A truly inspirational talk by Lord David Puttnam this evening at the Royal Society of Arts. He was giving the inaugural NACUE Entrepreneur Leaders Lecture (National Association of College & University Entrepreneurs).<\/p>\n
Concentrating mainly on his early career with Collett Dickenson Pearce, but also featuring his award-winning career as an independent film producer (The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express to name just a few), he gave us many insights into the characteristics of entrepreneurial success. He started off by saying that \u201centrepreneurship can\u2019t be taught\u201d (perhaps unfortunate bearing in mind the audience!) and concluded with four key ingredients of what it takes to be an entrepreneur:<\/p>\n
Talent<\/span> and Imagination<\/span>, Commitment<\/span> and Belief <\/span><\/em>\u2013 all must be present for success.<\/p>\n Like many other successful entrepreneurs, by his own admission he was \u201cnot good at school\u201d but clearly his start at Collett Dickenson Pearce with colleagues such as Sir Alan Parker, Charles Saatchi and Sir John Hegarty stood him in good stead \u2013 they were all encouraged to be \u201cfearless\u201d, another trait of the entrepreneur.<\/p>\n His talk included excellent quotes and inspiring mottos from others such as:<\/p>\n \u201cLife isn\u2019t about finding<\/span> yourself. Life is about creating<\/span> yourself<\/em> \u201d \u2013 George Bernard Shaw<\/p>\n \u201cChange takes far longer than you expect, but when it does occur it happens faster than you ever believed possible\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Larry Summers (former US Treasury Secretary).<\/p>\n Whilst maybe the ingredients of entrepreneurship cannot be taught, we can certainly learn a lot from such inspirational entrepreneurs as Lord Puttnam.<\/p>\n (Thanks to Graham Spooner of Mentor UK and Vice Chairman at NACUE for organising this event. Graham is a guest speaker on my BSc course in Private Equity & Venture Capital at Henley Business School).<\/p>\n