The sequel to The Culture of Capital (published 2005), SCORE looks at a key issue for any entrepreneur: risk.
Fear of failure is the single biggest barrier to business start-up, even above access to capital. Jeopardising a safe job, a good salary and a comfortable lifestyle by striking our on their own is a massive mental hurdle to overcome for most people, and the fear of failure is there at every stage of growth. For those who look at starting their own business straight after leaving full-time education (at whatever age), it's an equally big leap of faith.
Risk is inescapable in business, and is at the heart of almost every decision. Balancing risk with reward, knowing when to jump and when to wait, having the courage now and then to make a leap of faith – these judgements make or break an enterprise.
So how do we convince the region’s potential entrepreneurs that the risk is worth taking? How can they learn to judge risk, and how can they build the resilience and strength to get up and have another go if they do fall down? And how to explain that even if an enterprise fails, the entrepreneur need not?
SCORE examines the thoughts and feelings of 20 entrepreneurs with links to the region, to see what makes them stand out from the crowd; it will show that an entrepreneur can come from anywhere, be anyone, do anything, use any reasonable means. The common character traits are drive, energy and resilience; the willingness to take risks, to put the fear of failure in perspective, to have a go.
Enterprise is not another word for business: it’s an attitude, a mindset. So although the score of risk takers are mostly business owners, there are some from other areas of life – politics, exploration, arts, sport – all of them working to exactly the same principles. Being enterprising is a way of life, not just a way of working.
In depth interviews of the entrepreneurs are underpinned by analysis and comment by business successes, professional, financiers and academics. Not just a good read with plenty of human interest, but a template for Merseyside’s next enterprising generation.
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Twenty entrepreneurs spill the personal secrets behind their success.... Not what, but why. The sequel to The Culture of Capital
The enterprising SCORE
- Alison Ball
- Bashar Issa
- Clare Molyneux
- Colin McKeown
- David Jones
- Duke of Westminster
- Eddy Amoo
- Gary Millar
- Heikki Viitikko
- James Barton
- Jon Moulton
- Jonathan Falkingham
- Leonard Steinberg
- Malcolm Walker
- Paul Heathcote
- Rob Duce
- Sharon Hilditch
- Sir Michael Bibby
- Sir Ranulph Fiennes
- Victor Greenberg
More SCORE
Score team
Publisher: Capsica • Project driver: The Steve Stuart Partnership • Sponsors: Halliwells, Rensburg Sheppard, Royal Bank of Scotland
More about the team
Score backs Sirolli
Capsica and the sponsors are backing The Sirolli Institute's Liverpool groups, to inspire more local people to make the leap and set up their own business. Who knows where the next Roddick, Branson, Sugar, Dyson will come from?
Liverpool's Sirolli groups
The Sirolli Institute
Founded in 1996 by Ernesto Sirolli, the Sirolli Institute is a non-profit education and training organisation, introducing enterprise facilitation to communities and working in concert with existing economic development efforts to help entrepreneurs – a catalyst for renewed community pride and civic spirit.
The future of every community lies in the dreams and aspirations of its people; Sirolli helps to capitalise on the passion, intelligence, imagination and resources of local entrepreneurs. Since 1985, thousands of new and expanding businesses resulting in thousands of new jobs have been started with the help of enterprise facilitators in dozens of communities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
The future of every community lies in the dreams and aspirations of its people; Sirolli helps to capitalise on the passion, intelligence, imagination and resources of local entrepreneurs. Since 1985, thousands of new and expanding businesses resulting in thousands of new jobs have been started with the help of enterprise facilitators in dozens of communities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
The Culture of Capital