The Greatest Hits of 2022 on D-Eship.com

Every year it is fun to look back and see what your favorite articles of the year were. Often, we have a feeling of confidence in some but there are always surprises when we look at the year-end data. This year it is no different.  At a high level, the 2022 list is dominated by new materials but three seemingly evergreen classics have secured a spot in the top ten and they are all written by people not named “Aulet”. Still, the most popular articles for 2022 are populated most of all by the ones that give a sneak peek and ask for feedback on the new proposed book on Financial Literacy for Entrepreneurs.

One interesting note, the article by a guest, Md. Rashed Mamun, on how Disciplined Entrepreneurship has had an impact on creating entrepreneurs in Bangladesh (Disciplined Entrepreneurship: A Gamechanger in Supporting Young Entrepreneurs of Bangladesh) got more than double the views of what I thought would be sure clickbait regarding the back story of how the English Royals came to visit Boston (Disciplined Entrepreneurship Helps Bring Prince William and Kate to Boston). I don’t know how you feel about that but it made me feel good about our readers who correctly, prioritize impact over publicity and interesting storytelling – although there is a role for both.

Without further ado, here are the top articles from 2022 as voted on by your clickstream (i.e., page views) in reverse order:

Honorable Mention: EDP+: Innovating On How We Teach Entrepreneurship and Grow the Community

There is a very real and powerful community of hundreds of successful EDP alumni and you never know for sure why something is successful, but my guess is that this helped drive these numbers. That being said, as the field of entrepreneurship is constantly changing, we also need to continually innovate the way we teach it so this should ring true to an even broader community and it appears it did.

#10: Chapter 3: Financial Modeling (Part 1)

This is the first of four entries that made the top ten hit list for 2022 regarding the first draft of a book on Financial Literacy for Entrepreneurs. Clearly, a lot of interest in this very important topic, and I agree there is not enough out there that meets the need here. This is the reason we made an edX course on the topic as well and why I drafted this material for our courses and workshops at MIT. It still needs a lot of work and not sure if and when it will come out in a polished format but the message is clear. There is lots of incentive now to finish the job based on the feedback. Just need more time.

Ironically, not sure why this particular article got fewer hits than the follow-on article which was the second part of the chapter but I am guessing this is because Part 2 got into more specifics on the actual modeling…. but you still have to understand the context and assumptions so don’t skip Part1!

#9: LTV Calculation Spreadsheet

An absolute classic, this was the #1 article of 2020 (the year it was written by guest writer Joe Gibson a Lecturer at Clemson University) and it remains popular to this day. Extremely useful and really a basic spreadsheet to help people calculate Life Time Value (LTV) with simple directions on how to use it. Nothing fancy, just high value and straight to the point. Never gets old.

#8: All People Are Born Entrepreneurs, Then Society Takes This Away

Published in April 2022, this was a translation of an interview done by a Greek newspaper. Didn’t realize it was going to be so popular but people loved the title and it drew them in and they stayed. It covers a lot of topics with relatively short answers. The trip to Greece was also very popular so not sure why it got so many hits but we know it did.

#7: Chapter 2: The Basics of Finance

When this second article got so much interest and lots of comments, it was clear there is a real market for this and it was not just a one-hit wonder. Again, you will see two more entries beyond this one and the #10 on this list reemphasizing this point. Won’t repeat what is in those entries.

#6: The Decision-Making Unit: The Who-is-Who of Your B2B Sales Process

Congratulations to guest writers Martin Giese & Matthias Hilpert for an article that was originally published on September 5, 2021, that is still getting hits today. It highlights some of the material from their book, Fast Forward: B2B Sales from Startup to Unicorn, and is very substantive and specific in its guidance on the topic of life and death for entrepreneurs.  Yes, we can take a more systematic (i.e., engineering) approach to sales and it makes a huge difference.

#5: How Well is MIT Really Doing at Creating the Next Generation Entrepreneurs?

This was published late in the year (November 22, 2022) but I was confident it would get a lot of interest. The article is really an analysis that we had to do internally at MIT to understand better the PitchBook university rankings data when it came out that month. Taking the numbers and doing a more scientific manner was definitely in order and that is what we did. Once done, thought it was worth sharing and it seems it was. Interesting results.

#4: The Problem Statement Canvas: A Deep Dive in Problem Definition for Startups and Innovation Teams

Again, a classic published in an earlier year (2021) but like wine, it just gets better with time. I look back at it now as one of the best of all time. It is deep but extremely easy to digest and put into action. Not surprisingly, it is written by the grand master of this d-eship.com website and the illustrator of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship books, Marius Ursache. Even with his greatness and seemingly magical powers, he can’t make you read the article. Still, you did and it has the most votes and associated highest scores for reviews. If you haven’t read it, definitely worth a read, and bookmark it. Not surprising it has come back and hope it does for many years.

#3: Chapter 1: Why Financial Literacy and an Investor Readiness Program?

Published on January 2, 2022, to start the new year, not surprising that this is at the top of the list. The positive reception to this encouraged the release of three more installments, making the top 10 of the year.

#2: Chapter 3: Financial Modeling (Part 2)

Interestingly the last installment just barely edged out the first installment (by .1%) so the interest did not wane over the year. Now we have to find a way to complete the package of material on this topic, polish it up and get it out. We hear you on this. We just need to get the resources and bandwidth, more below.

#1: DE Workbook Worksheets Now Available in Digital Form

Ironically but not surprisingly the number one most popular article for 2022 by far – by over 2X – had only five sentences in it, and (most importantly) one download button. It was providing free access to all the digital worksheets from the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook. This did not surprise me at all as it has been beneficial to our students at MIT and was glad to make them generally available. Don’t lose the bookmark! Suspect, this will be on the Greatest Hits List for years to come.

What you chose to click on is something that we take seriously. It tells us what is important. We will look to produce more of this kind of material in 2023 and encourage guest writers to use this platform as four people have above to give broader perspectives than I can.

What else does 2023 bring? I wish I could promise you more on the Financial Literacy book for entrepreneurs but someone pointed out that 2023 is the 10 anniversary of the release of the original Disciplined Entrepreneurship book. Wouldn’t it be nice for a new version? Not promising anything specific but assure you will hear really interesting things starting with my MIT colleague Paul Cheek’s work on Venture Creation Tactics will be forthcoming shortly.

It never ends, thank goodness. Something is always new. That is why we love entrepreneurship. Happy 2023 everyone!!!