Quotable E-Conference

Conference season has descended upon Darden. This weekend plays host to the Finance Conference, the Brand Challenge, the Case Challenge, and — my favorite — the E-Conference.

Today's agenda included two fantastic panels of entrepreneurs (and I'm not always a fan of panels, but these guys were really intriguing), an alumni/student reception, and a dinner.

I scribbled down some of my favorite comments from the panels. I'm sorry to say my reporting skills are pretty shabby these days — I don't recall who said what — but the sentiments should be right-on.

Sprinkling of advice and insight from Day 1 of the E-Conference:

Being an entrepreneur is all about selling.

If people don't return your phone call, you don't have a company.

At some point, it stops being work — it's who you are.

One of the coolest things about owning your own company is building the culture.

The audience asked terrific questions. Here are a few, paraphrased:

Thomas Jefferson has a pretty famous tombstone that lists what he wanted to be remembered for. What would you want on yours? (Follow-up suggestion: Write your obit.)

How do you teach entrepreneurship to kids? Can you? Why don't we?

Have you been fired — or almost fired? Did you leave before you were let go?

I was puzzled by that last question, but the questioner was onto something. A few of the panelists talked about how they left jobs, sensing it was a toxic place and bad stuff was coming down the pipe. The questioner's point seemed to be that entrepreneurship often catches fire when a person is, for one reason or another, intensely motivated.

Tomorrow: more sessions and the UVA Cup, a competition of business concepts from all around the university!