A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana
A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana
A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana
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[Parallel] What is innovation?<br />
[Michael Fernandez] My perspective is that<br />
innovation means coming up with new<br />
ideas. And doing that isn’t very easy,<br />
because everyone is very comfortable<br />
with what they’re doing. Being innovative<br />
is really a mindset. So to be innovative<br />
is to take some risk, risk failure,<br />
and then also to be able to potentially<br />
risk how other people perceive you.<br />
[P] If innovation is a mindset, how can it be<br />
learned?<br />
[MF] I firmly believe that you can’t teach<br />
somebody to be an entrepreneur. But<br />
part of it is actually helping that person<br />
to realize they can take the risk, and the<br />
first thing they might say is, “Hey, these<br />
perceptions that I keep getting are not<br />
letting me fail. And I’m able to make<br />
decisions even though people disagree<br />
with me.”<br />
The next part is to teach them a set of<br />
different skills. The first one is to understand<br />
their own self-image, in fact their<br />
decisions in life. If you perceive that<br />
you can’t do something, or in your<br />
mind you talk to yourself negatively,<br />
then you sort of limit your ability.<br />
[P] What is different about starting a new business<br />
in Europe and starting one in America?<br />
[MF] In that respect, the US is the diametrical<br />
opposite of Europe, or at least<br />
in San Francisco it is. In San Francisco<br />
you can’t say that failure is considered a<br />
good thing, but it is very accepted.<br />
Although it’s still not easy to come out<br />
of it, and it takes a process to realize<br />
“I did this and I failed,” when you do<br />
fail, people are still more comfortable<br />
about it. In Europe there’s this idea that<br />
people don’t fail.<br />
52<br />
socieTy<br />
Losing in order to win<br />
Michael Fernandez runs a company out of San Francisco – JMF & Co – that helps people<br />
and companies invest in innovative new areas. He is also the founder of one of America’s<br />
largest not-for-profit organizations, Little Kids rock, which promotes music education<br />
in schools throughout the US. In this interview with Parallel, Fernandez explains that<br />
to win, you often have to start off by losing, which is why Californians take more risks.<br />
By sArA pinA AND cLAudiA coLLA*<br />
michael Fernandez asserts that “The us is the diametrical opposite of europe” when it comes<br />
to starting a new business.<br />
SARA PINA<br />
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011
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