Entrepreneurial spirit can’t be taught

  • Tuesday, November 25, 2014 2:12pm
  • Business

I have been giving talks on entrepreneurship to business leaders, college students and other groups for the past few years.

The most common question I’m asked by college students is how did I know I was an entrepreneur and what classes should they take to become one themselves.

I answer them with a rhetorical question: Are you obsessed about something right now?

Is there a problem in the world or a process you see that you just can’t stop thinking about in the shower, in class and late at night?

If there is, I point out in a Jeff Foxworthy-like tone, then you might be an entrepreneur.

Santa Clara is Catholic Jesuit university located in the Silicon Valley in California, arguably one the most entrepreneurial places on the planet.

Over the past two decades, the unique blending of ideas, capital and energy there has re-shaped the type of student they attract.

“There are lots of really smart people and lots of really creative people in businesses and institutions today,” explained an admissions staffer on a recent visit. “We call them smart-creatives here in Silicon Valley. But to be a leader for tomorrow, people must be especially trustworthy and at the same time obsessive about solving a problem.”

Santa Clara “seeks to admit and develop students who have natural entrepreneurial traits and are likely, just as the Jesuits did when they formed 450 years ago, to do heroic things.”

Nearly one-third of their student body were captains of a sport in high school and more than 70 percent held leadership positions earned by a vote of peers, he added as a point of emphasis.

“They are top students, but they are also people whom others trust to lead them.”

Down the road from Santa Clara, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, the two men who transformed Google into world dominance today, offer a similar take of the modern entrepreneur in their book, “How Google Works.”

They write about a pivotal point in the mid-2000s when they launched their ambitious business plan that had, as a unique set of features, no marketing or advertising strategy, no budget, no department heads and no formal tactics.

What their plan did have, they noted, was an obsessive, entrepreneurial idea built over a transparent, open and honest platform.

It worked.

My journey in real estate with my very dynamic business partner and brother, Shawn Hoban, has been similarly obsessive and decidedly entrepreneurial, I tell students.

Recruiters today up-sell a healthy live-work balance and applicants for leadership positions they send our way often ask about that.

We have an answer, of course.

But the question itself often creates a separation for us right away because for most entrepreneurs there’s no on-and-off switch where you live in one place and you work in another.

You’re just “on” all the time.

The truth is, like most entrepreneurs, some of our ideas work, some don’t. With experience, you try to reduce the number that don’t.

As I explain to students, though, the obsession of being the best at something never goes away and in entrepreneurs it’s hard to kill.

Santa Clara University is tapping into that entrepreneurial spirit as it works to develop tomorrow’s leaders. Google became a verb in the English language because of it.

Entrepreneurship can’t be taught through a book or a class, I always tell them.

It’s a way of seeing the world and engaging in it. It’s the “it” in “it factor.”

Tom Hoban is CEO of The Coast Group of Companies. Contact him at 425-339-3638 or tomhoban@coastmgt.com or visit www.coastmgt.com. Twitter: @Tom_P_Hoban.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.