So you need to look at a lot of opportunities in order to refine your judgment. Okay, so now what are the risks of entrepreneurship? Failure, perhaps. But in the event of failure, do you lose your reputation? No. Do you lose your own money? I sure hope not. No. So the answer to that one's no. Do you lose other people's money? Yes. But that's where the term risk capital comes from. They're set up to take the risk. They're throwing mud at the wall, a lot of them, and hoping some of it sticks. And you're not. You're investing yourself. Huge difference.

A company won't hire you after a failure. Wrong. That's absolutely wrong. The biggest risk is that you may become constitutionally unemployable. Just don't want to work for somebody else. That could happen to you. And that's a serious comment on my part. It may just vector you enough so that it chafes to go to work for somebody else even though your own venture wasn't successful. So you have to go back somehow and reestablish your credentials in order to try again. There are many first time failed entrepreneurs who were subsequently wildly successful. When are you ready for your own venture? That's a question frequently asked. I don't know if I'm ready or not. What do you think? Well, Maxwell Maltz, in his book called Psycho Cybernetics said very simply, you're ready to do something when you can visualize yourself doing it.

But there's a relatively short time window. The right time is probably somewhere between your age now and perhaps your mid to late thirties. It's sooner rather than later. In percentage terms. Not many entrepreneurs start or buy their first ventures after the age of 40 to 45. And remember, entrepreneurs are just like you and me in ability. What they have that is distinctive are vision and conviction. Remember also that warm sense of everything going well in your career may only be the body temperature at the center of the herd. Keep in mind that the many people who have waited on the platform for just the right train while life passed them by, only to be saddled with so many responsibilities and financial constraints that they eventually couldn't get on any train. Don't let that be you.

What are the rewards of the entrepreneurial path? At the top of my list would be freedom to stretch my capabilities, to put my imprimatur on a company, to create something, to have an ethical impact on others, and to have financial independence. Now I know. I know that it's unfashionable around these halls, even considered day classe, to talk about making money. Money is a byproduct, we say, with our noses firmly in the air. Well, here's a comment about money that I offer without apology. There's a big difference between being rich and being wealthy. Being rich is having money. Being wealthy is having money and time, the fundamental difference between income and capital. Financial independence, when you're young enough to enjoy it, may be something worth working for. It gives you an opportunity to have a second career and a third career, and to be psychologically able to set out in a new direction in midlife. Thus, if you stay with a successful organization you've created, you do it out of choice, not necessity.

Mouse switching gears, a short story. My 9th grade algebra teacher once gave us a 40 minutes test. The last question worth 25%. What is the custodian's name? Though it was December and we had seen him every day for three months, no one knew his name. He became a person that day, not just a functionary. And our attitudes were permanently affected. You know, there's a confluence of the ethical and the practical in life. So resolve to win from the high road and in your quest, pause now and then to ease the burdens of your fellow travelers. I beg of you. You know, it's been said that we all go through life with partly broken hearts. Any definition of success must include service to others. We've all drunk from wells we didn't dig and been warmed by fires we didn't build. I reject the prevailing notion that the pursuit of selfishness has overtaken the possibility of compassion, and I ask you to reject it as well.

Not just by giving $500 to your local charity or taking a titular position on a hospital board, but by devoting your time and your abundant skills, which you've been given to something worthwhile, really pulling on the oars and making a difference in areas where you are best qualified to do so and are most passionate. Returning to T's Eliot's image at the end of my days, I don't want the devil to snicker and hold my coat. If I've led well and stood for something noble, I will not have to worry. You know, at this school we teach you lots of things we know you'll soon forget. It's true. Think back to your college years. How much content of those courses do you remember? And the reason we do that is because we don't know how to teach you what you'll always need to know. Compassion, commitment, concern, involvement, love. Don't risk looking back on even part of your life and realizing that you suffered from a failure of kindness.

It's been said that the only difference between love and friendship is the degree to which we can hurt each other. I submit to you that the saddest phrase of middle age is, I wish I had. That regret is inconsolable. How much better to be able to say with open eyes, I have dared and cherish no regrets. It's undeniably tougher to create your own opportunity than to be part of someone else's. But I've been down the entrepreneurial road, as you heard, and it offers unparalleled exhilaration. If you choose to take that path, ignore the naysayers, because very likely your only supporters will be other entrepreneurs and those with blind faith in you. So do it if you will. Do it if you will. I've spent some of your time talking about entrepreneurship and related topics, yet I take full note that, as mentioned, most of you will not become entrepreneurs, and I respect those career choices.

To each of you here today, I offer these words of Ben Johnson, written in the early 17th century. It is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be or standing long an oak 300 year to fall, a log at last dry, bald and sere. A lily of a day is fairer far in May, although it fall and die that night, it was the plant and flower of light. In small proportions we just beauties see and in short measure, life may perfect be. End quote. That venerable, elegant poem tells us that the beautiful lily that lived only one day in May might have made more impact than an imposing 30 zero year old tree. Impact. Your effect on others is how you will be known, how you will be remembered. In a couple of weeks, degree in hand, you'll head out to your arena of choice in this world.

It's not given to us to lead perfect lives. But we can attain perfection in short bursts of altruism, of kindness and compassion. And what should we strive for? Not for a legacy. Buildings all over this campus and the world, in fact, display the names of benefactors in bold letters. And 40 years later, who knows who they were or what they did? And few people really care. I don't intend to minimize the spirit or the utility of the gifts, only the durability of the name recognition. So let's think of the effect we have on others, of standing for a set of values or principles and living them. Did I really listen? Did I invest? Did I care? Was our interaction a transaction or a small step in the deepening of the relationship? Did I freely express my love? Turning back to the topic of careers, each of us, each of us is equipped with everything we need to experience a powerful life, full of success, full of incredible passion and joy. The difficult part is giving ourselves the permission to live it.

Those are the words of Deborah Rosado Shaw, or, as said another way, by May. Now I become myself. It's taken time, many years, and places I have been dissolved and shaken, worn other people's faces. Now I become myself. In closing, I say to you, nice start paraphrasing Robert Frost. While the woods are lovely, dark and deep, you have promises to keep and miles to go before you sleep. So go out, touch the skies, and be special because you are. Thank you.

Entrepreneurship, Education, Motivation, Career Development, Success, Self-Discovery, Stanford Graduate School Of Business