Our own Mariam Bederu, a graphic designer on staff here, recently interviewed me for her business class assignment on entrepreneurship. The following thoughts are adapted from those I shared with her.
In this country, you don’t need a license or permission to be entrepreneurial. And you don’t necessarily need to be innovative. Kids with paper routes are entrepreneurs. Franchisees are entrepreneurs, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of franchise opportunities in this country, where one (the franchisee) can work with the ideas and the plan of another (the franchisor) to establish, grow, and eventually sell a business. Remember, no small business is worth anything without an exit strategy.
First, one has to be “infected” with the drive to be self-sufficient, a major attribute of entrepreneurs. And one has to be confident in one’s own abilities. Certainly, one needs to be a lifelong learner. When skills are learned is a function of exposure, rather than age. I’m sure the averages are that skills come after age 21, but the drive may be planted much earlier. I had a paper route at the age of 7 and did yards and other work until age 13 when I got a job in a local pharmacy. Most of my role models in my small town owned their own businesses and I can name them. The grocer, bankers, men’s store, pharmacy, jeweler, cleaners, tailor, and various merchants were all entrepreneurs who influenced people.
Today, franchises are quite commonly the entry point for entrepreneurs and certainly for pharmacists. I opened my own pharmacy at age 25, stepped away to join APhA at age 35, and was inspired through experiences here to complete an MBA at age 38, and to launch or support additional start-ups after that. Throughout the process, I’ve been learning and hope to continue the learning process until I stop breathing. My move to APhA was an opportunity to continue building on a large scale for the greater good. I still see the need for us to be entrepreneurial. Some might call it “intrapreneurism.”
Business researchers tell us that the normal business cycle is one of innovation, growth, maturation, and decline. None of those steps are etched in stone, and each can be altered with perspective, awareness, and by outside, unexpected changes or disruptions. APhA is 159 years old, yet we’re trying to reinvent our business model to disrupt the delivery of health care through increased use of pharmacists’ services. Our “upstart” PharmacyLibrary could disrupt much larger players if we first find our niche and then grow it. We’re working on other initiatives to reshape our business model as well.
Innovation is how you get the odds in your favor. It may seem trite, but garbage bags are a very simple but great example. In my lifetime, we used paper grocery bags to collect kitchen garbage. Then, someone invented a plastic bag and the rest is history. In our “business” of pharmacy, it means improving patient care in ways that get better outcomes. Immunization and medication therapy management services are areas where pharmacists are in a major stage of innovation. We’re also on the cusp of great things in solving issues with transitions of patient care from hospital to other facilities or to home. These are fertile areas for entrepreneurs and innovators.
I’ve always felt that resisting innovation and the advancement of technology was futile. Rather, we need to embrace it and use it to our advantage, much like martial artists use an opposing force. These opposing forces can be opportunities, because most of the world wants things to stay the way they are and will resist change. The really successful entrepreneurs will find those inflection points and insert a solution to make a difference, large or small.
What innovations are you working on? Where do you get your ideas?
