It’s easy – and important – to tell Iowans to support entrepreneurs, but more challenging for the people being asked for money.

We’re not surrounded by an entrepreneurial buzz, start-up guru Christian Renaud pointed out at a recent Power Breakfast presented by the Business Record. You feel the difference as soon as you get in a shuttle at the airport in San Jose, Calif., he noted. But in Iowa, “it’s not in our DNA yet.”

So we’re at the point where you don’t get successful entrepreneurs without the support, and you don’t get support without successful examples. We’ll move past that, eventually, but not without efforts by everyone involved.

People in the situation of Dwolla Corp. founder Ben Milne can serve as role models and mentors to other people with an idea and ambition. The early winners have to be willing to tell their stories forthrightly, and resist the urge to recommend their own paths for every young hopeful. Milne is doing great after dropping out of college; others might need all of the formal education they can get.

Establishment types with big bankrolls need to study venture capitalism from the masters, too, if they haven’t set out on the path yet.

Family and friends can help with a pat on the back if not a check. It will be needed, repeatedly.

Renaud quoted venture capitalist Paul Graham, who said, “Starting a company is like getting punched in the face.” “I think it’s worse than that,” Renaud said.

Around here, Milne said, “people are going to treat you like an idiot the first 200 times you explain (your business idea). You have to do that, or go to the coasts.”

We all have to realize that entrepreneurship is not like baseball, and use a different mindset to evaluate talent.
 
The reason politicians are wary of risk, said moderator Mike Colwell, is that “a politician can’t get re-elected on a baseball batting average.”

When it comes to start-ups, however, “batting .250 is great.”