Bill Aulet is a visionary and an entrepreneurial guru with a unique approach when it comes to teaching and guiding his disciples. He’s the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship at MIT, as well as being a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. On the off chance that anyone doubts his credentials, it’s worth nothing that in April 2013, Bill Aulet was awarded the Adolf F. Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurial Mentoring at MIT.  His background screams the word ‘entrepreneurship’ everywhere you look; before joining MIT, Aulet spent more than 2 decades enjoying a great deal of success in the business world, having raised over $100 million in startup funding for his companies. Bill Aulet recently published his new book ‘Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup’, and presented it at the Valencian Global Growth Program, as we discussed in this previous post.

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The 3 key values supported by Bill Aulet at MIT

Hal Abelson, an esteemed professor at MIT, once stated that MIT’s values are based on 3 basic concepts: Radical Meritocracy, Innovation and Open Knowledge. “We form part of, and embrace, everything that MIT represents”, Bill Aulet explains, “Radical Meritocracy is crucial, it paves the way for great results. MIT’s high standards of quality and excellence must be met, but we should also be true to other values: This needs to be a place of teamwork. We value diversity because multidisciplinary teams, with different people working in their own specific fields, obtain far better results. We also believe in the importance of experimentation – this is how you become an innovator: You experiment, fail, achieve success and learn. Our job is like being a broker, an honest go-between, which is something no one else does. What we do takes you by the hand and embraces your mind, as the saying goes. We work are theorists, but also put our ideas into practice in class: Research is worth nothing unless it’s linked with the real world. If we don’t put things into practice we are worth nothing. All of these invaluable principles have been proved to lead to success.

Bill Aulet insists ‘learn by doing’

The Sloan School preaches the idea of ‘learning by doing’. “We believe in learning through taking action”, says Bill Aulet, “taking action is what makes you free, it is an essential part of the learning process”. Paul Graham, a revered programmer and venture capitalist, suggests that the primary concern in a startup is the exponential growth. Based on this, Aulet stresses the importance of orientating a business towards constant innovation.

Bill Aulet encourages you to be tenacious and stay positive

Bill Aulet has said it is imperative to be tenacious and ignore those who tell you ‘it can’t be done’. Aulet observes that this is what has made MIT so significant in entrepreneurship; “MIT supports the concept of ‘piracy’, it’s the only school I know of that rewards you for acts of piracy”. He refers to taboo words like ‘hacking’ and ‘piracy’ as simply being terms for thinking outside the box; an irreplacable concept for entrepreneurs. Bill Aulet ends by assuring that entrepreneurs are not born; they are made. First show your learning spirit, then your entrepreneurial skills will develop.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]