Entrepreneur? Agitator!
Making changes is difficult. Even though it’s for the better, any change is irritating. That’s why those of us who tend to propose changes – God knows why – initially cause irritation. Nobody likes being irritated. So, what we really need is to be flexible, so we can introduce change without making too many waves. If you are not flexible, a proposed change will falter and fail and another opportunity will be missed.
THINK AND ACT. An entrepreneur is someone who thinks and acts. Regardless of their company’s size, entrepreneurs always have the right attitude, even when they make their bed.
Entrepreneurs? There is an etymology for the word entrepreneur which may be true or not, but it is certainly evocative. The original French word entrepreneur is said to have appeared at the beginning of the 16th century in reference to the adventurers who travelled to the New World in search of opportunities without really knowing what they were getting into. In the early 18th century, the French extended the meaning to include those who built bridges and roads and, wait for it, architects! Its meaning in a business context was first defined by Richard Cantillon in 1755, in reference to those facing a process with a degree of uncertainty.
ENERGY. An entrepreneur is someone who has energy which is being used up as they go along but has strategies to recover such energy throughout any process.
We recommend plenty of practice using a certain ring-shaped toy made of wood or plastic, which induces little more than physical activity but may also serve as metaphor – the hula hoop. An agitator must be able to make a hula hoop dance. And what is that supposed to mean? It means they must be flexible. And what does being flexible mean? Well, a lot of things and everyone must find a way to be flexible. It’s not a question of opposing superior powers, but of using them, like the new generation of sailing boats whose rigging transmits opposing forces as they move instead of putting up resistance to them. It’s like having a weather vane which is constantly turning, but we have to know how to stay on course while making use of all the energy produced by the rotating vane. Did anyone understand the metaphor? Do the hula hoop.
Arc del Teatre/…
ATTITUDE. Attitude is a key word. Attitude is being prepared to do things with enthusiasm while completely rejecting the ridiculous. We should act much more like Americans and less like Europeans, with a touch of innocence, to be sure, something which is always associated with the capacity which enthusiasm has of seeing things where they are not. Give me an attitude and I will move the world.
Agitator! You should realise your work is associated with the act of agitation. You are an agitator who makes others lift their sedentary asses from the chair they are keeping warm.
Questions-Answers/…
CONVINCE. The capacity to convince, which is probably related to the capacity to make a negotiator participate in what you are proposing. It’s not so much the fact they are attracted by your project rather that you invite them to participate and suggest that they could play an important role.
Projects need to be shared. Nobody can undertake a project on their own, even less so in our field, in this small country of ours full of envious and lazy people. Something good can probably come out of this. Anyone who is in a position to help us must also see potential for themselves in our projects. As we may not know who can offer us help we may need in the future, we have to remain open-minded. An entrepreneur needs to be a great host who is building a large house where they can receive many people.
Chic&Basic Born/ Hospes Palma/ Hotusa Arc de Triomf/…
LAB and AGENCY. Owning a company where 50 % of your business does not make a profit, does not produce anything which risks being sold or generating any kind of economic earnings … at least in direct way.
In our field, architecture and industrial design, there are many people doing things and doing them well. It was very difficult to get ahead. The problem was and is that everyone works within very similar parameters. We needed to find a different approach. This, of course, involved looking in many different directions. We thus created the LAB, which is basically a place where a fair number of people are working in many different directions. A word secretly taken from a restaurant menu, for instance, could become a stimulus and lead to a particular line of work. Such a process may take a few days as it does not suggest anything. Or it may just grow and grow and end up becoming something which may be the beginnings of something else.
Galactic Suite/ Catalogue of high-rise buildings/…
SOMEBODY HAS TO BELIEVE IN YOU. It’s not possible to do anything alone. In our case, belief in you begins with a father, a mother, then continues with the Architect’s Cooperative Credit Institute and now is based in the company itself, 50 % of which does make a profit.
Risk? Change, uncertainty and often risk. These are terms traditionally associated with entrepreneurs, but everything is really much easier. Entrepreneurs aren’t actually the kind of people who like risk. Entrepreneurs are smart people who seek to make use of things they have around them. They reorganize and adjust the things they see in a way which brings a benefit, some value. It’s not necessarily a question of making money. The same thing goes for those who help us, after all there has to be a great deal of faith at the beginning as almost nobody is born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Those who are actually born with a silver spoon in their mouth start to use it without knowing what it is really used for. It goes without saying that the only person who can have faith in you is your father or someone similar.
Mother’s bath/ Architect’s Cooperative Credit Institute competition/ Be your own client: ONE,… /…
PROFIT? DEBT! It’s not very clear who profits. Companies move forward, people get paid and there is often debt. Debt is detrimental to profit but it doesn’t seem to be harmful for companies. I would even go as far as saying it was favourable.
Smartass!
Some people say that an entrepreneur is a smartass who sees an opportunity and organises resources to set things in motion or capitalise on it.
If you’re broke, buy houses!/…