CareerTech’s Defying the Odds: A Crash Course in Entrepreneurship

Face it. The odds against success in building a business are a staggering 80 percent fail rate within the first five years.

And according to Scott Klososky, of the 20 percent of the new businesses that do survive, 80 percent disappear within the second five years. Klososky is an international entrepreneur and consultant specializing in technology implementation.

Yet strategic business futurists, The Herman Group, reports that today’s younger generation of teenagers is entrepreneurial; a strong 70 percent want to own their own business sometime during their lives.

Larry Cox, author of “The Entrepreneur Next Door: Five of your neighbors who are starting their own business,” says that new business startups are as American as Disneyland, jazz and baseball.

“The independence and self-sufficiency demonstrated in every aspect of American culture proves entrepreneurs to be the cornerstone of our business success, yet surprisingly little is known about the process of entrepreneurism,” Cox said.

In response to this very real, very tough issue in building a business, Klososky and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education have collaborated in the development of curriculum that teaches lessons people have learned the hard way.

“Defying the Odds: A Crash Course in Entrepreneurship,” curriculum developed by CareerTech’s Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center (CIMC) in collaboration with Klososky is designed with more of a “scared straight” attitude than a “how to,” according to Craig Maile. Maile is assistant curriculum coordinator at the state CareerTech agency and helped develop the “Defying the Odds” curriculum.

Endorsing this curriculum for entrepreneurs are January’s Leadership Oklahoma (LOK) and at least two CareerTech technology centers, Francis Tuttle in Oklahoma City and Red River in Duncan.

“The focus of this curriculum is on the most essential things,” Maile said, “For example, do you have the personality it takes to survive? Can you look at your employees and decide who are the low performers and dismiss them? These are the kinds of question entrepreneurs must be able to honestly answer – and, then act upon.”

People romanticize about what it’s like to “be your own boss.” This curriculum is everything entrepreneurs want to know, but are afraid to ask.

The six DVD or video formatted curriculum produced by the Oklahoma Department of CareerTech is comprised of high-powered business people talking about their experiences and their own lessons learned. The six “days” covered in this program were taught in an actual class session held at Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City. Topics range from the impact of business on family life and developing the heart of an entrepreneur to developing a strategy and presenting ideas to venture capitalists.

According to Klososky, most entrepreneurs don’t understand the key elements that drive success and invest their energy and heart in the wrong areas, quickly failing.

“That is devastating on a personal level,” he said. “To have believed with all their heart that they had the right pieces in the right places. Using your head AND heart are essential to survive building a business. But, people who lack heart won’t succeed. Many more companies fail for lack of heart than for lack of technical skills.”

“The course is not a primer on how to build a company,” Klososky said. “It presents the big picture view: the skills, perspectives and fundamentals to master to improve the odds of surviving. If you aren’t scared away at this point, there is hope. That is what this course is all about.”

At Red River Technology Center in Duncan, business trainer Jackie Shultz teaches a series of entrepreneurship classes. In January she will be teaching “Entrepreneurship: From Vision to Venture” and plans to use portions of the videos then, and again this summer as part of the activities in a pilot youth entrepreneurship camp at Red River.

“I have previewed the tapes and believe they are excellent,” Shultz said. “I have also checked the videos out to some of my current clients, and they have said they were extremely helpful.”

One of the clients in Shultz’s entrepreneurship class said the information in the video was covered in their program. For those who are unable to attend due to time or distance constraints, a self-directed study is also available.

Also in January, Leadership Oklahoma (LOK) will be sponsoring Klososky’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Boot Camp, using CIMC’s Defying the Odds curriculum.

“The first Leadership Oklahoma group will use the program from January through April, Klososky said. “We are talking about making it an annual segment of the LOK program.”

For more information about entrepreneurship programs please call 800-654-4502.