It may sound passé that if you love what you do you do not have to work a day in your life, but it is a popular expression for a reason. Life goes by so quickly regardless of whether you are enjoying what you are doing, so you might as well make the best of it. The reality, however, is that you are not going to love every moment of work. There are going to be days when you feel like getting out of bed is a chore, times when you must deal with difficult customers, and annoying mind-numbing tasks to which you must attend. But on a day to day basis, if you feel what you do is giving you energy rather than diminishing it, you are probably on the right path.

Reframing our view of happiness here in Western culture, Americans on average work more than most other countries, and signs of leisure such as cafe culture are not seen as status signs. According to this article “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.” Does that make us the happiest nation? No, far from it, but there is a cost for the output the country produces. Additionally, it is important to define happiness. We look at our lives as aspiring to be a constant cascade of positive and pleasant emotions without any obstacles or struggles. But how is that realistic? As we are finding out during a pandemic life comes at you hard and fast sometimes, and there is so much out of our hands. A way to optimize for living is to not only appreciate the difficulties but to embrace them, and if we are going to spend the bulk of our lives working, we may as well find meaning in it.

There is no better feeling than seeing the mountain from the bottom and going through the process of climbing it, and by our fingernails if need be, to reach that peak. Through the champagne glass tinted view of success many entrepreneurs look back and state unironically that they had the most fun on their journey to success. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, but it can be a deeply spiritual endeavor as it will force you to bring your best to build something of value for the world.

You are building something of value

People who gravitate to entrepreneurship are driven by the idea they are building something to solve a pain point for a segment of the population. This desire to create, to build something is part of our human DNA. While historically our species may have had a shameful past in some cases, overall, we have built and created what is today’s modern society.

In America’s case, entrepreneurship has been a part of the DNA that has propelled the country to thrive as a tech and business powerhouse. I can state from a personal perspective that building and creating was always something that gave me meaning and was the reason I got into building my own business. It may be the restless energy or the need to prove myself but even when I encountered setbacks and licked my wounds I bounced back and started a new project. There have been times when I have had to do something difficult, like land a customer or give a difficult speech. After I overcame the obstacle, I was struck by an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. Nothing could take away that feeling of winning that hard-fought war with myself. When people state that they are chasing a feeling and not money, that is what they mean.

You are employing others and contributing to society

When you are building something, a business, an agency, or any endeavor where you need to hire skilled and talented people, just remember that you are not just providing your customers with a solution but also employing people. This is a strong reason to get out of bed in the morning, and to continue on even when you don’t feel like it; you’re not just taking care of yourself but also of the people who work for you and their families. Entrepreneurship and building small businesses help employee millions of Americans across the country, “small businesses employ 58.9 million people, which makes up 47.5% of the country’s total employee workforce.”
Organizations that have an intense level of caring in their DNA, real ones, not toxic work cultures who throw the word ‘family’ around, become a second home for their employees and give meaning to their work. The reality is that you can ascribe meaning to anything, and I suggest that you remember you are helping provide someone’s livelihood as it will give you something to lean on when things get tough.

Particularly during COVID times, entrepreneurs who can create successful endeavors can be a part of this wave of businesses that rise from the ashes of those who had to close because of the coronavirus. As we are living through history right now is the time to consider what role you will play in helping get the economy back on its feet.

You are learning new skills

There are several soft skills that you will not learn until you start your own business, including selling and marketing, building thought leadership (which means communicating effectively), and leading people. There are natural strengths that you may parlay such as creativity, but at the end of the day even if you fail at your business, you are still the wiser for having tried. As the saying goes, “sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.”

Personally, the idea of building a consultancy was straight forward. I was not wed to the idea of being a full-on entrepreneur, I was very much OK working in a company whose culture I admired. I made a list of companies I wanted to work for, reached out, and realized that I would not be a good fit. At that point I planned out 6 months from that point, thinking either I would spend the time looking for a job, or start my own endeavor. One of the factors for me to start my own agency was the knowledge I would accrue from the experience of building a business.

And that did come to pass, as I learned more about improving sales, different forms of digital marketing, and how to build effective partnerships. Experience really is the editor of mistakes, and there is no substitute for going through the process. How else would I be able to make the decisions I made or have the experience to make the choices I make daily? These are not things which can be read in a book; you need to just live them to understand what to do.

You will be challenged and learn about yourself

Do not start a business as an experiment in self-development. There are plenty of other ways to learn about yourself. But a side ‘benefit’ of launching and building a business is that you will face a lot of difficulty and learn how to act under pressure. There is the idea that the grittiest survive, and that it is just about being the last one standing. If that is the case then you are going to deal with a lot of sleepless nights, thinking about how you make payroll, what will happen if the funds dry up, and especially what people might say if things don’t work out.
Your confidence may be shaken, there are real human aspects to this journey, and you should embrace the idea of the Hero’s Journey which is key to giving your struggle meaning. I recall listening to a recent podcast where Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang spoke about how it took him a year to regain his confidence after one failed endeavor. One year! That seems like a long time and is about right. But the important thing is that he did recover, he did get back up, and he put one foot in front of the other. The question you need to ask yourself is: are you really leaving it all on the field? If the answer is yes, then you will be OK with whatever the outcome is, as you know that you will rebound.

Not many people look at building a business as a deeply spiritual or philosophical pursuit, as something with religious dimensions. For some it is about the money, the prestige, or even the freedom of self-actualizing and doing what they want to do. But it is a lifestyle, something that can be done successfully. You need to devote most of your waking hours to really get anything off the ground. And you need to be OK with the high chance of failure, the lowest lows, and some highs that do not come often enough. But that is why all the fun is in the journey itself.

COVID-19 has pushed many institutions that would not have normally cooperated to work together in facing the global pandemic. During this period, alliances that might have taken years to assemble under less dire circumstances have been forged in a fraction of that time. An example of a country that has been on the forefront of battling this threat has been Israel, the Startup Nation. Israel has a unique history of bringing seemingly unrelated organizational structures such as the military, academia, business, and the political world together in order to achieve a common goal.

Before the world’s resources were focused on fighting COVID-19 there were many institutions who aimed for the literal stars and worked on plans on how to reach them. Israel has been working on a number of big picture ideas; an example of how different organizations work in unison has been the race to land a spacecraft on the moon, making it the fourth country to do so after the United States, Russia, and China. While Israel has excelled in satellite technology for surveillance purposes, and the Israeli Air Force is one of the most powerful in the world, going to the moon has been a major leap for such a small country. Aside from the chutzpah required to attempt such a feat, Israel’s goal of landing a spacecraft on the moon was a solid example of academia, business, philanthropy, and government collaboration and should act as a case study for us in the United States.

Cross pollination

If there is one thing that makes the Startup Nation unique it is the idea of cross pollination. Israel is a tight-knit society and people are usually acquainted through familial, military, and business ties. Furthermore, the informal nature of the country is also a contributing factor. The Israel Defense Forces plays a key role in this idea as most young Israelis are conscripted to serve mandatory time in the army, thus strengthening those bonds and expanding their social network. What happens after the military is equally important as many soldiers go on to do reserve duty, particularly in highly technical roles such as the Intelligence Corp. Civilians put on their military garb and bring back ideas to the army they learned from their startups, and vice versa.

As a result, there are no real walls or siloed organizations preventing cooperation. The mindset is that everyone needs to cooperate for a common cause, a reminder that for many years Israel’s existence was not guaranteed and such collaboration was essential. That fear certainly pervades much of the Israeli leadership’s thinking as they grew up in an era of existential dread. As such, projects such as SpaceIL’s attempt to land on the moon epitomize the Israeli organizational narrative.

How the different parts worked together

What started close to ten years ago in order to raise awareness for the sciences morphed into a national race to land a spacecraft on the moon. In this case, non-profits, academia, private foundations, business, and government-supported industries all worked together in order to literally get this spacecraft into orbit and on its way to the moon. Traditionally, all these institutions would not have associated with one another, but given the scope, ambition, and chutzpah of the mission they came to rely on each other.

The catalyst for the SpaceIL program was the Google Lunar X Prize competition offering a 30 million dollar prize to the team capable of getting a spacecraft to the moon, and landing it successfully. As is typical of the “thrown together and figure it out along the way” style of many entrepreneurs in Israel, the SpaceIL team was one of the last teams to apply. However, instead of building the idea as a government or corporate-backed entity, they formed a non-profit. This enabled them to parlay a lot of “free” resources such as volunteers, raise grant money, and ultimately secure million-dollar financial commitments from major philanthropists such as Sheldon Adelson and Morris Kahn, an Israeli-South African billionaire who founded the software company Amdocs.

From the start the SpaceIL team parlayed institutions such as IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) and Israel’s Space Agency that fall under the umbrella of the defense industry (much of which is government connected) as well as academic institutions such as the Technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Academia played a large role as the team worked with Tel Aviv University's Engineering Department and had strong connections to the Interdisciplinary Center north of Tel Aviv. Engaging all the major academic institutions in the country helped in galvanizing volunteers as well as creating a national initiative around science education.

Capturing the imagination of the country and of pro-Israel supporters abroad was key. One of the project’s main funders Morris Kahn stated, "putting a spacecraft on the moon is a little bit of a weird project. It almost seems un-doable, and even if it was doable, it takes somebody with imagination to actually see why you would do it." From an entrepreneurial perspective this was the first privately funded voyage to the moon, which in the days of SpaceX and Blue Origin set a standard for how much technology has changed and emphasized that innovation does not rely solely on government support. This is not to say that government funding was not key in making this happen; it’s that this project began as a startup and only later sought government assistance.

Ultimately Beresheet, the spacecraft, crash landed upon its attempted landing on the moon’s surface. That does not tell the whole story; as with any big idea, the entrepreneurial journey is part of the process and learnings. There were lessons learned, and new technologies created along the way as well. Additionally, it’s also important to put things in context as such a project was not even imaginable a few years ago. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated after the disappointing outcome, “if at first you don’t succeed, try again.” For many in Israel there is faith the country will be successful in the coming years, and that “an Israeli spacecraft will land on the moon, whole.” Even if we look at the long tail of this endeavor, and this inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs, then it is a success.

What we can learn

There are lessons of what we can learn from this enterprise and take with us as we plan out our own ambitions. While the spacecraft crash landed on the moon, it was a failure of operations, and not lack of cooperation and organization. Israel’s ecosystem is unique and its institutions world-class, but the points covered below are applicable for institutions here in the US and globally.

Ambitious projects marshal resources and capture the imagination. We have seen this with the “moonshot” projects from Google and the aspirations of entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. This goes back to the 1960’s with America’s race to land a man on the moon that was a priority of national importance. Money wants to capitalize and fund big picture ideas. Academic institutions and the government would be wise to pay attention to this idea, as we have opportunities now to create solutions to COVID-19. As Elon Musk says when it comes to ambitious projects and urgency, “when something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

In order to achieve such moonshots, we must learn to be more open to cooperation with other organizations. This will not be easy as many organizations vie for resources, but we must learn to work together. Community plays such a significant role in parlaying and acquiring resources, and once people are behind an idea, they are more than willing to help pitch in.

Being open to and integrating entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs into our systems is essential for success. We must learn to say “yes” to new ideas and people, and not be fearful of the change they may bring about. If we are looking to truly create the next generation of entrepreneurs that will lead this country and business community, we must find ways to have them work within the system. SpaceIL succeeded because the entrepreneurs developed their idea outside the constraints of government and academia and brought them in to help build the project after the startup stage. The question we need to ask ourselves is why can’t we build a project like SpaceIL within our system?

As we’ve seen in Silicon Valley, the more ambitious the goal, the higher the stakes, and the more people believe in a brighter future, the more cooperation becomes essential. While Israel does have a unique ecosystem with members of the different organizations maintaining relationships, that does not mean it cannot be emulated here in the United States. Once we overcome this pandemic, we’ll see that some organizations collaborated in facing this threat quite naturally, which could serve as inspiration for future projects, whether they include travelling to the moon or facing the next pandemic.

Do you have an idea that you think could turn into a successful business? Do you want to work with others who do?

Sign up for Innovation Quest (iQ). Kickoff Workshop is Wednesday, February 10th!

http://innovationquest.uconn.edu/events/kickoff/

Advantages of Participating:

• Opportunity to win money for your start-up ($30,000 up for grabs)
• Make connections with successful entrepreneurs and business mentors
• Join or form a team! (You do not need your own idea to participate)
• Meet iQ mentors who can help you start a business!

About iQ

The Innovation Quest (iQ) Program fosters creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship across campus. Students who have new ideas for a product or service can compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to develop their idea into an operating company.

Past successes include:

Encapsulate, Flush Warranty, Land Maverick, Macroscopic Solutions, PartsTech, Phood, ProVelocity Bat, QRfertile, SimpliGreen, Smpl Bio, Sobrio/DashRide/EverTransit, The Momentum App, Veradermics, Voda/Elkay, VoltXon, Voxion, and YouComm, among others.

This is the perfect opportunity to stake your claim on your chance of winning a share of $30K, work with successful entrepreneurs, and join a team of likeminded students -- even if you do not have an idea of your own.

Success is everywhere. Why not you?

The Innovation Quest kickoff workshop will be held on Wednesday, February 10th , from 6:30PM – 8:00 PM

Sign-up for the Feb 10th Workshop and receive the ONLINE meeting Access point!

http://innovationquest.uconn.edu/events/kickoff/

Click here for more information on UConn Innovation Quest:

http://innovationquest.uconn.edu/