The Student Entrepreneur Club of Temple University hosted its second meeting at Temple University Center City on Tuesday.
The guest speaker for the meeting was Dr. Howard Lubert, a former faculty member in the Entrepreneurship program at the Fox School of Business, from 2001-2004. Lubert remains active in Temple’s entrepreneurship mentoring programs. His current business, SafeHatch, is a technical investment support service, and he has plans for starting a new business as well.
Lubert’s presentation, “The Art of the Start: Eclectic Ramblings in the Assessment of Viable Entrepreneurial Thought in the New New Economy,” employed slides and his own experiences to offer advice to his audience of graduate and undergraduate students and faculty.
“There is no structure in entrepreneurship; it’s mass chaos,” Lubert said.
From the beginning of his presentation, Lubert admitted that he sees himself as very opinionated but also very willing to help students achieve success.
“The traits you will need for success are attitude, behavior, action and innovation,” he said.
Lubert described entrepreneurs as risk-takers.
“Nobody can teach you to be an entrepreneur, not from a book or a class. You need to hang around them, watch and learn,” Lubert continued.
Lubert offered advice to students looking to become entrepreneurs in their own right.
“When considering an investment as an entrepreneur, look for reality, something you are sure will make money,” Lubert said.
He went on to define one of his favorite terms, “creative destruction.”
“If you want your business to grow you can’t leave it alone, you have to destroy parts for it to succeed,” Lubert said.
Lubert explained that entrepreneurs do not get discouraged or disappointed, because they believe that new ideas will come to them if one fails.
“The most successful businesses are started by a team; you need to find people with the skills you need to be successful,” Lubert said. “You don’t need a lot of money, just a vision and a mission, if you can convince others to come along, you’re halfway there, the money will find you when you need it.”
SEC faculty adviser Chris Pavlides addressed the group to call for officers for the spring semester after the presentation.
The club appointed their interim officers for this semester following the meeting. M. Ahsanur Rahim, Mick Andzulis and Justin Mahwikizi will serve as president, vice-president and secretary respectively.
Jessica Smeriglio can be reached at tua04745@temple.edu.
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