Scott Shane is the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. He has also written or edited ten books on business and entrepreneurship.

His book Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live by (Yale University Press, 2008) was one of the top ten business books of the year for Amazon.com. His 2005 book Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Businesses won the 2006 Golden Book Award for best business book of the year and has been translated into eight languages.

Additionally, Shane was the 2009 winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, hosts a column at BusinessWeek, and is an angel investor and member of the Northcoast Angel Network.

Mr. Shane has a wealth of knowledge on entrepreneurship, which he has generously shared with TheRisetoWealth.com in this interview below:

TRTW:What would be one of the first, or most fundamental, lessons you would teach your students in one of your classes at Case Western Reserve University? What advice would you like to offer to anyone considering starting a business or becoming an entrepreneur?

SS:Most of the focus in entrepreneurship is on the entrepreneur – what characteristics the person has that make them good at starting and running a business. Often overlooked is the importance of the business idea. In my books Finding Fertile Ground and Illusions of Entrepreneurship I point out that the aspects of the business idea – the industry people enter, the business model they have, the nature of their competitive advantage (if they have one at all) – actually account for more of the variation in [Read more...]