I’ve been asked to just speak to you briefly about entrepreneurship. My name is Bill Aulet. I’m the author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship, and a professor at MIT, and the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. 

Let me just give you my little sound byte. And that is, entrepreneurship has never been more important than it is right now. And it will never get less important. It’s only going to get more and more important. That is because the rate of change is just increasing. The world will never be as slow as it is today. You find that hard to believe because it seems crazy, but it’s just going to get faster and faster. History has shown us that. So disruptions will happen, crises will happen, uncertainty will happen, adversity will happen. It’s the entrepreneurs who are the ones who are not only going to survive, but they’re going to thrive, and they’re going to solve these problems.

I think it’s very important to understand how to be a successful entrepreneur. You have to have the heart. That means you have to have the spirit, the willingness to be different. If all the fish are swimming this way, you have to not only be willing to swim another way, but enjoy swimming that way. And then once you want to do that, you want to change the world for the better because no matter what it is, success has an expiration date.  You have to have the heart to be able to do it. But then the heart is not enough, you have to have the head, you have to have the hands, and you have to have the community.  By that I mean, it all starts with the heart.  The bird sings from within, but then you have to know what to do. And that’s the knowledge. That’s what you get from, you know, what we teach at MIT with first principles like disciplined entrepreneurship, but then you have to be able to put it into practice. That’s the hands. That’s why entrepreneurship is a craft. It’s not taught theoretically. It’s taught through theory and practice, going back and forth, spotted an apprenticeship mode.  And the last “h,” so you’ve got to have the heart for the spirit, the head for the knowledge, the hands for the capability, because that’s how you implement this. But when you implement it, you have to implement it with others. And that’s the last “h,” home. Entrepreneurship is about community. Howard Stevenson once defined entrepreneurship as “a pursuit of opportunities with resources beyond your control.”  Where do you get those resources? From the community that you build. And that doesn’t mean everybody is your friend. This is not a communist activity. It’s your need to build a strong community of people who are givers. And of course, they’re going to be takers at time as you are going to be. But that’s the nature of a community.

So that’s my advice for you at Sound Bytes. It starts with the heart, the bird sings from within. But once you have that mindset, your willingness, excitement, to be different to change the world to make it better, you know, the success will be redefined in the future and you’re the one to do that. You have to know how to do it with the head. You have to be able to do it with the hands, and do not forget nothing gets done alone. You need the home, the community. So good luck, and hopefully this was helpful to you.

Berk Alp Yakici, Longitude fellow, Rice University:

Thank you Mr. Aulet – this was truly informative and helpful. To me, one important takeaway from this sound byte is realizing how fast the world is changing and how the rate of change is increasing. This is becoming abundantly clear as disruptions, like the pandemic, are changing our daily habits. For once, we rely on technology and innovation more than ever: to order takeout, groceries, to communicate. To do our work and take online classes, or to find the most effective algorithms for allocation and distribution of vaccines. It is very important to be aware of this momentum.

Another takeaway for me is the value of having a passion and enjoying swimming in different directions. In my freshman year at Rice University, I attended numerous events at the LILIE Lab. After hearing experiences of successful founders, I noted that they spend an immeasurable amount of time on building their startups, and those who pitch their businesses well, oftentimes, are the ones that are really passionate about what the work stands for.

I also truly enjoyed how Mr. Aulet emphasized the importance of having a community. This is something that I, personally, sometimes overlook as well. A successful entrepreneur needs strong resources, and that comes with a strong community.

As Mr. Aulet emphasizes, the rate of change is only going to increase. To solve problems emerging from a rapidly changing world, I will for sure keep the 4 “h”s in my mind: heart for the spirit, head for the knowledge, hands for the capability, andhome for the community.