“Entrepreneurs don’t change the world, entrepreneurs see a puddle of gasoline and throw a match at it…Be the ignition point.” – Paul Maeder (Co-founder, Highland Capital)

Paul Maeder started his talk to the small group of student entrepreneurs gathered for Princeton’s East Coast Startup Summit by telling everyone not to drop out of school. If the idea was good enough, it would be there when we graduated.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that he is pretty wrong. My philosophy is that almost any good idea has been had by someone else before, they just didn’t act on it. So, it is not really about who has the idea, it is about who acts. You can’t count on an idea waiting for you to decide it’s time to press go.

Maeder also said that entrepreneurs don’t change the world. I also disagree with this. Instead I would argue that an entrepreneurs primary goal should not be to change the world. Changing the world is an intangible and unquantifiable goal. Rather, entrepreneurs should want to accomplish something tangible, that may translate into  shifts in society, government, business, etc. that change the way the world as a whole functions. Entrepreneurs have to be intuitive enough to recognize such an opportunity.

As quoted above, Maeder closed by saying “Entrepreneurs don’t change the world, entrepreneurs see a puddle of gasoline and throw a match at it…Be the ignition point.”

You have to accept a sizable amount of risk to throw a match in a puddle of gas or to start a business when ~50% of companies fail in the first 4 years.

What I took away may not be what Maeder was going for but, I think that it is meaningful.

Recognize the opportunity, be the one who acts, defy the risks, and maybe, just maybe, you might change the world.