Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Len’s Last Lecture- What entrepreneurs need to know to succeed

As many know, President Len Schlesinger’s decided to take a ‘time-out’ from his current position at Babson College and spend quality time with family. The student governments organized a “Last Lecture” for Len on April 25, giving him the opportunity to speak from his heart to the Babson community for the last time and to give quality advice as he always has given.

Before joining Babson College in 2008, Len worked at a number of organizations and as an academia doing research. In fact, it was his vision that transformed Babson from just another college to a unique college with no competition. Nobody can debate his experience and knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. Reflecting on his experiences, Len talked about his life lessons which led him to success. The four important life lessons he highlighted in his speech were:

  1. People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care about them
  2. Never underestimate the power/capacity of people who actually do the work to show you how to do it better
  3. There is a huge gap between knowing and doing. At the end of the day, action trumps over everything
  4. You cannot underestimate the value of great talent in an organization. You can build a constructive culture but you cannot make great people so value the talented people in your organization

These four lessons are invaluable to be successful in life. Len is a living example of how successful one can be by implementing these principles. Whether you are an entrepreneur struggling to kick start your venture or still looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity, try to implement these lessons and see where it takes you. Part of entrepreneurship is about absorbing new information and these lessons are something any serious entrepreneur would not want to skip.