The Scientist-Entrepreneur

Billy O’Connor

Professor of Physiology

Medical School, University of Limerick.

Ireland.

Inside-the-brain.com/

Would you have invested?

The importance of opportunity (luck)

Of the seventy five richest

entrepreneurs in human history

fourteen are Americans born within

nine years of one another in the mid-

nineteenth century.

Reason: In the 1860s and 1870s the

American economy went through its

greatest expansion - railroads,

manufacturing, etc.

All named on the list had vision and

talent but they were also given an

extraordinary entrepreneurial

opportunity. The Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell, Penguin 2009

This is where you want

your business venture to

take you!

The key is to enjoy the adventure for its own sake.

Creativity is the type of learning process where

the teacher and pupil are located in the

same individual.”

- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)

Flow: the optimal scientist-entrepreneur mindset

Three key requirements are autonomy, complexity and a connection

between effort and reward.

Skills: know your game

The key to success is to practice a specific task for ten thousand hours (10 years).

The Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell, Penguin 2009

Practice isn’t the thing you

do once you are good.

It’s the thing you do

that makes you good.

The idea of

apprenticeship or

mastering your trade will

give you confidence in

business.

In a competitive situation

knowing your game can

literally make the

difference between

success and failure.

Time management

Time has value so spend it wisely.

Entrepreneurship education not only imparts information but also empowers

creative thought.

Remembering Envisioning the Future

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 2, 642 (2007).

BRAIN ACTIVITY DURING PAST AND FUTURE THOUGHT

Education: where do creative ideas come from?

The ability (i) to learn and remember and, (ii) to think creatively involve

the same brain regions.

“Fortune favours the prepared mind.” - Louis Pasteur.

Read six non-fiction books a year.

Read widely

1. Mindset 2. Skills 3. Education

Atlas shrugged

Wealth creators be proud. Fight for your

freedom to innovate and produce and

never accept the guilt of the non-

productive.

‘Self interest is in full accordance with nature

and therefore brings the more moral end.’

- Adam Smith

Rand is the patron saint of the 21st Century

entrepreneur - advocating a philosophy of

maximum self-expression combined with a

desire for technological progress.

Wealth is a sign that significant individual

thought has taken place. To create something

and to make money out of it is the essence of

human morality.

The purest brand of capitalism represents a

triumph of the creative mind over the state,

religion and tradition.

Creativity in a crisis - the hallmark of the human condition

Most radical innovations harness the cross-pollination of

disciplines

"The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing

with new eyes.” - Marcel Proust