Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2013 | Page 13

Portrait of a Serial Entrepreneur:
Steve Blank

B

lank had a life-altering experience during the Vietnam War
while he was repairing fighter plane electronics in Thailand.
As a nineteen-year-old technician, Blank saw fighter planes
take off every day with bombs hanging under their wings. The ultimate lesson of war finally hit the teenager at full force as he understood that not all planes were coming back.
Returning to the States, Blank arrived in Silicon Valley in 1978
as boom times began – and was soon on his way to becoming a fearless serial entrepreneur. (Not bad from someone who, according to
his own admission, might have been chosen “least likely to succeed”
in his high school class.)
Still, things didn’t always go smoothly in the start-up land –
Blank would get yelled at, run out of money and get stuck being
on both ends of stupid decisions – but after the war, he knew how
to put those things in perspective. Entrepreneurship is hard, sure –
but