SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
During the course of my conversation with
veteran entrepreneur Steve Blank , he described
himself as the "busiest retired man you've ever
seen." That's a fair assessment. Blank is a
prolific blogger and a teacher and lecturer at
universities like Berkeley and Columbia. He also
works with organizations like the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science
Foundation to, in his words, "commercialize
science" and innovation across the country.
Sounds like a busy schedule, but Blank is used to
this lifestyle.
The New York-bred Blank has spent more than
30 years being involved in the world of startups
-- both as an entrepreneur founding eight
companies and a venture capitalist -- in Silicon
Valley. Blank, along with fellow entrepreneurs Eric
Ries and Alex Osterwalder, is credited with
developing the "Lean Startup" movement,
an approach that aims to help business owners
build their startups with more efficiency.
We caught up with Blank to talk about the
importance of family and following your passion.
Related: 50 Signs You Might Be an Entrepreneur
Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you
have done differently when you were first starting
up?
A: I don't think looking back I would have
changed a thing.
I followed my passion. I guess when you've done
that in your life it's hard to say you would do
anything different. I did everything I wanted.
Q: What is your best advice for aspiring
entrepreneurs?
A: I think you should do something that you can't
wait to show up to work in the morning. And if you
don't have that feeling, you're in the wrong job.
Entrepreneurship, particularly if you're a founder,
is a calling, not a job. That's biggest piece of
advice I could give any entrepreneur. The
problem today is that it's cool and trendy, so you
think you should do it. Entrepreneurship is for
crazy people, much like an artists. You don't get
assigned to be a sculptor, a painter or a writer.
It's something that you can't get rid of. It's inside
of you, dying to get out.
Related: 10 Things That Set Entrepreneurs Apart
From the 9-to-5 Crowd
Q: What are you glad you didn’t know then that
you know now?
A: I'm glad I didn't have kids until later in life. A
dirty secret of entrepreneurship is that you never
get a memo that says you can't undo personal
and family relationships.
I watched people -- who I thought were gods at
work -- who had kids that by the time they left
home hated their parents because they had never
seen them.
I would opt for a happy family over a pile of
money. It was harder doing the family right, cost
me one marriage in Silicon Valley but luckily there
were no kids. I remember one day my ex-wife
asked me, what’s more important: me or your
job? I remember sitting there, having to think
about it. And then we both looked at each other
and realized the marriage was over. That was
sad, because I wasn't mature enough to
understand there were more important things
than just doing the thing that was driving my
passion. My other passion should be the family.
And finally when I did get married again and have
kids, I had a greater passion, which was to have a
great family.
I don't understand why we're embarrassed to talk
about this [topic] or see it as some sort of sign of
weakness. Entrepreneurship is 24/7, but
entrepreneurship without a family is meaningless.
It's one of those fool's gold things.
Related: 7 Entrepreneurs You Should Start
Following Now
Q: What do you enjoy about teaching future
entrepreneurs?
We started something which became the Lean
Startup Movement. It's a way to build startups a
lot more efficiently than we used to. We've
invented a methodology that has changed
people's lives. We changed the way
entrepreneurs built startups and we've also
changed how VC's think about funding startups
and we've changed how school's teach
entrepreneurship.
My intent in teaching is that I realized human
beings don't learn genetically, we don’t pass on
our knowledge via DNA. We have to pass it on by
making it digestible and repeatable for the next
generation. So I decided there was a body of
knowledge that we might want to pass on to the
next generation of entrepreneurs, so they didn't
have to learn it all again [on their own].
Q: What was the best advice you were ever
given?
A: Find out what customers want and need. You
can't be smarter than the collective intelligence of
your customers.
- This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
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