Natural-Born Entrepreneur

Natural-Born Entrepreneur

by Dan Bricklin

Reprint r0108b

HBR Case Study r0108a

What a Star вЂ"What a Jerk

Sarah Cliffe

First Person r0108b

Natural-Born Entrepreneur

Dan Bricklin

Different Voice r0108c

Is Success a Sin? A Conversation

with the Reverend Peter J. Gomes

In Praise of Middle Managers r0108d

Quy Nguyen Huy

The Superefficient Company r0108e

Michael Hammer

The Weird Rules of Creativity r0108f

Robert I. Sutton

What You Don’t Know r0108g

About Making Decisions

David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto

We Don’t Need Another Hero r0108h

Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.

Best Practice r0108j

Sustainable Growth, the DuPont Way

Chad Holliday

Tool Kit r0108k

Distance Still Matters:

The Hard Reality of Global Expansion

Pankaj Ghemawat

September 2001

was lucky. No doubt about it.

In 1979, when my partner, Bob

Frankston, and I created VisiCalc, the

first electronic spreadsheet, we didn’t

realize it would jump-start the

personal computer industryвЂ"let

alone revolutionize the way

businesses kept records and

tested financial scenarios.

In the midst of my studies

at Harvard Business School,

I had grown more than a

little frustrated by having

to manually calculate and

recalculate every single

change on a spreadsheet

as I worked through a case

study. There had to be a

better way, I figured, so I started designing

a computer program to address

those inefficiencies. I described my idea

to Bob Frankston, whom I’d met as an

undergraduate at MIT, and he

agreed to try to turn my

primitive prototype into a

working program. After

toiling for several months

in the attic of Bob’s home,

we had a hunch that we

might have something big on

our hands. The rest of the VisiCalc

story is replete with the usual

twists and turns вЂ" not to mention

some very difficult downturns. But

that cool little software program

is still regarded as the first killer

Copyright Ð'© 2001 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

by Dan Bricklin

First Person

ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CRAIG

I

Natural-Born

Entrepreneur

His most famous invention, the computer

spreadsheet, changed the course of business.

But to this entrepreneur, it was no big deal.

He was just doing what came naturally.

app of the PC industry, and, much to

my surprise, I have had to get comfortable

with being famous as “the father of

the electronic spreadsheet.”

Some 20 years and four start-ups

later, I still get my jollies the same way:

by creating tools that solve people’s

everyday problems. I like to think these

are tools that speak to people’s needs,

whether for expressing a personal passion,

such as publishing digital photo albums,

or for solving a practical problem,

such as automating the small-business

budget or prototyping a piece of software.

Times haven’t always been easy.

I’ve lived through a lawsuit, layoffs, two

acquisitions, and a failed start-up. (Let’s

just say that I won’t be endowing any

university buildings or faculty chairs

anytime soon.) But life as an entrepreneur,

professional tinkerer, and technology

and business commentator has

brought me many joys.

Aspiring