Date: 19th January 2017
Location: The School of Life
Masterclass topic: Entrepreneurship
Session leader: Brennan Jacoby, philosopher & trust consultant, and faculty member at The School of Life
However, this masterclass wasn’t a session about starting a business – it was about inspiring a mindset to think like an entrepreneur, and how to translate those skills into your business.
Jacoby asked Future Talent Forum delegates what qualities they believe an entrepreneur has. Common answers among the group included ‘self belief’, ‘bravery’, ‘courage’, ‘problem-solving’ and ‘resilience’ – and also the ability to overcome set-backs, the willingness to face failure and use innovative ways to work round challenges.
So how can we adopt these qualities? The first port of call is to show compassion to yourself; learn what your needs and desires are in your everyday role, and consider your daily frustrations. “We have a tendency to put frustrations aside and feel disheartened by them, whereas entrepreneurs see these as ‘possibilities’,” Jacoby said.
He tasked delegates to draw up their own ‘typical day’ timeline; ‘frustrations’ included. From there, he asked delegates to reflect and consider what their needs were. To make this easier to digest, Jacoby broke this down into three areas: flourishing needs (the sense of meaning and belonging); comfort needs (achievement and companionship) and core needs (to feel safe). “How can you generate ideas from these needs and frustrations,” he asked participants.
Delegates then brainstormed with their peers discussing the challenges (frustrations) they’re facing and how they could turn these into their own possibilities. Big-winner outcomes that came from this exercise included: ‘stop second-guessing yourself’, ‘believe you can do it’ and ‘don’t spend too much time agonising over ideas’.
To conclude, Jacoby emphasised entrepreneurship isn’t about a ‘one man show’. In fact, it’s about the wider team. “Learn how to empathise with people’s needs (drawing from what we discussed earlier), create a vision (of possibilities) and from there, you can encourage collaboration.”
To read more about the session overview and insights from The School of Life, click here.
Find out more about our Future Talent Forum
We've welcomed over a hundred new members, and presented an exciting series of masterclasses and roundtable discussions. Furthermore, we've loved having you guys along and being part of our future talent journey.
Watch our short video; we asked some of our members to share their key learnings and thoughts on the forum so far. Plus, we're grabbing the opportunity to thank our Future Talent supporters (both on the forum and conference) who help make these events happen.