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I have frequent and recurring conversations with students about how to build an entrepreneurial career path. In other words, I'm frequently put on the spot to answer the question: "How do I go from being a student at the Leeds School of Business to being an entrepreneur?" I've come to answer that question in two parts.

The first part is understanding and leveraging the value of the entrepreneurship courses that students can take in the program, and that the fundamental importance of entrepreneurship education is two-fold: It teaches students how to identify, validate and act on an idea. And it also teaches students how to draw on all disciplines of business - management, strategy, marketing, finance, operations and project management, and more - and to integrate them all into a business model that one can articulate to experienced investors and entrepreneurs in the form of a business plan.

The second part is every bit as important, and answers the question "how can students build networks of trusted advisers, potential team members and a variety of other resources that will prove crucial to their project or business success?" It also predicts what happens when proven entrepreneurial achievers and leaders gather in close proximity for any length of time. We call these outcomes "productive collisions." It's also referred to by others as the power of place.

The Deming Center places enormous emphasis on helping our students to plant themselves in the entrepreneurial laboratory that is Boulder and our surrounding region. We can open the doors, but our students must be proactive and relentless in taking advantage of the networks which we can help them to join. The work is then up to them. I've been encouraged by how well our students "get it," and how well that visibility within and access to our dynamic business community serves our mission and the aspirations of our students.

This enthusiasm for creating these productive collisions creates a challenge for me and my colleagues to keep track of students, as many of them are simultaneously steeped in 2 or 3 projects or internships - and testing different sectors and types of businesses. We at the Deming Center are rewarded most for our work when we witness those opportunities opening themselves to students.

In the end, I've come to the conclusion that the surest track to launching a career as an entrepreneur is to position yourself in a community of entrepreneurs - people who have a shared energy and passion to play a role in creating something; people who thrive on creative and innovative projects and who have a high capacity for ambiguity, challenge and risk. So if there's any recommendation to be made, it's to live in the right community, the right neighborhood. Hang around in a group of like-minded, self-described entrepreneurs and it will be almost impossible to not become one. It's clear - the path to entrepreneurial career opportunities is all about the "hood".

In Part I of To Be (or not to be), I mentioned the lifestyle issues that plague students when considering the entrepreneur's path, and the daunting, binary decision-making that business students can fall prey to.  In Part II, I wanted to mention the kinds of academic support our students are encouraged to accept.

The core courses of an entrepreneurship curriculum include topics on innovation, market assessment and feasibility, and business modeling and planning.  They are fundamentally about how to take an idea and advance it to a business opportunity: How to identify, test, and deploy an idea; how to take it from some stage of creative insight to something that is tangible and viable.  Entrepreneurship courses teach students how to do exactly that. 

How many people think they have an idea but have no clue what to do about it?  The world is filled with such people and a huge number of possibly excellent ideas lie dormant for lack of a basic understanding and the skills to act on them.  Those skills and the understanding of the critical thinking and assessment process that are required are critically important to start-up business ideas.  But the same skills are valuable in many organizations including emerging growth companies, established companies who are searching for new business opportunities or simply trying to be more innovative, and even to non-profit organizations. (As I mentioned in Part I, this is often called "Intrapreneurship.")

These courses, especially the feasibility analysis and business planning courses also add another dimension to a business education.  Business planning requires the integration of every aspect of business. It requires a financial plan, a marketing plan, a strategy, the identification of required management skills and an operations plan - and further the integration of all of these different business disciplines.  Students go through many business programs without every understanding the value of that integrative process - the bigger picture.

The process of starting with an idea, analyzing it, organizing a plan for building a business around it and then being able to organize their vision into a business model and being able to articulate it and present it to potential investors is a fundamentally valuable experience.

I've had several discussions just recently with groups of 1st year MBA students.  They're coming to the end of their first year, either heading for or still seeking just the right internship opportunity, and already anticipating activities and priorities for their second year.

Many are among the new leadership of GEA, Entrepreneurial Solutions, and other organizations.  I also spent some time reviewing their personal statements - one-pagers that they prepare to introduce themselves to their fellow classmates as they enter the program, or prepare to explain what brought them to Leeds; what they hope to gain from their MBA experience. Almost always they state something about being an entrepreneur or about gaining entrepreneurial skills to guide their career direction. And yet many seem to struggle with the question "Will I or Will I not be an entrepreneur?"

I'm constantly amazed by the spectrum of projects in which they're engaged, opportunities that they're exploring, the breadth of their interests, and the creativity of their ideas.  However, I often pick up on a sense that they are struggling with a fundamental decision about whether or not they can be an entrepreneur. When I dig deeper it seems that the decision takes on a larger dimension - that the decision is not just about taking certain courses, but that it carries with it the weighty, either/or decision to commit to the entrepreneur's life.

In a way it causes certain students to self-select a path away from entrepreneurship.  The reasons are many: Some don't have a good idea, and feel that's a non-starter; some are not sure they can take the financial risk. (Student loans, anyone?) Some are not sure they have the leadership skills.

The irony is that virtually all student state as the reason for choosing the Leeds School included the strength of the entrepreneurship program, the reputation of the Leeds School and its Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Boulder's reputation as an extraordinary community of entrepreneurs, and students' repeated, collective statement that they want to gain the skills and experience to build a career in an innovative company. (See also: "Intrapreneurship.")

I usually launch into such conversations with the observation that every few years the press reminds us that the average age of a Silicon Valley start-up CEO is about 42. The majority of those new entrepreneurial founders have gained extensive business experience and deep domain expertise; they've demonstrated management and leadership skills, and have built extensive professional networks prior to starting a company. It's true that there are notable exceptions, and every year we have some really promising businesses that are launched by our graduates.  But it is important for students to understand that there are alternative paths to entrepreneurial opportunities. It's a shame to see any student opt out because of misconceptions about the multiple paths to becoming and being an entrepreneur.

I want our students to understand that entrepreneurship is a mindset.  That the skills that they can acquire from our courses and from mentors and from their experiences in entrepreneurial companies can be applied effectively in many different settings.  And that those who have acquired those skills and experiences will be well equipped - perhaps many years after they graduate - to be more alert to identifying their own opportunity or to be invited to join a team that is forming around an opportunity.  And they can then be confident that they have the skills to assess, to plan and to succeed in pursuing an entrepreneurial opportunity.

In Part II of this series, I'll mention how an education in entrepreneurship lends itself to the entrepreneurial mindset and lifestyle, and what happens when knowledge and passion intersect.

It's a toss-up between caffeine and networking as to which is the primary energy source for entrepreneurs.  But the genome of every entrepreneur includes a networking gene - check out the research - QED.

We all know and appreciate the importance of entrepreneurial ecosystems.  We stress this to our students from the first day they arrive on campus.  It is remarkably easy to network in our business community, and is a critically important part of the experience of our students as they get their educational experience.

But, surprisingly, it's not intuitive.  To some it is an intimidating thing.  To others it is too indefinite; they don't always appreciate that 2nd and 3rd degrees of separation are not an impediment, but rather a pathway to use an initial connection to lead to a second and a third before the synapses fire.

I had an experience just before the holiday that demonstrates, however, just how easy networking can be--sometimes by accident.

I was rushing late one afternoon to attend a pre-holiday reception for an organization in Boulder.  I knew roughly where it was taking place, but the names of the bars and restaurants in the area had gone through recent changes and I wasn't clear about the specific location. I reached the general area, parked, and with collar up and hat pulled down against the cold and windy weather I headed across the street, looked for a lively venue - and spotting one - entered without further thought.

Upon entering I observed that it was indeed a lively group. There were several familiar faces, and again without further thought, I accepted a drink and went looking for my first conversation.  I was almost immediately engaged in animated conversation with a number of people including students, business colleagues and familiar faculty members, but it began to slowly dawn on me that it was not the group with whom I had intended to meet. Instead I had accidentally crashed the holiday gathering of the staff, faculty, students and supporters of the Environmental Studies department--ENVS.  ENVS is one of our truly outstanding departments at CU Boulder, and our dual degree program - MBA/MS in Environmental Studies is one of our most excellent and competitive from an admissions perspective.  So I was not among strangers - but the enthusiasm with which this gate crasher was included in the celebration was in the best spirit of the networker's credo.

By the end of the evening I'd had several terrific conversations during which I'd received and offered referrals to several other folks, and enjoyed hearing and suggesting great ways in which our two schools could work even more collaboratively in addressing the world's really big challenges with sustainability. 

Happy Networking in 2010!  I can only wonder what might have happened had I arrived at the event for which I'd set out.