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Robo-Entrepreneurs, Jobless Economy And Being Entrepreneurial: A Conversation With Howard Tullman
Robo-Entrepreneurs, Jobless Economy And Being Entrepreneurial: A Conversation With Howard Tullman
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I explore business, leadership
and humanity in our technological age.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH
Howard Tullman
Howard Tullman is CEO of 1871, a serial entrepreneur, venture
investor, art collector and an alumnus of Northwestern University.
For Howard Tullman, CEO of
1871, entrepreneurship is a calling. In 2012, INC
Magazine referred to him as “the most accomplished,
best-connected entrepreneur you’ve never heard of.” He’s built more companies
than most people have worked for (bio here). More than
that, Tullman has devoted much of his career to enabling others to create the
future.
In our
conversation at 1871 in Chicago, by many measures America’s top entrepreneurial
ecosystem, Tullman shared wisdom about topics ranging from entrepreneurs as
rock stars, the impending jobless economy (it’s real) and robo-entrepreneurs
(they’re not— yet), to how education must transform for people to thrive in
this technology-driven century. Here are a few highlights.
1871, photo by Greg Rothstein
Howard
Tullman at 1871 interviewing entrepreneur and SharkTank star Daymond John. 1871
hosts over 1,000 events each year and dignitaries from around the world.
“Not only has the entrepreneur
become a rock star… all the jocks want to be entrepreneurs.”
It used
to be that young people aspired to be Michael Jordan or Mick Jagger. Today,
many young people aspire to be Mark Zuckerberg. While few people will ever
become a Zuckerberg, the good news is that there are far wider opportunities
for people seeking entrepreneurial success than hoping to become a National
Basketball League star.
“We couldn’t write a rule book
if our life depended on it.”
As
organizations find what works, they create structure and process to drive
efficiency. This translates to a range of rules, explicit and implicit. For an
organization like 1871, comprised of hundreds of startups and thousands of
contributors seeking to generate value in new ways, creating too many rules
threatens the ecosystem’s effectiveness.
“We’re about expectations of
performance and not rules of behavior.”
Rather
than rules, which can become rigid and tend to drive out whatever doesn’t fit,
Tullman and his team set high expectations for both performance and values, or
“principles” in Tullman’s nomenclature, and expect people find their own ways
to success. Seeking performance alone can lead to failure. Enforcing the right
principles mitigates risk and provides a foundation for lasting success.
Focusing on performance encourages everyone to excel-- or leave. “You can grow
by adoption, which means people get with the program, or by attrition…. It’s
fine either way.”
“Seeking consensus… is a
formula for mediocrity.”
Most
established organizations create structures and processes biased in favor of
consensus and/or peace. As Tullman describes, “no one wants to be the bad in
someone else’s day.” But navigating from idea to market success is a tough,
unaccommodating quest. Seeking consensus from too many decision makers and
influencers risks circumscribing or even destroying an opportunity by
conforming it to too many of the constraints of the world as it is today. A
truly transformative concept by definition upends someone’s apple cart.
Spending
too much time generating consensus also means you haven’t spent that same time
engaging with the people who really matter-- customers.
“This is a different kind of
change…. This is a wholesale elimination.”
Commenting
on the impact of emerging technologies on jobs, Tullman agrees we’re facing
dramatic shifts in what opportunities will be available for human beings. In
our discussion, he shares tangible advice for transforming educational
paradigms. As the founder of a major digital media school in Chicago, Tribeca
Flashpoint College, Tullman speaks from experience. He recommends finding
projects meaningful to students and allowing them to discover what’s required
to excel. “If you say to somebody, ‘I’m going to teach you English,’ they’re
gone. If you say, ‘I’m going to help you with your script for your movie,’
they’re all there.”
But it’s
not just about millennials. “The real risk… is major corporations are not
investing in upskilling people who are 50.” The 1871 community exemplifies that
entrepreneurship doesn’t have an age range. “The respect and exchange of ideas
between some 25 year olds and some 60 year olds is really astonishing…. I think
the 60 year olds are more excited than the 25 year olds.”
The Long View
Near the
end of our conversation, Tullman took the long view. “You wouldn’t want to look
back and say that you spent a great deal of your time working on something that
really doesn’t matter.” We each have limited attention during our time on
Earth. Unimportant things tend to dominate day-to-day activities. It takes
discipline and self-knowledge to discover and pursue what is truly meaningful,
and the answer differs for each person. Tullman lives his answer.
You can find me at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern
University.