Last Thursday night I had the privilege of hearing a pioneer in nanotechnology speak at the University of Texas at Dallas, sponsored by the UTD Entrepreneur’s Club.  James Von Ehr, after a stint as an engineer at Texas Instruments, traded a stable work life in the bureaucratic corporate world for one in entrepreneurism.

Now one of James’ claim to fame is that he has invested more of his personal money into nanotechnology than any other individual in the world. The audience responded with chuckles to his “I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad.”  His nanotechnology research company is Zyvex Group.

As an aside, for those of you to whom “nanotechnology” is new, “nano” means really tiny.  Nanotechnology is all about manually moving  parts of atoms around in order to change them into different atoms; like converting hydrogen into water and oxygen, or maybe a little more excitingly someday, sand into sugar or coal into diamonds.  More specifically, while there are chemical processes already to perform “atomic conversions” such as refining sugars and petrochemicals, nanotechnology is different in that the subatomic changes are actually performed by tiny machines.  Machines so itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny that they can’t be seen by the naked eye or even with a magnifying glass.  Real, literal machines.  Nanotechnology.

But before we join James where he is, let’s take a look at where he came from…

Since there are lots of details readily available about him, I’ll hit the high spots to make my points.

James started by stating that early on he had never considered or even thought to consider himself as an entrepreneur.  But his life and work would ultimately prove that he was and is.

After leaving TI, James and a former co-worker started a little programming company out of his home with a $7,000 investment in a computer and office supplies.  When Apple came out with their first laser printer, James and Co. created some font-creation software for artists and designers who used the printer.  Font-creation software turned into graphics software.

After only a few years, Macromedia purchased his little upstart for $100 million.

ENTREPRENEURISM
At the time he sold his company, he contemplated the implications of his rightfully-earned wealth. Many people immediately think “retire”. But James’ response to that was, “No way”. In taking a look at how he left his j-o-b because of the typical culture of can’t-get-any-real-work done, and how he started his own little company where he could actually be productive, the answer becomes clear to us who are familiar with it. James was not just a software codehead or necessarily a financial genius. No, first and foremost from my point of view, he is an ENTREPRENEUR.

There it is, right there… my point.  His success is highly related to the fact that he is an entrepreneur.  A lot of people incorrectly define an entrepreneur as “someone who has their own business.”  However, owning your own business would actually be a product of being an entrepreneur and not a factor in being one.

So, what is an “entrepreneur”?  Ask 10 people and you may get a hundred answers.  Here’s one of mine in a nutshell.

An entrepreneur is someone who is not satisfied with the status quo.

There are many ways your could describe an entrepreneur in terms of personal qualities, traits, and characteristics, but the fact remains the same that people with entrepreneurial spirits are always looking for ways to do things better and to make them better.  All things great came from entrepreneurial thinking.

While many big businesses tend to be bound up in bureaucracy, they started off entrepreneurially, or at least identified the value in other companies that did, and then acquired them.  And in many cases, big businesses will inspire and encourage entrepreneurial thinking among their employees – companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple come readily to mind.  Marketing-driven companies are especially likely to espouse this.

CONTRAPRENEURISM
On the other side of the spectrum there are entities that suppress entrepreneurial thinking.  One that comes to mind is the US government.  As a whole, the government would rather come up with entitlement and welfare programs at the expense of the taxpayers than to foster a healthy business environment.  Businesses and the leaders within them by virtue of their accomplished earnings pushing them into higher tax brackets are penalized via disproportionate taxation to the point where in some circumstance the incentive of free-market success is taken away – absconded with by the government.

Another type of entity that stifles entrepreneurism has been the mortgage industry.  Having worked for two very large mortgage companies, I saw first hand how entrepreneurial thinking was actually punished.  Top performers and progressive thinkers were pushed out the door to make room for more sluggardly duff-sitters to take up space in a windowed office and receive the title of vice president.  Technologically, companies like Countrywide Mortgage and Bear Stearns were at least 15 years behind the times – extensively using spreadsheets and desktop databases to manage critical data operations instead of tooling up with modern enterprise information systems.  That is not to say that there was not an interest in their so-called leadership.  As you know, many people in the mortgage industry made a lot of money – before going to jail or bankrupting their company or going out of business.  But a desire to make money in these cases had nothing to do with entrepreneurism – instead it was simply called greed.

Having spoken first about the government, then about then about the mortgage industry, then about greed, we must acknowledge that all three have gone nicely together.  It was the US Government during the Clinton administration that came up with mandates labeled as equal opportunity which were forced into the mortgage industry.  Lenders were required to provide loans to people who had no business receiving them.  Now in addition to many private sector companies such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns (and dozens of others), large government-ordained institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have met the end of their viable lives – and under the oversight of the US Government at that!  Short, simple, true.

Government produces nothing, earns nothing.  In its desire for power, it needs its citizens to feel like victims.  And by nature, the victim mentality cannot coexist with the entrepreneur mentality.  Entrepreneurs are overcomers.  Victims need handouts.  And when you look at the leadership of today’s government and you read about pork-laden “stimulus” bills that amount to close to 1 trillion dollars, and you hear about greedy financial institutions getting bailed out with billions and billions of dollars, who do you think is being served (catered to)?

By the way, the main job of the US Government is to protect its citizens – especially the ones who are legal and who vote legally – it is not to be a nanny state and tell restaurants they can’t serve fatty foods or to tell businesses who they must hire or to outlaw incandescent light bulbs.  Doing these things requires tax increases to legislate, regulate, and enforce them, and works to transfer the power from the people into the hands of the government, and also redistributes the wealth of the true producers into the hands of politically-designated “victims”.

My point is not to get into a treatise on the ills of the government, which could easy reach hundreds of pages with only a few breaths (besides, Ronald Reagan already said it quite succinctly, “Government is not the solution, government is the problem”),  but instead to illustrate a broad spectrum of creative/operational culture and where entrepreneurism fits in.  Though entrepreneurs are usually driven by having entrepreneurism in their blood, there is also a point at which that entrepreneurial spirit can be stifled.

IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATION
To you the modern career builder and hunter of Internet jobs, my recommendation is to summon the entrepreneur within you and ask yourself a few thought-provoking questions.  What kind of a job do you want and what kind of company do you want to work for?  Look around, where do you see entrepreneurism and where do you not see it?  Knowing that government-regulated entities Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can go bankrupt, do you think more government regulation is going to make the American economy better and safer?  Knowing that the state of California is issuing I.O.U.’s instead of tax refunds to its residents, do you really believe that wellfare and unemployment are always going to take care of those in need?  Do you honestly believe that Social Security is going to be around to pay you back in your retirement for all your years of putting money into it?

We were promised “change” with a new presidential administration.  Bailouts and a trillion dollar pork bill – those things are certainly change.  The stock market has dropped significantly since the new administration was voted into office on November 3, 2008; the Dow Jones Industrial fell from 9,319 to close at 7,850 on Friday February 12, 2009 – just about 16% in 3 months – after already sinking 34% after a precipitous fall from from an all-time high of 14,093 in October ‘07.

Before anyone cries about this being a partisan political argument, let me pre-empt you by first saying that perhaps there is a good case for such a claim.  However, instead of getting off into such an argument right here and right now, let’s just agree that there have been contributors from both parties to bring us to where we currently are on our economic path.  We might also agree that change would be good.  But couldn’t we also agree that we want the change to be good change?  At this time we should be asking whether it is.

Entrepreneurism also means “change” – change for the better.

So let me give you some advice.  Don’t look to the government to provide solutions.  Solutions come from free thinkers in free enterprise.  Our country’s success in being leaders in so many fields for so many decades has been our freedom and individual rights, and rule of law.  But when our liberties are taken away and judges start making law instead of interpreting it, and legislators are corrupted and not prosecuted, and tax cheats are appointed to presidential posts, then our leadership as a country is in jeopardy.

This article started with pure business entrepreneurism in mind, and then strongly began to identify the government’s role in that picture.  The reason is because the government is an extremely critical factor in how businesses grow by virtue of how the national entrepreneurial environment is either fostered or stifled.

WHO ARE THEY?  ARE YOU AMONG THEM?
Entrepreneurs like James Von Ehr, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Ray Crock, Mark Cuban, Jack Lalanne, to name only a very few, are the ones take our country and our economy forward.  But not just them; also the entrepreneurial thinkers who work for them and with them and alone or with others.  An entrepreneur can be a rich business owner, or she can be cashier at the local drug store who thinks up better ways to do things.  Entrepreneurs are problems solvers, not problem dwellers.  That does not mean they look through rose-colored glasses and can’t see problems.  No, in fact they are likely to notice problems that others don’t see or have become numb to.  But instead of whining about problems, they figure out ways to fix them.

Mr. Von Ehr wanted to make software, and he wanted to make it better.  But he found that the structure of his gigantic employer was more accommodating to paper shuffling than expediting his intents.  So instead of staying locked into a dead-end job for years and complaining about it, he did something about it.  Unfortunately for many employers, they would rather lose talented people than figure out how to improve things for everyone.

Entrepreneurs cannot sit still, and therefore are always moving forward toward good things for themselves and others.  Personally speaking, in addition to starting, running, and selling my own small businesses, I practice my entrepreneurism for my clients and employers large and small.  That might mean creating a new little database in Microsoft Access to manage requirements reports for my boss, or perhaps setting up a personal online forum to manage project documents collaboratively.  I thrive in those environments where entrepreneurism is encouraged and rewarded – like the Wal-Mart Home Office where I consulted last year.  But I feel oppressed in entrepreneurially-hostile environments like some mortgage companies or certain telecom’s IT shops.  Strategically speaking, I like to try to get a feel for the entrepreneurability of a company before I talk very much to a recruiter about it.

CONCLUSION
OK, that’s it.  I’m done.  So recap, and go…

• Government is not the solution.
• Entrepreneurs are the ones who find the solutions.
• Look for entrepreneurs around you to be encouraged by.
• Be entrepreneurial in your job or on your own.

Thank you Mr. Von Ehr for inspiring me to take a fresh look at the entrepreneur in me.

PC (POST CONCLUSION)
Nanotechnology is on the cutting edge.  Van Ehr says that breakthroughs into large scale commercial application have taken longer than he had expected.  But he has adapted many of his discoveries along the way into tools that he licenses, manufactures, and sells to others in the nanotech space.   This enables additional revenues to press on toward the goal.  Entrepreneurs and pioneers do not quit!

It is no surprise that this entrepreneur and his entrepreneurial team are looking for entrepreneurial people.  On the Zyvex career page, they say, “We are looking for creative thinkers and problem solvers; we’re most interested in people who can establish directions, not merely follow them.”

In regards to the Internet Jobs theme, James and a colleague are diligently collaborating on some control software for some of their new machines.  Being of the same vision, and knowing how each other thinks, they are able to work on the same program together, thanks to the Internet.  And thanks also to the Internet that it allows them to conduct their work virtually continuously 24 hours a day; the fact that one is in Dallas and the other in Singapore.  Cool, and becoming more and more common.

Someday all jobs will be Internet jobs in one way or another.

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