Member of the royal family, entrepreneur and an inspiration for beginners. This Monday Prince Daniel visited Lund and talked about entrepreneurship and the importance of moving forwards from idea to action.
The Crafoord Hall at the School of Economics and Management. Many empty chairs in spite of the darling royalty being in town. The humble man of the people is about to enter and the expectations are high. A doctoral student in the audience tells us in a whispering voice that the postgraduate council, messed up in the process of sending information about the seminar to the people invited. Which could be an explanation of why the hall is not packed.
The difference between idea and action.
When the Prince enters the hall everybody rises simultaneously. Prince Daniel gives a brief presentation of himself and his view of entrepreneurship and shares ideas of how young students in Lund could become more innovative.
“I love entrepreneurship. We need to get better at staring companies, in Sweden 50-60 percent could see themselves as entrepreneurs, but only about 1 percent take action. The difference between idea and action is big”, said Prince Daniel.
Became an assessor
After the brief presentation the Prince became an assessor for the rest of the conversation. Instead the other entrepreneurs stepped into the limelight and talked about their experiences. They were mostly in agreement, like in the discussion about the fact that entrepreneurs have to have the courage to fail, and that failure is an inseparable part of long-term success. In matters regarding HR the opinions drifted slight apart.
“How to get rid of your financial manager with the range of employment laws existing in Sweden?” Caroline Hjelte, novice in the Prince Daniel fellowship asked herself and further gave some examples of how the Prince’s program has helped her to deal with such questions.
Struggling with problems among the employees
Johan Skarborg, who started Academic Work during his time as a student, talked about the fact hat he too struggles with problems among the employees. However, Johan Skarborg seems too have worked out several strategies.
“The most important thing is to work with people who care about each other and create a good working environment. That’s where you receive energy, develop, and take care of each other. It’s also important to get attention from you boss and feel that you are important”, he says.
A pacifier for entrepreneurs
At the end of the conversation the panel and the audience made a stop at the importance of abiding by ones ideas and the conversation turned into talking about positive role models and continued to become a pacifier for future entrepreneurs.
One suggestion coming from the audience was to separate the “entrepreneur-self” from ones “real” self in order to not take critique from other people personally.
“Who are you doing it for? Have you made a personal success? Are you looking at yourself with the eyes of others or with your own eyes?” Carolina Hjelte asked herself.
A little bit all over the place
Lundagård got a few words with Prince Daniel before he headed off to the airport. The Prince seemed satisfied with his visit to Lund.
“It went ok. I’m happy that everybody could come here and contribute with their experiences and wisdom”, said Prince Daniel.
“Whether it was a good conversation has to be up to the audience to judge” he added humbly.
At least it was entrepreneurship all over the place?
“Haha, yes you’re very right about that. That’s a good headline!”
Text: Linus Gisborn
Photo: Jens Hansen
Translation: Mia Söllwander
