创业导师：创业需要一点妄想

    从服装交换服务公司thredUP到网站优化服务公司CloudFlare，哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）最成功的初创公司秘诀是什么？这些公司的创始人都会指向同一个人：哈佛资深创业教授汤姆•艾森曼。由他开设的著名“科技初创公司创业培训班”帮助大批创业者找到了发展方向，协助他们实现了自己的创意。艾森曼是哈佛商学院洛克创业中心（Rock Center for Entrepreneurship）的联席主席，而这个中心则是新创企业的核心，负责组织求知若渴的学生参观硅谷和纽约，亲身体验美国的创新中心。

    艾森曼看上去像是一般穿着斜纹夹克的高等学府教授，但他在一线创业实践方面的知识却为他在学术界之外赢得了大批忠实的追随者。而在课堂上，艾森曼对学生真正的兴趣又让他显得与众不同。学生的创意陷入混乱时，他会为他们指明方向，而对于无法亲自来听他授课的学生，他会把重要商业人士的名片转发给他们。艾森曼以其开放、明智的建议著称。在接受社交网Poets&Quants采访时，他分享了自己对于创业的见解，包括MBA学生最常犯的错误，史蒂夫•乔布斯效应，以及他听过的最糟糕的创业点子。

    Poets&Quants：您的学生对于创业有哪些最常见的错误想法？

    汤姆•艾森曼：我认为，在课堂上，我们可以讨论创业有多么艰难，以及对于创业认识的一些歧义，但学生很难理解。在大多数工作中，会有人给你分配工作。但身为创业者，你必须自己来决定未来的发展方向，否则可能寸步难行。就拿这种观点来说，也完全可以有各种解读，这都取决于你自己。

    此外，我认为，学生对他们在推销中的情绪波动和需要投入的时间认识不够。在推销的教学方面，大多数MBA课程做得并不好，包括我们哈佛商学院自己的课程在内。而在创业过程中，创业者必须不断向新员工、投资者、客户和合作伙伴进行推销。但我们在这方面做得并不好，没能吸引学生对此给予足够关注。所以，当学生准备创办公司的时候，他们并没有意识到自己需要进行多少次推销，他们要一次次地站到人们面前。任何推销都会遇到拒绝，所以，如果十次有九次遭到拒绝时，创业者的心中便会产生各种复杂的情绪。

    我们可以告诉学生失败的几率是多少，但统计数据是一回事，亲身经历则是另外一回事。许多人认为，自己将是创造奇迹的那个人。我想，有信心总归是好事。从根本上而言，我们需要创业者心存一点妄想。

    Ask any of the founders behind Harvard Business School's most successful startup -- from clothing swap service thredUP to website optimizer CloudFlare -- and they'll all point to a single key to getting a business off the ground: Tom Eisenmann, Harvard's veteran entrepreneurship professor, whose legendary Launching Technology Ventures course has helped legions of budding entrepreneurs find their focus and bring their ideas to fruition. Eisenmann co-chairs HBS' Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the campus' nucleus for new ventures, and leads trips to Silicon Valley and New York for students eager to experience America's innovation epicenters firsthand.

    While Eisenmann looks the part of the tweed-jacketed, Ivory Tower professor, his knowledge of cutting-edge startup practices has won him a dedicated following that extends far beyond academia. But in the classroom, Eisenmann's genuine interest in his students sets him apart. From nudging them in the right direction when their ideas are out of whack to slipping business cards to those who couldn't get in his classes, Eisenmann is known for his open door and sage advice. In an interview with Poets&Quants, he shares his insights on entrepreneurial MBAs' most common mistakes, the Steve Jobs effect and the worst idea he has ever heard.

    Poets&Quants: What are the most common misconceptions your students have about launching startups?

    Tom Eisenmann: I think we can talk in class about how hard it is to be an entrepreneur and the ambiguity of it all, but it's hard for them to understand. In most jobs, somebody gives you work. But if you're an entrepreneur, you must decide what's going to happen or nothing will happen. It's this notion that there's total ambiguity, and it's all up to you.

    I think they also underestimate the emotional ups and downs and the amount of time they're going to spend selling. Very few MBA programs, ours included, do a good job of teaching sales. And in entrepreneurship you are constantly selling to a new employee, investors, customers, and partners. But we don't teach it very well, and people aren't drawn to it. So when students are about to launch, they don't realize how much selling they're going to do and how much they are going to have to put themselves in front of people over and over again. In any kind of sales, there's a lot of rejection, so there's a lot of emotion that comes with being told 'no' nine times out of 10.

    We can tell students what the failure odds are, but it's one thing for people to know the stats, and it's another to actually feel it's going to be you. A lot of people think they will be that one person to beat the odds, and I guess that's good to have that confidence. Basically, we need people to be a little delusional.