Entrepreneurship Lessons from Starship Enterprise…Biz Me Up, Scotty

Entrepreneurship Lessons from Starship Enterprise…Biz me up,Scotty. I have never been a big fan of Star Trek. For me, it’s like having CNN on TV while I’m working on a project at my computer: in the background, kind of knowing what’s going on, but not paying particular attention. But Star Trek’s recent movie release and box office success has interested me in reflecting on some entrepreneurship takeaways from what’s been an enduring franchise, now into a third generation of Trekkies.

Lesson # 1: Incremental and Cumulative Growth key to Sustainable Entrepreneurship

I first noticed the power of Star Trek and its followers in the early ‘80s when I was involved in shopping center development. I was a leasing agent for a down-and-dirty strip mall in a suburb of Phoenix. It was the kind of shopping center that you would drive by every day and not recall a single business in the place. But it did have great fundamentals for a small business: great parking, terrific signage and decent in/out access. Importantly, the center was designed for starter businesses—spaces as small as 500 square feet—manageable size and low monthly rent for start up businesses.

I rented one of these starter spaces to a guy who looked like he lived in his car. Our brokerage firm was a NY-based “big deal” firm, with Fortune 500 clients--our office and my colleagues all dressed the part: imagine wearing braces and vests in Phoenix in the summer! My prospect shows up to my office to sign the lease wearing Chuck Taylors and tattered jeans before they were cool. We signed the deal for a year and got an extra security deposit because I was sure this guy would not make it. He told me his business was focused on “collectables” and Star Trek merchandise.

So you know where the rest of this story is going: every year, this Star Trek tenant expands his store…within five years he occupied about half of the shopping center. And wore the same Chuck Taylors every day.

Lesson #2: Persistence and Self Determination are antidotes for the “suits”

The introduction of Star Trek into the public media was not good…the TV series, which debuted in 1966, stuttered, stalled and stopped after 79 episodes. In a recent Newsweek article, one of the writers commented the series “…was about as successful as a North Korean rocket”. Gene Roddenberry’s vision was not shared by network executives and movie studio executives…more than a decade passed before Star Trek made it to the big screen. The same Star Trek writer noted that Roddenberry became a “pariah” and that Roddenberry saw himself as “…perceived as the guy who made the show that was an expensive flop…” But Roddenberry was impassioned about his view of the 24th Century and marched on, doing lectures at college campuses and keeping the magic of Star Trek alive to the passionate fans who shared his vision of the future…which leads us to lesson #3…

Lesson #3: Harness the power of a network via Social Media

Today’s Star Trek success is rooted in an early form of social network energy. Remember the failure of the early launch of Star Trek in the 60’s? One of the reasons that Star Trek came back from the early flop was because Trekkies found each other via conferences, via meeting at Star Trek collectable stores (like my tenant in Lesson #1) and even, via classified ads in “old media” like newspapers and magazines. Gene Roddenberry, by making those college appearances in the 70’s fueled the energy of his Star Trek fans, who collectively made studios and media aware of the aggregate size of the market. Without Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn, Gene and his social media band of Trekkies created energy and moved Star Trek into a box office and pop culture phenomenon.

Biz me up, Gene!!

About the author: Steven Stralser, Ph.D., is a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is the author of MBA in a Day: What You Would Learn at Top-Tier Business Schools (If You Only Had the Time!) and the developer of MBAinaDAY Online, the six-hour web-delivered e-learning program based on his book.