What is the PUSH Entrepreneurial Skeleton Theory?
Is there a foolproof formula for entrepreneurial success?
Absolutely not.
Starting a business is inherently risky. Markets change, the people change, (as Covid -19 ridden year 2020 and 21 taught us) the general health climate can change. Each of these factors (and more) can thwart the growth of a small business.
However, although business is risky there are commonalities in the business that are able to thrive. In this post I would like to argue that those commonalities can be summarized into an acronym. That acronym is P.U.S.H. PUSH stands for P — Purposeful Passion, U — Utility of Usefulness, S — Skill and H — Honor.
P — Purposeful Passion
Guy Raz has quickly become one of the thought leaders in the space of entrepreneurship. This is in part because he wrote the New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal book on business creation called How I Built This. The book is loosely based on the podcast that he hosts with the same name. During the podcast he interviews some of the most innovative and successful companies in the world. The hope is that through interacting with the origin stories, future entrepreneurs will be able to develop their own enterprises.
In the book Guy explains the essence of what makes a good idea, a good entrepreneurial idea. He says
There is a name for a person who creates something purely out of passion: hobbyist. There is a name for a person who creates something out of passion that solves a problem only they have: tinkerer. There is a name for a person who creates something out of passion that also solves a problem they share with lots of other people: entrepreneur.
In this quote taken from his book How I Built This, Guy Raz is interacting with a truism. That good business ideas are more than explorations of personal passion.The are both interactions with passion and purpose. Other people have to be considered in order for an idea to impact the culture.
I believe that good entrepreneurship is more than even the consideration of others. I think that the holistic flourishing of many begins with the leader or key leaders doing some personal examination. We must ask the question, “Is this venture being created to improve lives or only to fatten my pockets?”. I encourage young entrepreneurs to lead with an understanding that “‘We’ is greater than ‘me’.”
An example of purposeful passion in entrepreneurship can be seen in the story of Blake Mycoskie the inventor of TOMS. At a young age Blake was a gifted entrepreneur that had a knack for landing in successful ventures. An example of this can be found in his How I Built This interview episode where he talks about co-founding a $800,000 campus laundry business.
Throughout his entrepreneurial journey he had many commercially successful ventures. However, nothing that could match the self described purpose of his most notable shoe business venture called TOMS. The story of the company started when Blake visited Argentina and saw that there was a need for people to have shoes due to the poverty. He arrived at the idea that consumers in richer areas could purchase their shoes for a price that would provide shoes in areas of the world that needed them. When a consumer buys one pair of shoes another pair is produced to be freely given to a person in need. The passion was Blake’s (and other) love for entrepreneurship or movement towards a solution. The purpose was helping to protect the feet of the less fortunate.
U — Utility or Usefulness
The second portion of the PUSH Entrepreneurial Skelton theory is utility or usefulness. This is explored through interacting with the “Hedgehog Concept” from the business book Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Good to Great was a book that was composed as the result of a research team led by Stanford professor Jim Collins. The team studied the leading companies through the history of the S & P 500. Through a stringent criteria list they found that 11 of the companies that they researched weren’t just good but great. The findings of the team became the substance for the book.
One common aspect of the great companies was that they subscribed to the Hedgehog concept. The name was taking from an interaction with one of Aseop’s fables called the “Fox and the Hedgehog.” In the story the hedgehog always defeated the fox because it subscribed to a unique and effective engagement method. This method was correlated to the way that successful companies engaged. This concept was summarized by each business, 1. Having a sense of passion towards product offering 2. Being able to produce a product or service that could power the economic motor 3. Being able to do one thing better than any one in the world.
In the PUSH entrepreneurial skelton, utility is an interaction with the second factor of the hedgehog concept. In order to power the economic motor, a company has to create value for a specific industry. Utility is an interaction with the target audience.
To return to the Raz quote (in the Purposeful Passion section) many entrepreneurs are only interested in personal passions. Many are not willing to move past being “hobbyists” and “tinkerers.” The utility aspect of entrepreneurship developed in the survey, testing and assessment portion of the process.
An example of utility as applied to Entrepreneurship can be seen clearly in the story of the Slack app. In the How I Built This podcast episode brand co-founder Stewart Butterfield shares how the app emerged. It was the result of a video game startup failure. As the team was looking to find job placement, a community formed among the team of software engineers. The group developed their own digital means of communication. The fruit of their labor became the Slack App.
S — Skill
This aspect of the entrepreneurial skeleton is often assumed among professionals. However, it is essential to the process.
Skills are generally learned through education but refined through experience.
Education can come in many forms. Education is either traditional (K-12 and college+), workplace education / training or through private forms (ie. Youtube , apprenticeships, internships, etc.) Professionals often interact with a hybrid of all as we seek to develop our skill sets.
One of the best ways that our brand can create value for young people is helping them to see how their time in school is helping build skills for their future ventures. Whether that skill is used for an existing organization or to pioneer their own, it’s a necessary ingredient. The “12 Ways School Matters in Real Life” Series is an example of how this brand will add value in this way.
Companies and organizations often garner their reputation for quality or service through their high level of skill or competency.
An example of this is seen in the non-profit educational company called Khan Academy. Their goal is to bring free education to every person in the world in their own language. The mission on their website (www.khanacademy.org) is “we’re a nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world — class education for anyone, anywhere.” This organizational strategy is made possible through the work of many competent educators.
Founder Sal Khan shares in his How I Built This episode that the idea was birthed out of helping his family members with their homework. Khan was a brilliant hedge fund investor that had mastered high level learning. He uploaded his insights on Youtube and was able to help more people than his intended audience. This idea led to him and his team creating many educational videos and resources in a variety of languages. At the heart of Sal Khan’s development was skill and competency. This is what makes their brand so reliable.
One of the pillars of good entrepreneurial growth is skill and competency.
H — Honor
The last but not least of the P.U.S.H. Entrepreneurial skeleton is the H for honor.
One definition is the “adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct.” In brief, it’s doing the right thing.
One of the best examples of organization responsibility can be examined through Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. interaction with “Funtown” during the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
For context Dr. King and many key leaders were arrested for their peaceful protest against injustice.
Many local clergy encouraged Rev. Dr. King to essentially slow down his efforts for justice and fair treatment of African Americans. This is how he responded…
“…But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;
when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky….
Later King went on to say …
when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” — then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
The H (Honor) in the PUSH entrepreneurial skeleton is birthed from an understanding that commercial entities have a deeper responsibility than simply building wealth.
Businesses help people gain a sense of belonging. Businesses help to employ people. Businesses help to empower people through their products and services. Businesses have the ability to educate from a posture of expertise and experience.
When thinking of Grace to Cultivate LLC specifically, we have the privilege of developing the imagination for the next generation. Will we be courageous with our influence or will we cower to corrupt cultural expectations like the “Funtown”, described by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.?
In summary, the P.U.S.H. entrepreneurial skeleton theory is an acronym that seeks to resource entrepreneurial development. P stands for purposeful passion. U stands for utility or usefulness for the target audience. S stands for the skill or the competency level of the entrepreneur or team of builders. H stands for honor and or the integrity that upholds and powers the organization.
Question — What are some principles of good entrepreneurship?
Zachary Middleton (follow @zachdmiddleton on Twitter and or check out the Linktree link to explore other ways to support — https://linktr.ee/Gracetocultivate )
