Information and Entrepreneurs

Information is key to everyone, entrepreneurs maybe more so. Wikepedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, describes information as:

"The state of a system of interest, any represented pattern, any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of any other patterns."

Anyone interested in this should read the entire Wikipedia article and go to its references and links.

Information can be anything: the number of angels on the head of a pin, the weather forecast, the attitudes of a spouse, the number of widgets you sold last month. Brown and Duguid, in The Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002), include in it "the fuzzy stuff around the edges--context, background, history, common knowledge, social resources" (p. 1). Their point is that too often we "tunnel through." To quote them:

But this stuff around the edges is not as irrelevant as it may seem. It provides valuable balance and perspective. It holds alternatives, and ignore the fuzzy stuff which holds alternatives, offers breadth of vision, and indicates choices. It helps clarify purpose and support meaning. Indeed, ultimately it is only with the help of what lies beyond it that any sense can be made of the information that absorbs so much attention. (pp. 1-2)

Entrepreneurs have to keep their view wide and not suffer from tunnel vision, not rely on data to the extent that they ignore context and background. And above all, they have to see information as more than data.

This is my entrepreneurship course. If something grabbed you, post a comment. Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing and publishing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com