[MUSIC PLAYING]
People have a lot of ideas of
what makes an entrepreneur.
Even the word in itself, if you
think about it, is a bit hoity-toity.
It's a bit intimidating.
Most people can't even spell it.
Probably I can't even spell it, still.
So what is an entrepreneur?
By personal experience, I have
found that entrepreneurship is often
driven not just by the desire to
create value or generate wealth,
but also from the intense
need, as a creative person,
to bring an idea to fruition.
An entrepreneur is somebody
that's figured out the way
to get good product or their
service to the audience
by figuring out what's in the middle.
I've been doing that kind
of thing since I was a kid.
I didn't even realize that
I was an entrepreneur.
| just wanted my music to touch
as many people as possible.
When I was a kid and I was
a musician and an artist,
I decided to press my own vinyl single.
And we took it around to
the college radio stations
and they started playing it.
That was taking control and figuring
out creative ways of making sure
that your music is seen the way
that you want it to be seen,
finds the people that you want
it to find, and makes the money
that you needed to
make to keep making it.
What do you think is the
biggest misperception
about entrepreneurs and about people
who classify themselves as that?
I think the biggest
myth about most founders
is that they have a plan, that
they knew what they were doing.
People like to write history books
with the benefit of hindsight
of how things worked
out and say, oh, he got
to point x, he must've wanted to
get to this promised land all along.
Whereas, almost every entrepreneur
I come across changes courses
drastically early on.
And to paraphrase Darwin,
only the adaptable survive.
And this adaptability is really what
makes the entrepreneurs I see special.
Not the single-minded focus
on getting the point x,
but knowing what to do next every
day when you're faced with what's
in front of you.
For me, I think entrepreneurship
really primarily stands for courage.
It's having that courage
to either do what's right,
do something better,
do something different,
and really to see the opportunity
where most people see challenges.
For me, one of the strongest
emotions about being an entrepreneur
is not about the buzz
words and the fast company
and ink magazines and things like that.
That it's fashionable and
cool to be an entrepreneur.
For me, it's about a
level of irritation.
And that irritation
really stems from the fact
that-- within food,
particularly, I strongly
believe that it needs to
be done very differently.
And for me, that irritation
got me to a point
where I didn't believe
that others were going
to conquer the task the same
way that I believed I could.
And it was about, really,
just putting together
the right team and the right systems in
order to conquer that particular task.
I started to go into editing, which
was initially from one tape deck
to another, just consumer tape
deck-- well, that was really hard.
I did this 20 minute comedy video.
It took me 22 hours to edit this thing.
And I said, God, this is ridiculous.
And it was that moment,
where I said, I am not
going to edit a linear
editing system ever again.
And I didn't.
So I started Avid and Avid makes
video and audio editing systems.
I think of both entrepreneurship and
rock and roll as acts of defiance.
It's human to rebel
against what is wrong.
That's what we do.
The core engine of humanity
is entrepreneurship.
I believe the core engine of
humanity is helping people
and that is at the core of
any entrepreneurial endeavor.
Every person has entrepreneurial
abilities in them, period.
Everyone.
Having the entrepreneurial spirit
and curiosity and willingness
to interact with the world as
the weaver of your own destiny,
as someone who wants to pull together
lots of different pieces in new ways--
that mindset will serve
you throughout your life,
whether you start a company or not.
Entrepreneurship is more than just
an act of starting a business.
But in many ways, it's a
way of relating and a way
of seeing the world that mirrors
very much the creative process.
If you think of an entrepreneur
as really not different
than the songwriter giving birth to
a new song or a chef creating a meal,
or any other creative person
bringing into fruition an idea
and making it real-- making
it so real that other people
can feel it and taste it.
And that is fundamentally
the job of an entrepreneur.
It's about shifting people's
perceptions and adjusting
the world just a little bit.
Or to paraphrase Steve Jobs, putting
your own little dent on the universe.
