The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

The second week of class is in session here on campus and college students can be seen scurrying between buildings, carrying backpacks loaded with books. In today's class, Entrepreneurship 100, I had the distinct privilege of educating 44 freshman about mission statements and setting them on their path for success framed with one concept. "Mantra, not Mission for a start up"

The text I'm teaching from came with a DVD loaded with video clips. About the only one I'll use was one from Guy Kawasaki describing the pointlessness of a mission statement for a start up company. As he talks about minds being ruined with the thought that you have to have a mission statement to be successful, I felt somehow, I was doing my part by giving these young and impressionable students the idea that they don't have to have a mission statement to start a company, and perhaps they will never need one. If they do, we had fun in class playing with the now famous Dilbert Mission Statement Generator so they could avoid the two day, off-site process it takes to write one.

You can watch the video clip I used today in class here [link]. Sorry I couldn't embed it for ease, I'm not refined enough to figure out how to pull that off without Youtube's embed code.

Though I've never called it a mantra, the four words I live by easily fit the definition of my mantra. "Work hard - Have fun" I'm interested to see if anyone has a mantra for their life / business or what it might be if you don't have one yet.

On a side note, Guy Kawasaki is giving free autographed copies of his book, "The Art of the Start" by installing Truemors to your Facebook. [Details here]