I find that when I speak at Academic conferences around entrepreneurship, there are two themes that go on. Many professors want to talk of the academic nature of entrepreneurship- study and research it like its a caged animal to try to understand it. Others, want to talk about it from a more practical approach. What is it really like to be an entrepreneur? Clearly there is a role for both but I am a practician since I think you have to go out and do it rather than study it. But being at this conference, I have come to appreciate what we can learn by studying entrepreneurs around the world. However, we still need to talk to customers.