Entrepreneurs are sufficiently sensitive, Sn to the environment, to identify the particular need(s) that they can satisfy. Associated with the fact that the need exists however is the ignorance of how it may be satisfied, by the rest of the group who may not have been as sensitive. It is this ignorance that poses the greatest challenge, in the form of opposition to the novelty; which is worsened by the herd mentality that has been observed to characterize humanity
The Power to Make Wealth: A Note to the Budding Entrepreneur
1. The Power to Make Wealth:
A Note to the Budding Entrepreneur
By
Peter Anyebe
0.0 Preamble
Frank Knight and Peter Drucker have defined entrepreneurship in terms of risk-taking. Knight
classified three types of uncertainty:
Risk, which is measurable statistically; such as the probability of drawing a red color ball
from a jar containing 5 red balls and 5 white balls.
Ambiguity, which is hard to measure statistically; such as the probability of drawing a red
ball from a jar containing 5 red balls but with an unknown number of white balls.
True uncertainty or Knightian uncertainty, which is impossible to estimate or predict
statistically, such as the probability of drawing a red ball from a jar whose number of red
balls is unknown as well as the number of other colored balls.
Entrepreneurship is often associated with true uncertainty, particularly when it involves
something truly novel, such as a market that did not previously exist. The entrepreneur would
usually be willing to put their career and financial security on the line and take risks in the name
of an idea, spending time as well as capital on an uncertain venture.
Risk taking is enhanced for innovative entrepreneurs, who would usually experience what
psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow. Flow occurs when an individual forgets about
the outside world, given a powerful insight. Csikszentmihalyi suggested that breakthrough
innovations occur at the hands of individuals in that state. Other research works have also
concluded that the kind of strong internal motivation associated with flow is a vital ingredient for
breakthrough innovation. For instance, flow is exemplified inMaria Montessori's concept of
normalization, a state that includes a child's capacity for joyful and lengthy periods of intense
concentration. Csikszentmihalyi acknowledged that Montessori's prepared environment offers
children opportunities to achieve flow. Thus quality and type of early education may influence
entrepreneurial capability.
In general however entrepreneurs have been characterized as being assertive, self-motivated,
efficient, diligent, capable of planning and following plans, perceptive, willing to take risks, and
committed to their businesses and to their employees, clients, and customers. Other less obvious
personality characteristics that an entrepreneur should develop as a means of further ensuring
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2. their success and build thriving organizations include creativity and the ability to tolerate
ambiguous situations. Thus this work is aimed to achieve the following two, 2 objectives:
Outline how uncertainty which is not measureable, may be translated into risk, which is
measureable
Demonstrate how an enabling environment to achieve flow may be created for adults
1.0 Herd Mentality
The uncertainty that perturbs the budding entrepreneur could be observed to be rooted in the fact
of a relative universe, as well as humanity, both of which would therefore be characterized by
contradictions. Thus in general, it would be possible to observe that wherever goodness is found,
evil would lurk closely by. In this case, the same circumstances that motivate entrepreneurship
and flow, would also serve as detractors. In this work, entrepreneurship is conceptualized to
include the following two, 2 phenomena:
Need clarification, N-C
Need satisfaction, N-S
The entrepreneur needs to have been sufficiently sensitive, Sn to the environment, to identify the
particular need(s) that they can satisfy. Associated with the fact that the need exists however is
the ignorance of how it may be satisfied, by the rest of the group who may not have been as
sensitive. It would be this ignorance that would pose the greatest challenge, in the form of
opposition to the novelty. This would be worsened by the herd mentality that has been observed
to characterize humanity.
Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act collectively without centralized
direction. The term can refer to the behavior of animals in herds, packs, bird flocks, fish schools,
as well as the behavior of humans in demonstrations, riots and general strikes, sporting events,
religious gatherings, episodes of mob violence and everyday decision-making, judgments and
opinion-forming. Raafat, Chater and Frith proposed an integrated approach to herding,
describing two key issues as follows:
The mechanisms of transmission of thoughts or behavior between individuals and
The patterns of connections between them
They have suggested that bringing together diverse theoretical approaches of herding behavior
would illuminate the applicability of the concept to many domains, ranging from cognitive
neuroscience to economics. Influencers form norms, which their peers are found to follow. And
targeting extroverted personalities has been found to increase the chances of purchase even
further. It is the herd mentality of any group of people for instance, that ensures a social
campaign’s success. In general, humans have been known to be gregarious, and prefer to band
3. together. This would be more so, in situations of ambiguity and uncertainty. To minimize such
situations would therefore seem to improve the chances of the entrepreneur. Recall that while the
entrepreneur is characteristically able to manage ambiguity and uncertainty, the rest of the pack
may lack this capability. Risk comes more handy, to manage, being measureable.
2.0 The 15-item Business Case
The intuitive craving of the human person for certainty requires a demonstration so convincing,
as to leave no room for doubt. Given a position for instance, a precedent needs to be identified,
along with two, 2 antecedents; so that the antecedents build on phenomena that occurred earlier
in time, as evidence that the phenomena that follow, will ultimately occur in the future. The
standard procedure series, SPS is the analogue of the natural order, N-O. Both are presented as
units of reality. Thus a phenomenon would be adequately defined by the following four, 4
features:
Antecedent1
Position
Precedent
Antecedent2
Equivalently, an idea may be reduced into the following features, for certainty:
Vision, 5
Offering (Product or Service)
Mission, 6
Strategic objectives, 4
By the perception model of mind, PMM phenomena would be adequately defined by the five, 5
essential components. To reduce the idea into these five, 5 essentials would therefore be
sufficient, to convey a vision of what the entrepreneur sees. The four, 4 strategic objectives
identify the processes to actualize the vision, as required by reciprocity in the features outlined
above. Then the six, 6 items that outline the mission, define what is expected at the
operationalization of the idea. Consistently identified, these fifteen, 15 items provide a logical
mental picture of the novelty, much like technical drawing is employed to present plans by
architecture and engineering. Moreover, these items can be subjected to measurement, on the F-
Scale, for consistency.
3.0 The Power to Make Wealth
4. The power to make wealth, PoW is a function of the dual features that were presented earlier in
this work to characterize entrepreneurs uniquely, including need clarification, N-C and need
satisfaction, N-S. When need is clarified, the entrepreneur gets a clear answer to the ‘what’
question. And for N-S, the ‘how’ question has to be answered. Then every idea would inherently
include what is to be done, as well as how it is to be done, to serve as acceptable solution to the
problem at hand. To answer the ‘how’ question, objectivity, f0p would be sufficient. For the
‘what’ question however, objectivity would need to be exceeded, to invoke motives, f0b.
But both these factors load unto the power factor-Po, which measures the capacity to respond to
stimuli appropriately. Thus thought, f0 would predict behavior, Po as expressed on a variant of
the growth model, f0 = 2Po – 1. And PoW would be evaluated for the person, PoF as PoF = 1 –
5(1 - Po). Like thought and behavior therefore, the power to make wealth and behavior would
also be equivalents. While the growth model invokes waves-duality with the presence of the 2 in
the model, the PoW model invokes the perception model of mind, PMM with the 5 in the model.
To make wealth therefore, thought would need to at once adopt waves-duality, and fulfill the
PMM. This is achieved in the derivation of the fifteen, 15 item business case.
4.0 Concluding
This work attempts to take the guess work out of the business plan, to minimize uncertainty
further than what already obtains. In addition to the financials therefore, the 15-item business
case would be corroboratory. Indeed, the financials would logically derive from the business
case. Compare the organizations’, PoG version of the PoW model, for PoG = 1 – 4(1 - PfT) with
the individuals’ model presented above. The factor-PfT measures profitability as the running
correlation coefficient, r between the observed profit, PfT and its expected equivalent, PfT’ for a
period of at least five, 5 years. Given this value therefore, the organization’s power to make
wealth would be determined, using the same scale as the entrepreneur’s PoW. Moreover, in the
same way that the value of the factor-Po needs to be above 0.8, for Po ≥ 0.8, PfT also needs to be
over 0.75 for PfT ≥ 0.75 to be meaningful in the models. And the figure four, 4 in the model
invokes the four, 4 strategic objectives, which is unique to organizations in the same way that
PMM and waves-duality are unique to people.
Entrepreneurs can now be at once deliberate and precise, in the development of ideas. It would
also be easier to share thoughts, especially with like minds who apply the waves-duality
principle. By this principle, intuition is reduced into rationality, so that risk becomes
measureable. Earlier inventors like the Wright brothers, Ford, and even our own dear Bill Gates
could afford the luxury of only intuition, and still got their break. The stakes have become higher
for the current generation, and would appear to increase in the future. They would therefor need
to be at once intuitive and rational, to present an acceptable business case. Organizations that
adopt waves-duality create the environment for the workforce to transit into entrepreneurship