women, men, entrepreneurship & making mistakes

This post is based on the NPR morning edition story I happened to hear recently with Steven Inskeep and Shankar Vedantam. The link to the audio and the transcript is below. Everything  is spot on in terms of women and entrepreneurship and a little bit about differences between the genders. The fact that overconfidence can be a good thing in terms of being an entrepreneur is interesting. The tie in re gender men appear to be overconfident more than women and that might lead to the ability to be successful as an entrepreneur.

The research focused on here is of Kickstarter campaigns used by male vs female entrepreneurs and hits on overconfidence meaning if you failed to raise $10,000 for your goal by like $9,950 that maybe you should be discouraged and give up but that most men will just think they have to re-try, re-tool and come up with another idea, which then subsequently will succeed. Women, on the other hand, when they do not meet the goal of $10,000 by any amount - they will feel this just is not for them and give up without trying a second time.

I get this - I really do. I can speak personally here about the challenges of balancing the commitment it takes to be in business for yourself and the rewards that come from making that choice. When you have something that you feel passionate about and that you truly feel your product or service or even just the words you type/share can help others, it is a wonderful sense of accomplishment. My insights on how to interview, how to write your resume, how to take your next step is what I love to share -but at the same time, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post, it can be hard to share and you do worry about embarrassing yourself by putting yourself out there.

However, I do think I fall into being an "overconfident" person and that is why, even as a woman, I am an entrepreneur and have been since 2002.  Being an entrepreneur means that you might fail but failure can happen in any choice of job or career and if you keep an open mind and are brave enough to share yourself and your commitment to your product or service, you will definitely be more likely to succeed than fail.  I believe that as an entrepreneur if you stay committed and learn every day, you can have a successful business. That does not mean you won't ever make a mistake - we are all human and mistakes are part of life - the key is to learn from our mistakes and then never to repeat them.  At least, that is what I try to do.

I have tooled and retooled my offerings and really taken my passion for teaching and helping others take their next step to a new level this year by finally sharing me and not standing behind a company called "Business Tools 2 Go" or any of my other iterations. In the past launches of my entrepreneurial pursuits, I did not publicize me and my thoughts and advice as the face and thoughts of the company. I have to say being brave enough to really brand myself as part of this company is what, I think, has made all the difference to the success of The Next Step and will make me an even better Professor to help you become an entrepreneur, too.

I thank you all for being on this journey with me and look forward to making more people just a little bit "overconfident" and able to launch their own businesses through my partnership with Wagner College Office for Lifelong Learning. Check out the link below for my course information and let me know in the comments what you think about being out there as an entrepreneur and balancing the commitment? How do you handle your mistakes? Happy Hunting!

NPR.org Why are Women Less Likely to Become Entrepreneurs Than Men

Entrepreneurship: building your own business