Articles

Originally posted in our February 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. If you’re in the entrepreneurship education space, you will have heard of the lean start-up methodology many times. But, it bears repeating in the context of designing processes that serve everyone involved.  “The lean definition of a start-up: a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” Rather than excessively planning, entrepreneurs use their most incredible resource—potential customers—to discover the best path…

Originally posted in our February 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. Shifts in economic complexity and seemingly endless crises affect everyone. But, as the workforce shifts towards younger generations, these stressors weigh more on workers. So, rather than framing this as a deficit of Gen Z, it is essential to consider how we can adapt the workplace to be more agile and resilient. “Whatever happens outside the office walls, leaders can begin by building what [experts describe]…

Originally posted in our January 2023 Top of Mind Newsletter. An essential subset of self-employed people is the group of working mothers who were, mid-pandemic, essentially forced into it. For working mothers, there was the choice between providing care or maintaining their income. For many, losing their income was not a viable option. “Ultimately, while self-employment offers benefits to women who found traditional employment unsustainable, asking women to work – even if it’s for themselves –…

Originally posted in our December 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Long-time followers of ELI’s work will know the importance of developing a growth mindset on the path to learning to think like an entrepreneur. However, as the idea has gained more traction in mainstream education, new research has been done to test the efficacy of the model. In one meta-analysis, a “ team…led by Jeni Burnette, a psychologist at North Carolina State University, found that the…

Originally posted in our November 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. When considering how to get into a state of flow or to use effectuation, perhaps the most important first step is to focus on what we individually have control over. Are you focusing on what others do to you, or are you looking at how your choices and behaviors guide you into the future? These types of questions are central to understanding one’s locus of control. …

Originally posted in our November 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. Effectuation, or as we at ELI, like to say, “go in order to know,” is a crucial feature of an entrepreneurial mindset. For decades, MBA students and budding entrepreneurs have learned to analyze market research, create a business plan, and look for ways to predict all outcomes for a future endeavor. But for most entrepreneurs making a go of it on their own, the exact opposite…

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. To conclude this month’s Top of Mind newsletter, we visit an ecological experiment set in a desert called the biodome. In it are, seemingly, the perfect conditions for growing fruits, vegetables, and trees, and it was a place where humans could live happily for months at a time. “When the trees grew to a certain height, they would topple over. It baffled scientists until they realized…

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. While few of us would wish for adversity, much can be learned from those who overcame it to achieve success. One study, referenced in this piece from the Wall Street Journal, sought to do just that. In the study turned book from 1962, Victor and Mildred Goertzel analyzed the lives of (at the time) 400 eminent figures around the world. What they found was that 75%,…

Originally posted in our October 2022 Top of Mind Newsletter. If someone asked you if you feel anxious often, it’s a fair assumption that you would say, “yes, absolutely!” Anxiety, both the medical diagnosis and the general feeling, seems to have increased over the last two decades. In this piece from the BBC in October 2022, author Tracy Dennis-Tiwary discusses the role of strong emotions, namely anxiety, in how we interact with the world. “[E]motions are…