PART III
MASTERING THE GAME
Whatever game you want to get into, then you have to learn it. And then after learning it, you’ve got to try to master it.
—Ice Cube
In the twenty-first century, entrepreneurship is more than just an endeavor, it is an empowering mindset. Being entrepreneurial is an art rooted in the belief that there is always a way to use creativity, passion, and inspired vision to create value in the world. This mindset leads people to create an entirely new school or religious institution that addresses an unmet need; or to transform a corporation to do new things in new ways; or to take something that already exists and make it better.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
The entrepreneurial mindset takes the underlying spirit of Strategy 2—moving beyond your comfort zone into your growth zone—and elevates it to a higher level. You can easily spot a person with the heart and mind of a true entrepreneur. True entrepreneurs embody the following characteristics:
Passion—a boundless enthusiasm for whatever they endeavor to do; a fundamental love for their work; and a desire to create value
Creativity—an inventive or clever approach to generating ideas and solving problems
Resourcefulness—the belief that they can turn nothing into something
Courage—a willingness to take calculated risks while maintaining a trailblazer’s mentality and the belief that they can achieve anything
Resilience—a strong resolve to persevere when faced with challenges, while maintaining a healthy acceptance of failure as way to learn and strengthen oneself
Old-school thinking says the entrepreneurial mindset is confined to people who own a business. Here, we completely explode that notion. One of the key messages from the next two chapters is that entrepreneurship is about using your talents to make a positive impact in your areas of influence, and then leveraging all of the resources at your disposal to create value in the world.
Today, we believe the entrepreneurial mindset is equally applied to any number of pursuits in the government, philanthropic, faith-based, and other sectors, just as it is in business. The person who creates a nonprofit to help cancer patients, the individual who dedicates himself to preserving the environment, and the performing artist who tirelessly brings her craft to underprivileged youth are no less entrepreneurial than the founder of a pet store, the founder and CEO of a multimillion-dollar consulting firm, or even the receptionist who figures out a way to answer customer phone calls in a more timely, efficient manner. In pursuing their respective interests, each one exhibits the entrepreneurial mindset. New-school thinking says that regardless of your field or industry, you can do the same.
Entrepreneurship is not just something you do; it is a way that you think.
Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship
While the entrepreneurial mindset is essentially the same regardless of your career path, it plays out differently depending on the context.
Intrapreneurship is the application of the entrepreneurial mindset within an established organization. For those that find themselves working in government agencies, large corporations, school districts, community-based organizations, and other environments, we encourage you to “think and act intrapreneurially”—to apply the entrepreneurial mindset in your institutional environment. Your efforts could produce a new product, a new service, a new department, a new agency, a new process, or a new way of doing things. People who are employed by established organizations that apply the entrepreneurial mindset in these ways are intrapreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the application of the entrepreneurial mindset to establish a new organization. For those who find themselves looking to create new schools, new nonprofits, new businesses, and new religious institutions, we encourage you to “think and act entrepreneurially”—to apply the principles of the entrepreneurial mindset to creating new entities. Your efforts could produce a new charter school, a new community organization, a new company, or a new church or mosque. People who create new entities and apply the entrepreneurial mindset to their work are entrepreneurs.
THE DOUBLE AND TRIPLE BOTTOM LINES
Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship can also have a social orientation. Just as intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs change the face of their industry, social intrapreneurs and social entrepreneurs change the face of society. They act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss to address pressing issues and strengthen underserved communities, and creating new and innovative solutions to change our world for the better. Social intrapreneurs challenge established organizations to play a meaningful role in addressing society’s most pressing problems, while social entrepreneurs create new organizations to do the same.
In the next two chapters we will delve even deeper into the concepts of social intrapreneurship and social entrepreneurship. For now, what is important for you to know is that the central and core component of these socially oriented manifestations of the entrepreneurial mindset is an abiding pursuit of the double bottom line—that is, achieving both “financial returns on investment” and “social returns on investment.”
Social intrapreneurship and social entrepreneurship blur the lines between making a profit and making a difference by combining them into a holistic agenda. The double bottom line is about making a profit and making a difference; building organizations and building communities; doing good business and goodwill; and implementing solid business practices and socially responsible behavior. In fact, some social intrapreneurs and social entrepreneurs embrace a triple bottom line: financial returns, social returns, and environmental returns on investment. We believe these double bottom line and triple bottom line ways of thinking will characterize successful leaders in the twenty-first century.
Thinking and acting like an entrepreneur is certain to elevate your game. Part III: Mastering the Game and the “double bottom line” are rooted in the Kwanzaa principle of Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), which means “to build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses, and to profit from them together.”
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET CYCLE
Fortunately, intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are not separate and distinct paths. You don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other. Nowadays, more than ever, people switch (or cycle) between intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship as they change career paths several times in their lives. You can cycle between both paths (as indicated in Figure III–1) or you may even pursue them simultaneously—pursuing one path from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., for example, and the other path on evenings and weekends.
Randal switched between paths and pursued them simultaneously by working in corporate America (at AT&T, then Lucent Technologies) and attending graduate school, all while contributing to MBS Educational Services and Training “on the side,” then working for MBS and BCT Partners full-time, then taking a leave of absence to work for the Trump Organization full-time, then returning to BCT Partners. J.R. has pursued both paths simultaneously by starting a career in corporate America (Merck & Co.), then attending graduate school, and then working in academia full-time, all while maintaining ties to several ventures, including MBS, BCT, and Eden Organix.
Figure III–1. Mastering the game: the entrepreneurial mindset cycle.
Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are different sides of the same coin. They apply the same thinking, just in different contexts.
Five Ways to Master the Game
The ability to think and act intrapreneurially and entrepreneurially are the crux of Part III: Mastering the Game. Mastering the game implies that you have essentially achieved five forms of mastery:
Mastery of self, which radiates from achieving a level of self-determination, as described in Part I. Identity helps establish your position in the game, while purpose helps reveal what you define as winning your game.
Mastery of your craft, which naturally flows from achieving a level of excellence within your field or sector, as discussed in Part I. This helps put you at the top of your game.
Mastery of relationship building, which emanates from achieving a level of awareness of the players in your game, and an associated level of connectedness with respect to the interpersonal, developmental, and group relationships relevant to your game, as described in Part II.
Mastery of your professional landscape, which stems from achieving a level of wisdom concerning the spoken and unspoken rules of your game (meaning the environment comprising your organization or industry) and establishing yourself as a player in the game, in order to help yourself and others to effectively navigate the game, as discussed in Part II.
Mastery of the entrepreneurial mindset, which, once achieved, builds upon your mastery of self, craft, relationship building, and professional environment to produce value in the world. The key to mastering the game is creating value in the world.
Mastery of the game is often evidenced by your accomplishments or your contributions to society, be they small or large. A sign of your mastery of the game might be something tangible: You create a new program, launch a new product, form a new organization, or establish a new business. It could also be reflected in your ability to overcome the challenges associated with reaching the executive level within your organization, growing a profitable company, turning around a failing division, or building a civic association that is making a difference socially, economically, educationally, or environmentally. It could even come in the form of something intangible, such as establishing a new process within your department, implementing a new way of doing business at your company, inspiring colleagues to see new possibilities, or changing people’s perceptions in a new and positive way.
Your ability to accomplish these feats requires a certain level of mastery of self, craft, relationship building, professional environment, and the entrepreneurial mindset. To produce anything of value in the world requires a certain level of mastery of the game.
As a basic rule of thumb, you know you are on the path from learning the game (Part I) and playing the game (Part II) to mastering the game (Part III) when you begin displaying intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial thinking, because then your actions fundamentally change from accepting our society as the status quo to transforming our society into a new reality. It is at this point that you move from being influenced by the world around you to influencing the world around you. And it is then that you begin to seek opportunities, see opportunities, and most important, seize opportunities that benefit yourself and others. In fact, it is because the entrepreneurial mindset is so distinctive when compared to other ways of thinking and acting that the transition from Part II to Part III represents an inflection point on the path to greatness. Changing your mindset to think and act along these lines is another point of departure to ultimately redefining the game and reshaping America.
In the next two chapters, we discuss how adopting the entrepreneurial mindset can help you achieve greater individual success, both personally and professionally. We will also discuss how it can lead to tremendous benefits for your organization and your community.
A Two-Pronged Approach for Redefining the Game
As we look ahead to Part IV: Redefining the Game, we advocate a two-pronged or two-sided approach, with intrapreneurship and entrepreneur-ship working in concert.
On one hand, we need people who think and act intrapreneurially (Strategy 7) and have mastered the game to work “inside the system” of existing corporations, government agencies, schools, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations. These intrapreneurs must be willing to challenge existing institutions to be more responsive to the needs of diverse populations.
Intrapreneurs must maintain a strong sense of self-determination (Strategy 1). They cannot lose themselves or their direction while working in established organizations. Intrapreneurs view their culture as an asset that can be a strategic, competitive advantage, not a liability.
These are people who learn the system and master it from within the system, changing it for the better. In doing so, they not only ensure that these institutions are responsive to the needs of African Americans, but all Americans. In J.R.’s role at Rutgers University, he manages a process that invests in entrepreneurs in Newark, New Jersey, helping entrepreneurs run businesses that, in turn, create jobs, pay taxes, and help stabilize neighborhoods. His work as an intrapreneur benefits the entrepreneurs and their employees, the city of Newark, the state of New Jersey, and the country.
And just as we need intrapreneurs working inside the system, we need people who work “outside the system.” These entrepreneurs launch new ventures, create new organizations, and establish new institutions. They build wealth, amass power, and compete with existing institutions. Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, entrepreneurs build their own ladders and then reach down to help others climb the ladder with them. Rather than fighting to become partners in someone else’s firm, they eventually leave and start their own firms. They are risk takers—jumping off the ship even when they don’t know if there is a net to catch them. In some instances, they gain experience and legitimacy from working at existing institutions and later use that knowledge to establish their own institution. Randal has done this by working in corporate America and then breaking out to lead BCT Partners.
Neither approach is better than the other. The best approach is the one that best suits your personal mission, vision, and values.
Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are part of a cycle—you don’t have to choose one or the other. You can pursue one, then switch to the other, and then back again. Both of us have done so throughout our careers.