Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Entrepreneurship Has Its Curse

I decided to join the Zell Entrepreneurship Program (named after the contributor Sam Zell) in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya next year. Some told me it's a waste of time, that the program has got nothing new to offer me, and that I'm giving up job opportunities people would kill for. Well, that's what they've told me when I went studying computer science after 20 years of breathing computers, giving up on a promising carreer. Have I gone mad?

So why have I decided to take the program? First, as much as I've learned about computers, and as much as I've experienced entrepreneurship, it's still too little and there's always much to learn still.
After long considerations and deep reasoning I eventually took the decision in the last minute. When Liat Aaronson asked me what I felt about joining the program, just an hour before deciding who's in and who's out, it was nothing but my gut that said "I want in". This was exactly as it happened when I decided to go studying computer science. My profile says that "I make the most crucial decisions with the blink of an eye", and this was just another perfect example. It's that ticklish feeling in the tips of my fingers of doing something new and exciting. It's a curse. Everybody keeps trying to define what an entrepreneur is. For me - an entrepreneur is one with that curse, one who always finds and can't give up on entrepreneurial opportunities.
So what am I planning for the Zell program? Several thing:

  1. Channelling and tunnelling all that I've consumed in the past couple of years, into a more academic and systematic base.
  2. Team work practice, as I'm facing working and collaborating with 2 people I already love - a greenpeace kind of guy who has ever barely touched a computer, and an enthusiastic 23 year old girl who speaks faster than I type. These two guys will have no choice but to help me on improving my human interaction skills.
  3. Network some more. Networking is like hard disk capacity: you can never have too much of it.
  4. Create - bring an idea to life. This is my favorite art so far.

I haven't got any good vacation or rest ever since I returned from the far east in 2004. Next year is not going to be any different.

Wish me luck,

Boaz.

PS. - I've started a new "Entrepreneurship Has Its Curse" dedicated blog here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bro, as always - I'm proud of you and of the way you make your choices. I'm sure you're gonna enjoy and benefit a lot from the program, and more than that - you'll contribute a lot to the other participants. So... broke for another year?...
Good Luck and get ready for the off-pist,
Sis