In support of talk by Darring Disley on mindsets and motivations of entrepreneurs

1. If your motive is only to make money you are more than likely to make very
different choices than if you want to change the world
Enterprise Tuesday has had its next inspirational speaker – Dr Darrin Disley –
parallel biotech entrepreneur and founding CEO of Horizon Discovery. His talk
was focused on motivation and mindsets.
We have posted his slides to www.xcxcxcxcxc I would look at them as they help
to summarise definitions of mindsets from literature.
Darrin talked about two basic mindsets – one that says I have what it takes and
now I shall go forth and leverage that (fixed) and the other which is growth
oriented that says I shall keep on learning and adapting. Of course Darrin is
British – and I am kind of with him on this – there is a third way – the
transitional mindset – whereby if we accept we are who we are then we begin to
realize what we need to do to change – but if we are delusional about our
mindset being completely open – then we may well actually be stuck!!
There is an irony – and only your own strong sense of self-awareness and a
reality check from people who care and are honest will affirm this. Why is it
important?
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviours require us to have an
appreciative mindset; where we always see opportunities for new things, see
possibilities in events, people and actions. A strong analytical mind that looks for
pitfalls and problems will too quickly focus on narrowing down options when in
reality we need to be open and adapt to changes. We need to be agile, alert to
opportunities and be able to listen to customers and general feedback. Of course
this does not mean you park your common sense or critical ability.
This kind of mindset turns problems into opportunities and perhaps reduces a
fear of failure too – which is so important in entrepreneurship. I think it is only
when the desire for success out weighs the fear of failure that we can act.
On the topic of motivations – Darrin set out the literature on the topic of the hot
buttons that exist to get people moving towards a purpose. In his case – a strong
sense of independence, desire to help, need for recognition were among the
drivers. Until we know what ticks our boxes and those of our team members we
will not have a united team that functions towards a common purpose. Darrin
told us his story via the “good, bad and ugly” companies he had started and
worked on.
In the end – it is very clear that in the case of this entrepreneur – vision and
values are the bigger drivers than economic gain – although economic gain is
also finally important – afterall how do you measure the eventual ability to give
back unless you make something in the first place.
His current success is Horizon Discovery and several investments in startups.
Thank you Darrin.