Entrepreneurs Help Others Find Direction

Outside Insights

Entrepreneurs solve the right problem. What is the right problem? It’s a problem that leads to building a method to make money.

Gain clarity on lessons of entrepreneurship by listening to this week’s podcast featuring University of Delaware’s Senior Instructor of Entrepreneurship Vince DiFelice. When he and Placers President Chris Burkhard exchanged humbling stories of lessons learned, both men revealed vulnerable accounts of failures that ultimately led to long-term success.

“You have to give yourself permission to be human, not superhuman,” said DiFelice. “Doing good and helping people used to be mutually exclusive,” but that’s not how it is in the present, he explained. Now, entrepreneurship is all about problem-solving in a growth market that leads to change and improvement while turning a profit.

“Entrepreneurs are leaders who assist others in finding direction,” said DiFelice, adding that entrepreneurship is “tutorial and pastoral.”

In his current role, DiFelice helps students identify an interest, then asks them to create a list of the growth markets where the interest fits. After that, they measure the size of the market in dollars. He asks students to focus on a problem in that market and figure out how to fix the problem. "It's a means of discovery that leads to entrepreneurship in an industry that they care about," he said. "I teach students to find their direction. Through market fit, they figure themselves out."

To hear this episode that literally delivers the step-by-step “how to” of identifying market fit and capturing it, click on the image.