Could You Make The Leap From Engineer To Entrepreneur?

In many ways, engineers are responsible for the modern world. They’re the people who built the bridges and dug the canals and, as such, are tremendously valuable. But here’s the funny thing: you rarely hear about millionaire engineers. Yes, they’re fantastically productive, but they don’t seem to be able to make the big bucks. Why is that?

Part of it comes down to the fact that they’re not entrepreneurial as a group. They spent their childhoods tinkering in sheds, not going out and trying to sell lemonade or trading Pokemon cards. A study by Duke and Harvard Universities found that out of 500 technology companies, only around 37 percent were actually led by people with engineering and computer science backgrounds. The figure is much lower for engineers in other industries.

So why is this? What are the main misconceptions of engineer entrepreneurs? And why are they not more successful?

Everybody Loves Cool Concepts, But Will They Buy Them?

Everybody loves new transport and logistics concepts like the Hyperloop, especially civil engineering contractors. But whether or not people will actually buy a ride on one is yet to be seen. Do people really want to be hurled along a metal tube at more than the speed of sound? Possibly - but it wouldn’t hurt to do a bit of prototyping and market research first, (which is what many of the upcoming hyperloop companies are doing). The problem for many engineers is that they get sidetracked. They get so enthralled by the new gadget they want to bring to the market, they forget all about making money. In order for a business to succeed, people have to want what you’re selling. If they don’t, you’ll have a lot of people telling you what you’re doing is cool, but no money in the bank.

Don't try to go it alone

Engineers sometimes believe that if they want their product to have “elegance” and “grace” they have to go it alone. Other business issues can just wait, they tell themselves, so long as the product itself is great. The problem for many engineers is that they tend to be introverts, gathering similar people around them and working away quietly in their workshops, not telling the world about what they’re doing. While these small teams might be easy to manage, they’re not great at building a thriving business. The best companies are those with a diverse range of skills and personalities.

You Don’t Need To “Get Functional” - You Need To Sell

Engineers trying to make waves in the business world often think that the product comes first and the selling comes second. But the truth is that it’s almost impossible to build a perfect product before first getting feedback from customers. Customer feedback is an essential part of the product creation process. Your mantra, therefore, should be to ship as quickly as you can, collect feedback, make changes and start the whole process all over again.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that many great companies are headed by engineers. Oracle was founded by Larry Ellison, Google was founded by Larry Page. As such, there’s nothing stopping engineers from hitting the big time.