The goal of this discussion is to help other academics understand the relationship between academic standing and entrepreneurship and how you can marry the two concepts together to generate supplementary income.
Q: So, the first question is about characterization — how would you characterize the academic entrepreneur in today’s world? Who are these people and what is it that they are doing, what makes them unique? What, too, are the benefits of being an academic entrepreneur in terms of how it benefits the individual and one’s career in academia?
A: The academic entrepreneur is someone who knows what their talents are and is able to capitalize on them. That’s my short definition. They are able to take those qualities that make them excel in the academic arena and apply them to additional revenue streams. I’m not sure if they are unique [as] much as they’re always looking for opportunities. They are broad thinkers with narrow goals and lanes to optimize success for those goals.
Q: Considering your own experiences and efforts in academia and the business world, can you share some insights about what it is like to be an academic entrepreneur and what it is that’s particularly advantageous about this approach?
A: For me, the biggest advantage to this approach is how I use knowledge from these two worlds, academic and business, to better myself in both worlds. For example, outside of academia, I am an author and an editor. With both, I constantly use my creativity; my knowledge of grammar, structure and organization; [and] my ability to think outside the box to strengthen my own writing as an author and others’ writing as an editor. When I’m in the classroom, I bring these tools with me. When I’m considering academic research projects, I use my creative, my outside-the- box thinking to explore topics that on the surface might not seem as academic as other topics, but, in the end, they are creative endeavors for me that satisfy their academic requirements.
Q: How would you describe the relationship between entrepreneurship and academia?
