{"id":10512,"date":"2011-02-11T14:06:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devweb.rjrinnovations.com\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\/"},"modified":"2011-02-11T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-11T19:06:00","slug":"experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rjrinnovations.com\/fr\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Experience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"
I read an interesting article the other week about older versus younger entrepreneurs. One specific sentence in the article got me thinking.<\/div>\n
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\u201cFurthermore, and less tangibly, older workers are more likely to have the management experience necessary to set up a company and keep it running.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n
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So that begs the question\u2026 is \u201cmanagement experience\u201d really nothing but upside? \u00a0It seems quite frequently the venture capital investment community pulls middle-managers from the likes of GE or one of the various tech titans to take over the reins of an entrepreneurial start-up with the assumption that \u201cmanagement experience\u201d will make the likelihood of success that much higher and more than offset the loss of passion and vision that often accompanies replacing the founder.<\/div>\n
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While I value experience more and more every day (as I get more of it myself), I think there is at least one pitfall with experience that can hold the entrepreneurial spirit back. This pitfall is best characterized by the old adage: \u201cThe problem isn\u2019t what you don\u2019t know; it is what you know that isn\u2019t so.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The pitfall is what I call the \u201cthat\u2019s already been done\u201d trap. People who have been around for quite some time (often those with \u201cmanagement experience\u201d) have typically seen so many business ideas and so many companies that it takes something \u201ctotally new\u201d for them to think it has potential. The problem with the world in 2011 is that there isn\u2019t that much new under the sun. Most entrepreneurial activity centers on reinventing something that already exists in some form versus pioneering an entirely new product or service category of which no one on planet Earth has even conceived.<\/div>\n
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The best anecdote I have to illustrate this is a conversation I had with the past CEO of a company in the \u201csupport\u201d field. The company started in the late 90\u2019s with lots of technology around \u201csupport\u201d in general. I asked if their technology ever had any type of remote control or remote access capabilities and his answer was, \u201cWe built everything else EXCEPT that\u2026 we figured THAT market had \u2018already been done\u2019 and thus we never pursued it.\u201d The reality is that every current player in the remote support market started AFTER this company determined it had \u201calready been done.\u201d The success of many of the players in the remote control and remote access markets (and the relative challenges in a number of the surrounding markets) points to what I believe was a great opportunity that they chose to let pass. It was a downside of experience and knowledge.<\/div>\n
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In May of 2003 when I graduated from college, the remote support market looked \u201cwide open\u201d to my inexperienced eyes. I was 23 years old and the products I saw in use didn\u2019t meet my needs, and they didn\u2019t look like they met the needs of the marketplace either. \u00a0I didn\u2019t have the experience to know that I shouldn\u2019t start a company since the remote support market had \u201calready been done,\u201d so I developed and launched a product that I thought was better and different than the other stuff out there. Now with Bomgar Corporation having grown to more than 150 employees and $32M in annual revenue, I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t pass on this market. \u00a0It is never too late to completely reinvent a market that everyone else thinks has \u201calready been done.\u201d On that note, I\u2019ll close with a few quotes from Henry Ford that seem relevant to this general topic:<\/div>\n
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    \n
  • \u201cI am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.\u201d – Henry Ford<\/li>\n
  • \u201cAs we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.\u201d- Henry Ford<\/li>\n
  • \u201cIf you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.\u201d – Henry Ford<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    <\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n
    Posted by Joel Bomgar<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I read an interesting article the other week about older versus younger entrepreneurs. One specific sentence in the article got me thinking. \u201cFurthermore, and less tangibly, older workers are more likely to have the management experience necessary to set up a company and keep it running.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-10512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-english-fr"],"yoast_head":"\nExperience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t - RJR Innovations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rjrinnovations.com\/fr\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Experience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t - RJR Innovations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I read an interesting article the other week about older versus younger entrepreneurs. One specific sentence in the article got me thinking. \u201cFurthermore, and less tangibly, older workers are more likely to have the management experience necessary to set up a company and keep it running.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rjrinnovations.com\/fr\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RJR Innovations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RJR-Innovations-107107129324171\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-11T19:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RJRInnovations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RJRInnovations\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Experience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-11T19:06:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":657,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"English @fr\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"Experience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t - RJR Innovations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-11T19:06:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/experience-is-great-except-when-it-isnt-2\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/fr\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Experience Is Great\u2026 Except When It Isn\u2019t\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rjrinnovations.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"RJR Innovations\",\"description\":\"Connect your business... 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