what is your expectation in entrepreneurship subject essay

What I learned when I took an entrepreneurship class at age 14

by Pau Pavón

Last year, I made one of the best decisions of my life.

At school, I had to choose one of three subjects: French, classic culture, or Entrepreneurship. I didn’t know what the last one was all about, so I joined in.

I was told it would be something “about business” and stuff like that. It sounded good, but nothing too exciting. Oh, was I wrong: it turned out to be awesome . We had this class twice a week, and I remember looking forward to it every single day.

The goal of the subject, ultimately, was to build a project or a service that answered a need in society.

Before and while doing that, we learned some (very useful) concepts which are essential to setting up a business, like defining the value proposition(s), evaluating costs and revenue streams, and so on. Overall, we learned how to make our own business model canvas, which I now believe to be key when building or trying to understand any business.

Despite the usefulness of this knowledge, that wasn’t the best part. What ended up being better — way better — was what I would learn on my own.

As I said, taking the class itself was great. But I wasn’t satisfied with what I was taught in it: I wanted more. I began googling and youtubing (is that even a word??) and eventually got really, really interested in entrepreneurship.

And that’s really the point I want to make in this article. Entrepreneurship is a passion for a lot of people, just as writing, engineering, sports, and art are for others. So I’ve been wondering: why isn’t it a subject that most schools teach? Not only may you find your passion, but entrepreneurship classes come with plenty of other benefits as well.

Here are some lessons I learned, both from my class and from working through problems on my own.

Entrepreneurship enhances creativity and boosts innovation

Being creative and innovative is something inside ourselves that needs to be developed. It’s only through putting these abilities to work that you can improve them. It’s undeniable that entrepreneurship requires both skills, so they’ll get used and improved along your way.

You learn to listen to others and value their ideas/points of view

Working with your team in order to get something done is essential. People naturally excel in different subjects. If you accept that fact and learn to use it to your advantage (the team’s advantage), the end product, service or whatever project you’re working on will turn out really well.

You get to think about the problems society is facing today

When choosing what we wanted to develop, we had to find a need or a problem in society that we wanted to solve. It’s very likely that you don’t think about this every single day, and trying to do so can even be difficult at first. Once you get into the flow of it, though, you start to realise that there are tons of things that can be solved or improved. You also become aware of a lot of problems you hadn’t ever thought about.

Your team needs to chase an end goal

Combining the above three, you finally set yourself and your team an objective and start working towards it. I believe that this is essential, not only in business/school related matters but in life in general. Having clear goals you’re passionate about makes it easier to realise your dreams and fulfill your aspirations in any field.

And, at the end of the day, that’s what I think entrepeneurship is about. It’s about making other people’s lives better while you improve yours as well. It’s about giving, receiving, hearing and being heard, and, overall, loving the work you do.

I hope you liked my story, and I’d really like to read your opinions on entrepreneurship being taught at school. Thanks for reading!

If this article was helpful, share it .

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What Students Learn in Entrepreneurship Classes, Minor, or Major

Students at universities and colleges can major, minor, or simply take a class or two in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is greater than starting a business: it’s creativity, innovation, design, leadership, and more. Students continue to gravitate toward the growing field, adding more diversity, challenge, and opportunity every year. What are they learning by studying entrepreneurship ? To find out, we talked to faculty, students, and alumni studying entrepreneurship at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, which has a top-ranked entrepreneurship program for undergraduate and graduate students. Below you are some of the most important lessons they said students will learn.

1. How to strike a balance between art and science

Entrepreneurship programs, like the one at the U, are crafted to support all kinds of students.

“Our faculty, comprised of both talented scholars and experienced practitioners, have designed the curriculum to present the most important strategies, frameworks, and information in ways that are actionable for students,” said Brad Williams, an assistant professor and program director in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at the University of Utah. “Within our courses, you’re not just dealing with abstract widgets. Students have the opportunity to study best-practice approaches of relevant companies and brands they care about and apply that learning in real-time to entrepreneurial projects they may be working on. We emphasize the entrepreneurial mindset and focus on value creation through creative problem-solving.”

Each course pushes students to utilize their operational knowledge in accounting, finance, and analytics, and their creative sides in marketing, branding, and more.

“Every week in our classes, you set goals for how to figure out a problem,” said Shaykayla Smith, a recent entrepreneurship graduate from the U. “We’re left alone to solve these issues, and we get to be creative, and not just in an artsy way. In entrepreneurship, the creative meets the scientific.”

Jake Peters, a junior in entrepreneurship and director of the Workshops program at Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute , started at the U studying marketing. After he took his first intro to entrepreneurship course, he changed his mind.

“I enjoyed marketing — I didn’t switch because I didn’t enjoy it,” Peters said. “But, within entrepreneurship, there is a chance to build and create something that didn’t exist before. I’m excited about that.”

2. How to effectively use your (limited) resources

Entrepreneurs are commonly strapped for what they need the most: money and time.

“Within the entrepreneurship degree, there’s a focus on how to be successful when you have really limited resources, whether that’s money, connections, skills, or anything else,” Peters said. “We learn a lot of decision-making skills, like how to move away from an idea if it’s not going to be as profitable or as effective as you’d hope.”

For Williams, this skill is part of the entrepreneurial mindset.

“I believe that if I’m really driven and passionate about a specific problem, I can create a viable solution,” he said. “We teach to look for resources in other people that can help you along the path. For an entrepreneur, the ability to partner, to learn from customers, and be more observant goes a long way in maximizing your efficiency.”

3. How what you’re learning actually works outside of the classroom

While Smith finished up her degree, she worked for a startup company outside of the U.

“I focused specifically in marketing, but through my degree, I understand the logistics of the startup in general,” she said. “This paired with my specialization in marketing allows me to offer a little of everything. After learning so much about entrepreneurship, when I eventually start my own business, I’ll be more confident knowing that I know enough and that I’m able to continue to learn.”

Williams has seen his students take what he’s taught in class directly to the market. One example is Ethan Cisneros, co-founder of Thirst Drinks in Salt Lake City.

“Ethan has embraced a guerrilla marketing mindset and the principles of effectual thinking,” Williams said. “He texted me once that he had planned a social give-back project — a pop-up fundraising event for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. To generate more awareness and raise more money, he organized a coalition of like-minded food trucks to join the cause in his parking lot at Thirst. The collective proceeds from that night would be donated. All of the participating businesses promoted the event to their social media followers. Ethan also wrote and sent a press release to local media. As a result, hundreds of people showed up, along with two TV stations and other news outlets and blogs to cover his event. I took my kids down to support the cause and was blown away by the turnout. He told me, ‘It worked just like you said it would!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why we teach this stuff.’”

Alejandro Romero, an adjunct instructor of analytics in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy has had similar experiences with students in his entrepreneurial analytics course. His class asks students to choose an idea and analyze its potential from the very beginning. Once one is selected to pursue, students spend the entire semester getting it off the ground.

“I had one student who took his idea that he had tested carefully through the class, and I helped him begin Google Analytics and set up his website, and then he went to Kickstarter and raised $180,000 for his business,” Romero said. “He used everything in the class almost lecture by lecture, and now he’s expanded into new areas.”

In Romero’s eyes, this student’s success story could be anyone’s.

“ We teach practical information that you can use once they graduate or even leave the class,” he said. “They use the class to work on their personal projects or passions, and spend their time on something that’s going to give them a return on their investment.”

4. How to build and navigate strong teams

“The entrepreneurship major is the most hands-on,” Peters said. “Every class I’ve taken had teams or some kind of collaboration as a main focus. I’ve worked on building out projections for presentations for investors, built online digital marketing campaigns and business models.”

These skills, learning how to facilitate and maintain connections with other people, mitigate conflicts, and bounce ideas off of one another, are applicable in any field or career.

“You learn how to build relationships and stay open-minded,” Smith said. “These groups projects force you to become self-directed if you weren’t already, and push you to think outside of the box. You’re more motivated that way.”

5. How to identify and solve problems

Williams teaches entrepreneurship courses at different levels that explore startup methodology and entrepreneurial marketing.

“We discuss what kinds of problems can be addressed by entrepreneurship, and that can take shape in a million different ways,” he said. “We first ask students, what set of skills, knowledge, and values do they bring to this process? What resources can be leveraged to help explore the problem, figure out a potential solution, and — most importantly — execute it? They have to be willing and courageous enough to go out and kick the tires, and identify whom to ask for help.”

“Before coming to my program, I accepted things as they were, and didn’t put much thought into it,” Peters said.

Nearly three years into his entrepreneurship degree, that’s changed.

“Now, I find myself constantly noticing things throughout the day about what can be improved. That’s the work in process — the whole four-year degree is learning how to execute well. I’m having fun, and I’m still learning all the time.”

Learn more about opportunities to study entrepreneurship at the University of Utah on the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy website .

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9 Reasons Why You Should Study Entrepreneurship and Innovation

What is one benefit of studying entrepreneurship and innovation?

To help you determine if studying entrepreneurship and innovation is right for you, we asked Eller Alumni and experienced entrepreneurs this question for their best insights. From expanding your entrepreneurial toolbox to leveraging your creativity, there are several reasons why studying entrepreneurship and innovation can benefit your personal development and future careers.

Here are nine reasons you should study entrepreneurship and innovation:

Expand Your Entrepreneurial Toolbox

Live a life you will love, entrepreneurship forces you to continue learning, learn business skills for every aspect of your venture, apply your knowledge to various roles, become more business agile, ability to recognize opportunity , solve daily-life problems , leverage your creativity.

To me, the biggest benefit of studying entrepreneurship and innovation is the chance to expand and enhance what I call your "entrepreneurial toolbox." Being a successful entrepreneur requires a mix of knowledge, strategy, discipline, experience and other things that you aren't just born with. Studying entrepreneurship and ways to innovate can help you develop new ways to solve problems and gain insights on ways to navigate the path to success from ideation to market adoption.

Outside of on-the-job training, the best way to achieve your entrepreneurial aspirations is to learn from others who can impart the necessary knowledge and tools to help you become more well-rounded in whatever endeavor you decide to embark upon. Having a well-rounded toolset has made starting companies, navigating challenges and achieving success a lot easier throughout my career.

Josh Benveniste MBA and BA (Economics), Chief Marketing Officer of Paydala

My parents started their advertising agency in our garage when I was just six years old. Growing up around their business I always felt entrepreneurship was "in my blood."  I love running businesses, wearing many hats and building great teams! The right school will give you the breadth of knowledge needed to run a business, but it is passion and persistence that will make you succeed. This can't be learned in the classroom, rather it comes from being around like-minded, big-thinkers who feed your "energy". While the life of an entrepreneur can feel like a roller coaster, the energy you experience translates into living a life you will love!

Eric Lituchy ‘91 BSBA (Marketing), CEO of Hunter Digital

I spent over a decade at Merrill Lynch in a variety of roles, and I learnt more in my first year as an entrepreneur than my entire time at Merrill combined, and that’s not to say I didn’t learn a lot at Merrill! Entrepreneurship keeps you on your game. You are forced to continue learning and innovating ; by giving you ownership over every aspect of your company, it instills an incredible drive to learn. This continuous learning is not just within one specific area you focus on, but entrepreneurship allows you to learn about all the different divisions within your company and most importantly, learn about yourself—what drives you, what makes you happy! It’s an unbelievable benefit of being an entrepreneur that leads to incredible opportunities in life.

Rishi Ramchandani ‘07 BSBA (MIS/Operations Management), Founder of Cafe Cash Flow

No specific type of person is best suited to become an entrepreneur and launch a successful business venture. It takes determination, perseverance and tenacity. But it also requires that you understand your specific area of focus, such as your major in college, in addition to a wide variety of business skills that will all be leveraged every single day in your business. This includes financial literacy, marketing, leadership, product management, negotiation, strategic thinking, soft skills and so much more. Studying entrepreneurship and innovation gives you a well-rounded training that focuses on all of these areas, and more, to help you become well-versed in all of the areas that will impact your business venture.

Elyse Flynn Meyer ‘07 BSBA (Marketing/International Business), President and Founder of Prism Global Marketing Solutions

The job market is continuously changing, and companies of all sizes have to offer innovative solutions to stay competitive. That's why a professional who studied "entrepreneurship and innovation" will always be needed . A big plus of holding this degree is that you will be able to pursue a career in many different industries and fields, in big companies as well as startups. Or, if you are interested in starting your own business, you will have the right skills and knowledge to do so successfully.

Jessica Ulloa, MyPerfectResume

Develop your business leadership agility skills by studying entrepreneurship and innovation. Knowing the latest trends in entrepreneurial startups and innovations in business planning and implementation refutes ineffective people management and sales and marketing strategies. With a more agile and innovative entrepreneurial mindset, you can take your business to greater heights, thriving, adapting and outperforming others in the competition.

James Parsons, Content Powered

One major benefit of studying entrepreneurship and innovation is the gained ability to recognize opportunity. Entrepreneurial studies focus on the application of one’s knowledge and skills to commercial opportunities. Being able to determine a company’s worth through analysis of their strategies, practices, etc. can be critical for those who want to invest. Being able to describe one’s own vision thereafter becomes priceless when one is ready to leap into business ownership.

Phillip Akhzar, Arka

Educating students about innovation and entrepreneurship can help them develop real-world skills to lead extraordinary lives in this time-paced and fast-changing world.  The future is uncertain, and everyone should be ready to face and conquer. Entrepreneurship and innovation help individuals become independent and channel their creativity into creating something of their own in this competitive world.  Studying entrepreneurship and innovation enhances one's analytical and logical skills that enable one to solve any problem.  Entrepreneurship mainly helps solve daily-life problems and eases pain points with the help of innovative products and services provided. Entrepreneurs secure their futures and secure the world's future by making it a better place with simple solutions to complex problems.

Madhurima Halder, Recruit CRM

Human beings are all born with creativity that can be used to solve many complex problems of life. But to be able to use it takes a certain level of skill. Learning entrepreneurship and innovation helps people learn a lot about using creativity to simplify things in daily life. In entrepreneurship, your creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are used as a necessity. They are seen as the means to function more efficiently. And what is true success if it isn't being able to implement in real life what you learn from the books?

Samantha Odo, Precondo

Expand both your entrepreneurial thinking and the skills to bring your best ideas to fruition. Whether your goal is to launch your own venture or apply your skills in a corporation, nonprofit or public organization, you’ll emerge ready to confidently lead and make a lasting impact.

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Essay Samples on Entrepreneurship

What is entrepreneurship in your own words.

What is entrepreneurship in your own words? To me, entrepreneurship is the art of turning imagination into reality, the courage to chart unexplored territories, and the commitment to leave a lasting mark on the world. It's a journey of boundless creativity, relentless innovation, and unwavering...

• Entrepreneurship

What is Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the Essence

What is entrepreneurship? This seemingly straightforward question encapsulates a world of innovation, risk-taking, and enterprise. Entrepreneurship is not merely a business concept; it's a mindset, a journey, and a force that drives economic growth and societal progress. In this essay, we delve into the multifaceted...

Social Entrepreneurship: Harnessing Innovation

Social entrepreneurship is a transformative approach that merges business principles with social consciousness to address pressing societal challenges. This unique form of entrepreneurship goes beyond profit-seeking and focuses on generating innovative solutions that create positive change in communities. In this essay, we explore the concept...

Evolution of Entrepreneurship: Economic Progress

Evolution of entrepreneurship is a fascinating journey that mirrors the changes in society, economy, and technology throughout history. From humble beginnings as small-scale trade to the modern era of startups, innovation hubs, and global business networks, entrepreneurship has continuously adapted to the dynamic landscape. This...

Importance of Entrepreneurship: Economic Growth and Societal Transformation

Importance of entrepreneurship transcends its role as a mere business activity; it stands as a driving force behind innovation, economic growth, and societal transformation. Entrepreneurship fosters the creation of new products, services, and industries, while also generating employment opportunities and catalyzing economic development. This essay...

• Economic Growth

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Entrepreneurship as a Career: Navigating the Path of Innovation

Entrepreneurship as a career is a compelling journey that offers individuals the opportunity to create their own path, shape their destiny, and contribute to the economy through innovation. While the road to entrepreneurship is laden with challenges and uncertainties, it is also marked by the...

Corporate Entrepreneurship: Fostering Innovation

Corporate entrepreneurship represents a strategic approach that empowers established organizations to embrace innovation, take calculated risks, and explore new opportunities. In an ever-evolving business landscape, the concept of corporate entrepreneurship has gained prominence as companies seek to maintain their competitive edge and adapt to changing...

Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs: Innovation and Success

Challenges faced by entrepreneurs are a testament to the intricate journey of turning visionary ideas into tangible realities. While entrepreneurship is often associated with innovation and opportunity, it's also characterized by a multitude of hurdles and obstacles that test an entrepreneur's resilience and determination. In...

300 Words About Entrepreneurship: Navigating Innovation and Opportunity

About entrepreneurship is a dynamic journey that involves the pursuit of innovation, creation, and the realization of opportunities. It is the process of identifying gaps in the market, envisioning solutions, and taking calculated risks to bring new products, services, or ventures to life. Entrepreneurs are...

Best topics on Entrepreneurship

1. What is Entrepreneurship in Your Own Words

2. What is Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the Essence

3. Social Entrepreneurship: Harnessing Innovation

4. Evolution of Entrepreneurship: Economic Progress

5. Importance of Entrepreneurship: Economic Growth and Societal Transformation

6. Entrepreneurship as a Career: Navigating the Path of Innovation

7. Corporate Entrepreneurship: Fostering Innovation

8. Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs: Innovation and Success

9. 300 Words About Entrepreneurship: Navigating Innovation and Opportunity

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Why Should I Study Entrepreneurship & Innovation?

• 29 Sep 2020

Entrepreneurship and innovation are increasingly popular fields in today’s evolving business scene. According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report from Babson College, entrepreneurial activity in the US rose to over 17 percent in 2019—a 10 percent increase from 2018 and the highest level recorded in 21 years.

The same report states that, while 71 percent of Americans believe it’s easy to start a business, 35 percent wouldn’t for fear of failure. Similarly, 70 percent perceive themselves as innovative, but only 46 percent say they act on opportunities.

When reading the success stories of scrappy startups that have made it big, it can be easy to assume becoming an entrepreneur isn’t particularly challenging. Yet, in reality, entrepreneurship and innovation require education and effort to master. It’s knowledge of the theories and concepts behind entrepreneurship and innovation that gives many business owners the confidence to launch a venture despite the risk of failure.

In addition to entrepreneurs, corporate employees can realize the value of innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset in the workplace. According to data from Microsoft and McKinsey , innovative organizations are more likely to retain employees and experience larger financial gains than their non-innovative counterparts.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a professional in a corporate setting, understanding the basics of entrepreneurship and innovation can position you to succeed in today’s dynamic market. Here are six reasons you should study entrepreneurship and innovation.

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Reasons to Study Entrepreneurship and Innovation

1. start your business on the right foot.

It’s no secret: Entrepreneurship involves inherent risk. Harvard Business School Professor William Sahlman explains this in the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials.

“Though every entrepreneur imagines success, they must act with the full knowledge that the odds are against them,” he says.

Sahlman is referring to the fact that 20 percent of businesses fail within their first year, and 50 percent don’t survive past five years.

With odds like that, beginning your entrepreneurial journey with as much knowledge as possible is imperative. By studying entrepreneurship and innovation, you can learn the underlying principles of starting a business, avoid common pitfalls, pitch ideas more effectively , validate your product, develop a solid business model, and set yourself up for success in a field where failure is common.

2. Hone Your Skills

Although stereotypes of entrepreneurs exist, there’s no specific demographic profile required to launch a successful venture. Regardless of your race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, or other identifiers, you can succeed as an entrepreneur if you possess certain business skills and traits, including:

• Financial literacy
• Knowledge of how to accept and act on feedback
• Strategic thinking skills
• A growth mindset

Luckily, these competencies can be learned and honed. Taking a course in entrepreneurship or innovation can help you identify gaps in your knowledge and develop the skills needed to fill them.

Related: How to Find the Right Entrepreneurship Course for You

3. Validate Your Business Idea

When launching a venture, validating your business idea is a vital early step. Taking an entrepreneurship or innovation course can help you learn useful frameworks through which to view your product and identify ways to prove its value to customers.

For instance, in the online course Disruptive Strategy , HBS Professor Clayton Christensen explains his jobs to be done (JTBD) theory , which posits that rather than just purchasing products, people “hire” them to do “jobs.” The job to be done is the customer’s goal, and assessing your product using the framework can illuminate their motivations, needs, and desires.

Leveraging this theory and other innovation concepts to validate your business idea early in your entrepreneurial career can have far-reaching payoff as your business grows.

4. Learn From the Experiences of Others

Studying entrepreneurship and innovation isn’t just about sharpening your skills—it’s also about building your network and support system.

Taking a course enables you to meet like-minded professionals you can rely on for advice and guidance as launch your venture.

Outside your coursework, read about and talk to entrepreneurs with more experience than you. They can share their mistakes, things they wish they’d known when they first started their businesses, and insider best practices you may not be able to glean from a textbook.

Related: How Leaders Develop and Use Their Network

5. Bring Innovative Ideas to Your Organization

At any organization, a conscious effort is required to fight off stagnation. As markets shift and customer needs change, having innovation training can help you keep your business agile.

Maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset can enable you to assess your customers’ jobs to be done and develop new ways to do them—either by creating new products or adapting your current offerings.

Beyond product-market fit, an innovative mindset can improve employee retention rates. Microsoft reports that 86 percent of people who work at innovative companies plan to stay at their current job, as opposed to just 57 percent of people who work at less innovative companies.

According to McKinsey , innovative organizations also experience greater financial returns than their less-innovative counterparts.

Innovation education touches multiple facets of an organization, and it can prove to be worth the investment.

Related: 23 Resources for Mobilizing Innovation in Your Organization

6. Create Disruption-Informed Strategies

Once you’ve studied various innovation theories, you can use them to craft informed strategies for your organization.

For instance, the theory of disruptive innovation , another concept coined by Christensen and discussed in Disruptive Strategy , is the process by which a smaller company—usually with fewer resources—moves upmarket and challenges larger, established businesses.

By studying innovation and mastering theories like this one, you can help your organization strategize to disrupt incumbent companies or prepare for any disruptive technology that could potentially drive it out of the market.

Set Yourself up for Success

Whether you’re about to launch a venture or want to make an impact at your organization, studying entrepreneurship and innovation can help you gain the skills, confidence, and competitive edge needed to succeed in an ever-changing business landscape.

If you’re interested in honing your entrepreneurial skills and innovation toolkit, explore our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses . Not sure which course is the right fit? Download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

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Entrepreneurship Essay: Topics & Samples about Entrepreneurship

In the course of your studies for management, marketing, or finance degree, you can be asked to write an entrepreneurship essay. Those who tried it know how challenging it is to compose a convincing and fact-based paper about business.

An entrepreneurship essay requires you to carry out thorough research. You have to arrange the findings to substantiate your opinion wisely. It shall be engaging for the reader. Usually, your purpose is not to inform but to explain your view on an economic phenomenon.

Entrepreneurship is about calculating one’s chances for success. It aims to establish a business opportunity and avail of it. In most cases, it involves product or process innovation. Thus, the goal of an entrepreneurship essay is to train your business thinking. It develops a habit of using subject-specific terminology and theories.

This article is your way to a perfect essay about entrepreneurship. Our team has prepared a guide and a list of topics where you can find an excellent sample essay about entrepreneurship. Yet, we know that the most challenging thing for many students is to come up with specific questions.

You can rely on the following steps while working on your paper:

• Pick or create a topic. The best essays focus on a narrow problem. Pick an idea that offers solutions or specifies how the reader can relate. Convey it all in your topic.
• Research thoroughly. Good preliminary research will prevent you from discussing stale news. Look for currently topical issues that many people face.
• Write an introduction. It is the most “selling” part of your entrepreneurship essay. Provide background information about the problem you are going to explore. Why did it arise, and who was affected?
• Work out a thesis statement. This sentence contains the central message of your writing. Specify your position on the narrow topic. For example, “Employee turnover is not always a negative thing.”
• Develop an argumentation. Make a list of all arguments that support your position and a few counterarguments. You will refine it when writing the main body. Include only the vital ideas and examples in your essay on entrepreneurship.
• Think of a conclusion. Mind that your readers will remember this paragraph most of all. What were the central ideas of your work? Summarize your arguments and restate your thesis with a development.
• Come up with an engaging title. It should make the readers want to keep on reading your text. An entrepreneurship essay title should reveal the problem you are going to discuss.

15 Entrepreneurship Essay Topics

To write a successful essay, you’ll need engaging topics on entrepreneurship. A good idea inspires you and gives a substantial reason for discussion.

Here we have collected the best entrepreneurship topics for your essay:

• Is becoming a successful entrepreneur an inborn quality or a developed skill?
• Is it efficient to unite researchers and entrepreneurs into one organization?
• Is contemporary entrepreneurship possible without online marketing?
• How can creativity make your business more identifiable?
• Does a model of economic development help entrepreneurs to achieve their goals, or does it limit their imagination?
• What are the psychological causes that urge entrepreneurs to seek profit?
• What are the reasons that spur the growing expertise of individuals in business issues?
• Which factors can bring entrepreneurship to bankruptcy?
• How could governments incentivize individuals to become sole entrepreneurs?
• What are the leadership characteristics of successful entrepreneurial management?
• Does gender influence a person’s skills in entrepreneurship as a career?
• Is it better to have a small enterprise or work for a large corporation, provided that the salary is the same?
• Compare the approaches entrepreneurs who start only one business and those who invest in multiple enterprises.
• How can MBA help you to become an entrepreneur?
• Analyze the path of a successful entrepreneur and suggest what could be improved.

5 Entrepreneurship Essay Questions

Your college or school professors can give you detailed essay questions. They direct your thought to make sure you do not diverge from the central idea.

Here you can check a list of entrepreneurship essay questions:

• In your opinion, is there a moment when an entrepreneur should stop expanding their business? Small business is easier to manage, but it provides less revenue. Big enterprises earn more but bring their investors to more serious risks and more significant expenses. Substantiate your point of view.
• What makes a successful business plan? Is it more important to calculate the economic feasibility of the future enterprise or predict the reaction of the target audience? Give examples of both approaches.
• Explain the concept of entrepreneurship. The essay should synthesize different formulations of prominent economists and sociologists. Make up your explanation of the term based on your synthesis.
• What can be done to avoid cutting the expenses of an enterprise? Staff reduction, renting smaller premises, and cutting salaries usually have negative aftermath. Are there any universal ways to make your business survive a recession?
• Imagine you are looking for a business partner. Which questions would you ask the candidates during the interview? Are there any traits you would look for? What kind of behavior would immediately tell you it is the wrong person?

Thanks for reading the article! Below you can find sample essays about entrepreneurship illustrating the structure that we have described above.

427 Best Sample Essays about Entrepreneurship

A clothing boutique as a business idea.

• Words: 1227

The Definition of Entrepreneurship

• Words: 1654

Starting a Business: Advantages and Disadvantages

• Words: 1730

Concept of an Entrepreneur in Business

• Words: 2037

Entrepreneurship: Interview with Small Business Owner

• Words: 1643

Business Failures: Reasons and Recommendations

Small business: features and development, case study analysis: opening a coffee shop.

• Words: 1783

Entrepreneurship: Making a Business Plan

Entrepreneurs’ strengths and weaknesses, working for someone vs. owning a business, starting a business vs. working for an employer, steve jobs as a successful entrepreneur, “drinkworks: home bar” by keurig, chinese and japanese business systems comparison.

• Words: 3387

3M Corporation’s Innovation Engine Case

The concept of enterprise “push” and “pull” in a business.

• Words: 2024

Independent Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, and Social Entrepreneurship

• Words: 1531

Natural Hair Care Products as a Business Idea

Entrepreneurship: history, reasons and roles, the definition of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior.

• Words: 2683

Women Entrepreneurs

Strategic entrepreneurship: creating values.

• Words: 2626

Kirzner’s Theory of Opportunity

• Words: 2450

Entrepreneurial Leadership Characteristics and Types

Entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, and formulated marketing, entrepreneurship journey case study.

• Words: 2941

Entrepreneurship vs. Working as an Employee

“steve jobs” by walter isaacson, apple inc.’s entrepreneurship: ipod and ipad, entrepreneurship: business planning and characteristics.

• Words: 3246

The Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Factors in a Startup Café

Eco-friendly packaging for food and beverage industry.

• Words: 2749

Phenomenon of Entrepreneurship

• Words: 1495

Enterprise Computing Challenges and Enterprise Resource Planning

• Words: 1449

International Franchising and Its Benefits

Owning & operating a family business, trait (or personality characterisitcs) approach to explaining enterpreneurship.

• Words: 1972

Women in Entrepreneurship

• Words: 3172

How a Business Idea Becomes an Innovative Product

Concepts of customer data dynamics and sub-concepts, innovation management vs. entrepreneurship.

• Words: 2502

Amazon and Tesco: Corporate Entrepreneurship

The doctrine of insurable interest.

• Words: 2412

Khemka Family and Their Beer Business in Russia

Governmental role for business, andy keller’s company “chicobag”.

• Words: 2534

Monzo Company as a Small Entreprise

• Words: 3031

Critical Success Factors for Entrepreneurs

• Words: 3872

Entrepreneurship Themes: Potential and Skills

• Words: 1826

Entrepreneurship: Reducing Unemployment

• Words: 1410

The Entrepreneurial Journey of Foods Future Global

• Words: 1385

“How to Change the World” by D. Bornstein

• Words: 1389

Entrepreneurship: Amara Online Shoe Shop

• Words: 7379

Business Planning Process and Entrepreneurial Characteristics

• Words: 2825

Maha Al-Ghunaim, a Kuwaiti Businesswoman

Entrepreneurs and opportunity recognition.

• Words: 2804

Entrepreneurial Action Module for Modular Business Model

• Words: 11408

Elon Musk on Start-Ups and Entrepreneurial Duties

Social entrepreneurship and social change, the benefits of considering small businesses in government contract solicitations, sources of capital for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship: advantages and disadvantages.

• Words: 1297

Starting a Small Business and Planning

Franchise agreement: term definition, establishing a food truck business in dubai, defining corporate entrepreneurship.

• Words: 3501

Free Enterprise Systems

• Words: 1434

Traditional and Modern Forms of Transacting Business

Entrepreneurial opportunities in virtual reality.

• Words: 10974

Experiences Critical to Entrepreneurial Development

Business models in contemporary art, a new business idea for the rolls royce company, revolutionizing independent cinema streaming.

• Words: 1840

Application of Schumpeter’s Innovative Entrepreneurship Theory to Ooredoo

• Words: 8185

Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Uber Technologies, Inc.

Discussion: being an entrepreneur, elizabeth hobbs keckley as a woman in american business, digital transformation for small businesses in indonesia.

• Words: 3052

Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics

• Words: 1683

Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Freelance and Real Estate

• Words: 2321

Employee vs. Entrepreneur: Benefits and Drawbacks

New enterprise start-up plan: on-demand courier service to deliver medicine.

• Words: 15616

Frank Zamboni, an Entrepreneur and Inventor

Sole proprietorship and internal control.

• Words: 1285

The African American Entrepreneurship Development Program Evaluation

• Words: 1467

The African American Entrepreneurship Development Program

The dopeplus social entrepreneurship.

• Words: 1166

Luxury Linens: Review of an Interview With an Entrepreneur

• Words: 1104

Entrepreneurship by Young People

Sole proprietorship: advantages and disadvantages, capability: business model innovation in mergers, characteristics of writing a business plan, entrepreneurial activity: the key aspects, entrepreneurial personality and decision to start a business, the determinants of self-employment for artists, a study of ooredoo’s practices in the context of schumpeter’s theory, home depot’s entrepreneurship and value creation, discussion: female entrepreneurship in asian countries, types of business forms and their organisation, entrepreneurship and christian world view.

• Words: 1001

Entrepreneurship as a Powerful Practice

• Words: 2501

Kier Group Plc: The Impacts of COVID-19

• Words: 4343

The Minority Business Development Agency Program

• Words: 1455

Supporting the Innovative Entrepreneurs in Turkish Universities

Starting a business: a restaurant of national cuisine, entrepreneurial education for university students.

• Words: 2656

The Book “Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike” by Phil Knight

Family business succession in asian countries.

• Words: 8061

Commercialization and Innovation Best Practices

• Words: 2754

Establishing a Small Business Tourist Agency in the UAE

• Words: 1669

Investing in an Offshore Wind Power Plant in Greece

• Words: 1214

Crowdfunding Project on Kickstarter

• Words: 1010

What Is Business Intelligence?

“the art of the start” by guy kawasaki, the innovation process: successes and failures, elements and infrastructures for technology startups.

• Words: 2585

The Milaha Express Firm’s Possibilities in Qatar

Social enterprise: asian paints.

• Words: 2476

Factors Involved in Creating a Food Business

How to Inspire Entrepreneurial Thinking in Your Students

Explore more.

• Course Design
• Experiential Learning
• Perspectives
• Student Engagement

T he world is in flux. The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every corner of the globe, profoundly impacting our economies and societies as well as our personal lives and social networks. Innovation is happening at record speed. Digital technologies have transformed the way we live and work.

At the same time, world leaders are collaborating to tackle the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals , which aim to address issues related to health, education, gender equality, energy, and more. Private sector leaders, too, are recognizing that it makes good business sense to be aware of corporations’ social and environmental impact.

So, how can we as educators prepare our students to succeed in this tumultuous and uncertain—yet hopeful and exhilarating—global environment? As the world changes, so do the skills students need to build their careers—and to build a better society. For students to acquire these evolving skills, we believe educators must help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

6 Ways You Can Inspire Entrepreneurial Thinking Among Your Students

An entrepreneurial mindset —attitudes and behaviors that encapsulate how entrepreneurs tend to think and act—enables one to identify and capitalize on opportunities, change course when needed, and view mistakes as an opportunity to learn and improve.

If a student decides to become an entrepreneur, an entrepreneurial mindset is essential. And for students who plan to join a company, nonprofit, or government agency, this mindset will enable them to become intrapreneurs —champions of innovation and creativity inside their organizations. It can also help in everyday life by minimizing the impact of failure and reframing setbacks as learning opportunities.

“As the world changes, so do the skills students need to build their careers—and to build a better society.”

Effective entrepreneurship professors are skilled at nurturing the entrepreneurial mindset. They, of course, have the advantage of teaching a subject that naturally demands students think in this way. However, as we will explore, much of what they do in their classroom is transferable to other subject areas.

We interviewed top entrepreneurship professors at leading global institutions to understand the pedagogical approaches they use to cultivate this mindset in their students. Here, we will delve into six such approaches. As we do, think about what aspects of their techniques you can adopt to inspire entrepreneurial thinking in your own classroom.

1. Encourage Students to Chart Their Own Course Through Project-Based Learning

According to Ayman Ismail, associate professor of entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo, students are used to pre-packaged ideas and linear thinking. “Students are often told, ‘Here’s X, Y, Z, now do something with it.’ They are not used to exploring or thinking creatively,” says Ismail.

To challenge this linear pattern, educators can instead help their students develop an entrepreneurial mindset through team-based projects that can challenge them to identify a problem or job to be done, conduct market research, and create a new product or service that addresses the issue. There is no blueprint for students to follow in developing these projects, so many will find this lack of direction confusing—in some cases even frightening. But therein lies the learning.

John Danner, who teaches entrepreneurship at Princeton University and University of California, Berkeley, finds his students similarly inhibited at the start. “My students come in trying to understand the rules of the game,” he says. “I tell them the game is to be created by you.”

Danner encourages students to get comfortable navigating life’s maze of ambiguity and possibility and to let their personal initiative drive them forward. He tells them, “At best you have a flashlight when peering into ambiguity. You can shine light on the next few steps.”

In your classroom: Send students on an unstructured journey. Dive right in by asking them to identify a challenge that will hone their problem-finding skills and encourage them to work in teams to find a solution. Do not give them a blueprint.

For example, in our M²GATE virtual exchange program, we teamed US students with peers located in four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We asked them to identify a pressing social issue in MENA and then create a product or service to address it. One of the teams identified the high rate of youth unemployment in Morocco as an issue. They discovered that employers want workers with soft skills, but few schools provide such training. Their solution was a low-cost after-school program to equip students ages 8-16 with soft skills.

2. Help Students Think Broadly and Unleash Their Creativity

Professor Heidi Neck says her students at Babson College struggle with problem finding at the start of the entrepreneurial journey. “They are good at solving problems, but not as good at finding the problem to solve,” she explains. “For example, they know that climate change is a problem, and they’re interested in doing something about it, but they’re not sure what problem within that broad area they can focus on and find a market for.”

Professor Niko Slavnic, who teaches entrepreneurship at IEDC-Bled School of Management in Slovenia and the ESSCA School of Management in France, says he first invests time in teaching his students to unlearn traditional ways of thinking and unleash their creativity. He encourages students to get outside their comfort zones. One way he does this is by having them make paper airplanes and then stand on their desks and throw them. Many ask, “Should we do this? Is this allowed?” When his students start to question the rules and think about new possibilities, this indicates to Slavnic that they are primed for the type of creative exploration his course demands.

“When students start to question the rules and think about new possibilities, this indicates to Professor Niko Slavnic that they are primed for the type of creative exploration his course demands.”

In your classroom: Think about the concept of “unlearning.” Ask yourself if students are entering your class with rigid mindsets or attitudes based on rules and structures that you would like to change. For example, they may be coming into your classroom with the expectation that you, the instructor, have all the answers and that you will impart your wisdom to them throughout the semester. Design your course so that students spend more time than you do presenting, with you acting more as an advisor (the “guide on the side”).

3. Prompt Students to Take Bold Actions

Geoff Archer, an entrepreneurship professor at Royal Roads University in Canada, says Kolb’s theory of experiential learning underpins the entrepreneurial management curriculum he designed. Archer takes what he calls a “ready-fire-aim approach,” common in the startup world—he throws students right into the deep end. They are tasked with creating a for-profit business from scratch and operating it for a month. At the end of the semester, they must come up with a “pitch deck”—a short presentation providing potential investors with an overview of their proposed new business—and an investor-ready business plan.

This approach can be met with resistance, especially with mature learners. “They’re used to winning, and it’s frustrating and more than a bit terrifying to be told to do something without being given more structure upfront,” says Archer.

Professor Rita Egizii, who co-teaches with Archer, says students really struggled when instructed to get out and talk with potential customers about a product they were proposing to launch as part of their class project. “They all sat outside on the curb on their laptops. For them, it’s not normal and not okay to make small experiments and fail,” says Egizii.

Keep in mind that, culturally, the taboo of failure—even on a very small scale and even in the name of learning—can be ingrained in the minds of students from around the world.

The benefit of this permutation, explains Archer, is that students are writing plans based on actual experiences—in this case, customer interactions. Moving the starting blocks forward offers many benefits, including getting the students out of the classroom and out of their heads earlier, reminding them that the market’s opinion of their solution is far more important than their own. This also affords students more time to reflect and maximize the potential of their minimum viable product or experiment.

In your classroom: Invite students to bring their lived experiences and workplace knowledge into their studies. This can be just as powerful as the more famous exhortation to “get out of the classroom.” As Egizii sees it, “student-directed experiential learning provides a comfortable and relatable starting point from which they can then diverge their thinking.”

4. Show Students What They Can Achieve

For Eric Fretz, a lecturer at the University of Michigan, the key to launching his students on a successful path is setting the bar high, while at the same time helping them understand what is realistic to achieve. “You will never know if your students can jump six feet unless you set the bar at six feet,” he says.

His undergraduate students work in small teams to create a product in three months and generate sales from it. At the start of the semester, he typically sees a lot of grandiose ideas—a lot of “fluff and BS” as he calls it. Students also struggle with assessing the viability of their ideas.

To help, Fretz consults with each team extensively, filtering through ideas together until they can agree upon a feasible one that fulfills a real need. The real magic of his course is in the coaching and support he provides.

“People know when you’re investing in them and giving them your attention and energy,” Fretz says. He finds that coaching students in the beginning of the course helps assuage their concerns about embarking on an open-ended team project, while also supporting initiative and self-reliance.

In your classroom: Design ways to nudge your students outside their comfort zones, while also providing support. Like Fretz, you should set high expectations, but also adequately guide students.

5. Teach Students the Value of Changing Course

A key part of the entrepreneurial mindset is to be able to course-correct, learn from mistakes, and move on. Entrepreneurship professors position hurdles as learning opportunities. For example, Danner tells his students that his class is a laboratory for both aspiring and failing. He advises them to expect failure and think about how they are going to deal with it.

“A key part of the entrepreneurial mindset is to be able to course-correct, learn from mistakes, and move on.”

Ismail believes letting his students fail in class is the best preparation for the real world. He let one student team pursue a project for the entire semester around a product he knew had no potential. Two days before the end of the course, he told them as such. From his perspective, their frustration was the best learning experience they could have and the best training he could offer on what they will experience in real life. This reflects a key component of the entrepreneurial mindset— the ability to view mistakes as opportunities .

In your classroom: Build into your course some opportunities for students to make mistakes. Show them how mistakes are an opportunity to learn and improve. In entrepreneurship speak, this is called a “pivot.” Can you build in opportunities for students to face challenges and have to pivot in your course?

6. Communicate with Students Regularly to Establish New Ways of Thinking

Professor Neck realized that to nurture the entrepreneurial mindset in her students, she needed to provide them with opportunities to do so outside of class. She now encourages her students to establish a daily, reflective practice. She even designed a series of daily “mindset vitamins” that she sends to her students via the messaging platform WhatsApp. Students are not expected to reply to the messages, but rather to simply consume and absorb them.

Some messages relate specifically to entrepreneurship, such as: “How can you get started with nothing?” And others apply to life in general: “What has been your proudest moment in life so far? How can you create more moments like that? What did it feel like the last time you failed?”

In your classroom: Communicate with your students outside the classroom with messages that reinforce the mindset change you are seeking to achieve in your course. Social media and apps such as WhatsApp and Twitter make it easy to do so.

All Students Can Benefit from an Entrepreneurial Mindset

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that an entrepreneurial mindset is critical for addressing today’s problems. Adapting to risk, spotting opportunity, taking initiative, communicating and collaborating, being flexible, and problem solving—these are ways in which we have responded to the pandemic. And they’re all part of the entrepreneurial mindset. By instilling this way of thinking in our students, we will equip them to handle tomorrow’s challenges—as well as to identify and take advantage of future opportunities.

Thinking about which of these entrepreneurial approaches you can adopt in your own teaching may require you to redesign portions of your courses or even create a new course from scratch. We encourage you to be open to experimenting and trying out some of these ideas. Like the best entrepreneurs, don’t be afraid to fail.

Also, be open with your students. Let them know you are trying out some new things and solicit their feedback. If needed, you can always pivot your class and involve them in the exercise of co-creating something better together. In the process, you will also be modeling the entrepreneurial mindset for your students.

Amy Gillett is the vice president of education at the William Davidson Institute , a non-profit located at the University of Michigan. She oversees design and delivery of virtual exchanges, entrepreneurship development projects, and executive education programs. Over the past two decades, she has worked on a wide variety of global programs, including 10,000 Women , equipping over 300 Rwandan women with skills to scale their small businesses, and the NGO Leadership Workshops—one-week training programs held in Poland and Slovakia designed to enhance the managerial capability and sustainability of nongovernmental organizations in Central and Eastern Europe.

Kristin Babbie Kelterborn co-leads the Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) at the William Davidson Institute. She collaborates with the EDC’s faculty affiliates to design and implement projects that support entrepreneurs in building and growing their businesses in low- and middle-income countries.

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So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

• Emily Heyward

One founder’s advice on what you should know before you quit your day job.

Starting a business is not easy, and scaling it is even harder. You may think you’re sitting on a completely original idea, but chances are the same cultural forces that led you to your business plan are also influencing someone else. That doesn’t mean you should give up, or that you should rush to market before you’re ready. It’s not about who’s first, it’s about who does it best, and best these days is the business that delivers the most value to the consumer. Consumers have more power and choice than ever before, and they’re going to choose and stick with the companies who are clearly on their side. How will you make their lives easier, more pleasant, more meaningful? How will you go out of your way for them at every turn? When considering your competitive advantage, start with the needs of the people you’re ultimately there to serve. If you have a genuine connection to your idea, and you’re solving a real problem in a way that adds more value to people’s lives, you’re well on your way.

When I graduated from college in 2001, I didn’t have a single friend whose plan was to start his or her own business. Med school, law school, finance, consulting: these were the coveted jobs, the clear paths laid out before us. I took a job in advertising, which was seen as much more rebellious than the reality. I worked in advertising for a few years, and learned an incredible amount about how brands get built and communicated. But I grew restless and bored, tasked with coming up with new campaigns for old and broken products that lacked relevance, unable to influence the products themselves. During that time, I was lucky to have an amazing boss who explained a simple principle that fundamentally altered my path. What she told me was that stress is not about how much you have on your plate; it’s about how much control you have over the outcomes. Suddenly I realized why every Sunday night I was overcome with a feeling of dread. It wasn’t because I had too much going on at work. It was because I had too little power to effect change.

• EH Emily Heyward is the author of Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One (Portfolio; June 9, 2020). She is the co-founder and chief brand officer at Red Antler, a full-service brand company based in Brooklyn. Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc.  magazine, and has also been recognized as a Top Female Founder by Inc. and one of Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Women of 2019.

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1.1: Chapter 1 – Introduction to Entrepreneurship

• Last updated
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• Page ID 21253

• Lee A. Swanson
• University of Saskatchewan

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Whilst there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship, it is fair to say that it is multi-dimensional. It involves analyzing people and their actions together with the ways in which they interact with their environments, be these social, economic, or political, and the institutional, policy, and legal frameworks that help define and legitimize human activities. – Blackburn (2011, p. xiii)

Entrepreneurship involves such a range of activities and levels of analysis that no single definition is definitive. – Lichtenstein (2011, p. 472)

It is complex, chaotic, and lacks any notion of linearity. As educators, we have the responsibility to develop our students’ discovery, reasoning, and implementation skills so they may excel in highly uncertain environments. – Neck and Greene (2011, p. 55)

Learning Objectives

• Examine the challenges associated with defining the concepts of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship
• Discuss how the evolution of entrepreneurship thought has influenced how we view the concept of entrepreneurship today
• Discuss how the list of basic questions in entrepreneurship research can be expanded to include research inquiries that are important in today’s world
• Discuss how the concepts of entrepreneurial uniqueness, entrepreneurial personality traits, and entrepreneurial cognitions can help society improve its support for entrepreneurship
• Apply the general venturing script to the study of entrepreneurship

This chapter provides you with an overview of entrepreneurship and of the language of entrepreneurship. The challenges associated with defining entrepreneur and entrepreneurship are explored, as is an overview of how entrepreneurship can be studied.

The objective is to enable you to apply current concepts in entrepreneurship to the evaluation of entrepreneurs, their ventures, and the venturing environment. You will develop skills, including the capability to add value in the new venture sector of the economy. You will acquire and practice evaluation skills useful in consulting, advising, and making new venture decisions.

Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship

Considerations influencing definitions of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship.

It is necessary to be able to determine exactly who entrepreneurs are before we can, among other things, study them, count them, provide special loans for them, and calculate how and how much they contribute to our economy.

• Does someone need to start a business from scratch to be called an entrepreneur?
• Can we call someone an entrepreneur if they bought an ongoing business from someone else or took over the operations of a family business from their parents?
• If someone starts a small business and never needs to hire employees, can they be called an entrepreneur?
• If someone buys a business but hires professional managers to run it so they don’t have to be involved in the operations, are they an entrepreneur?
• Is someone an entrepreneur if they buy into a franchise so they can follow a well-established formula for running the operation?
• Is someone an entrepreneur because of what they do or because of how they think?
• Can someone be an entrepreneur without owning their own business?
• Can a person be an entrepreneur because of the nature of the work that they do within a large corporation?

It is also necessary to fully understand what we mean by entrepreneurship before we can study the concept.

Gartner (1990) identified 90 attributes that showed up in definitions of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship provided by entrepreneurs and other experts in the field. The following are a few of these attributes:

• Innovation – Does a person need to be innovative to be considered an entrepreneur? Can an activity be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is not innovative?
• Activities – What activities does a person need to do to be considered an entrepreneur?
• Creation of a new business – Does someone need to start a new business to be considered to be an entrepreneur, or can someone who buys a business, buys into a franchise, or takes over an existing family business be considered an entrepreneur?
• Starts an innovative venture within an established organization – Can someone who works within an existing organization that they don’t own be considered an entrepreneur if they start an innovative venture for their organization?
• Creation of a not-for-profit business – Can a venture be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is a not-for-profit, or should only for-profit businesses be considered entrepreneurial?

After identifying the 90 attributes, Gartner (1990) went back to the entrepreneurs and other experts for help in clustering the attributes into themes that would help summarize what people concerned with entrepreneurship thought about the concept. He ended up with the following eight entrepreneurship themes:

1. The Entrepreneur – The entrepreneur theme is the idea that entrepreneurship involves individuals with unique personality characteristics and abilities (e.g., risk-taking, locus of control, autonomy, perseverance, commitment, vision, creativity). Almost 50% of the respondents rated these characteristics as not important to a definition of entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1990, p. 21, 24).

• “The question that needs to be addressed is: Does entrepreneurship involve entrepreneurs (individuals with unique characteristics)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

2. Innovation – The innovation theme is characterized as doing something new as an idea, product, service, market, or technology in a new or established organization. The innovation theme suggests that innovation is not limited to new ventures, but recognized as something which older and/or larger organizations may undertake as well (Gartner, 1990, p. 25). Some of the experts Gartner questioned believed that it was important to include innovation in definitions of entrepreneurship and others did not think it was as important.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve innovation?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

3. Organization Creation – The organization creation theme describes the behaviors involved in creating organizations. This theme described acquiring and integrating resource attributes (e.g., Brings resources to bear, integrates opportunities with resources, mobilizes resources, gathers resources) and attributes that described creating organizations (new venture development and the creation of a business that adds value). (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

• “Does entrepreneurship involve resource acquisition and integration (new venture creation activities)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

4. Creating Value – This theme articulated the idea that entrepreneurship creates value. The attributes in this factor indicated that value creation might be represented by transforming a business, creating a new business growing a business, creating wealth, or destroying the status quo.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve creating value?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

5. Profit or Nonprofit

• “Does entrepreneurship involve profit-making organizations only” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)?
• Should a focus on growth be a characteristic of entrepreneurship?

7. Uniqueness – This theme suggested that entrepreneurship must involve uniqueness. Uniqueness was characterized by attributes such as a special way of thinking, a vision of accomplishment, ability to see situations in terms of unmet needs, and creates a unique combination.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve uniqueness?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 26).

8. The Owner-Manager – Some of the respondents questioned by Gartner (1990) did not believe that small mom-and-pop types of businesses should be considered to be entrepreneurial. Some respondents felt that an important element of a definition of entrepreneurship was that a venture be owner-managed.

• To be entrepreneurial, does a venture need to be owner-managed?

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur can be described as “one who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them” (Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2008, p. 5).

An entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise” (Entrepreneur, n.d.).

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship can be defined as a field of business that

seeks to understand how opportunities to create something new (e.g., new products or services, new markets, new production processes or raw materials, new ways of organizing existing technologies) arise and are discovered or created by specific persons, who then use various means to exploit or develop them, thus producing a wide range of effects (Baron, Shane, & Reuber, 2008, p. 4)

A concise definition of entrepreneurship “is that it is the process of pursuing opportunities without limitation by resources currently in hand” (Brooks, 2009, p. 3) and “the process of doing something new and something different for the purpose of creating wealth for the individual and adding value to society” (Kao, 1993, p. 70)

The Evolution of Entrepreneurship Thought

This section includes an overview of how entrepreneurship has evolved to the present day.

The following timeline shows some of the most influential entrepreneurship scholars and the schools of thought (French, English, American, German, and Austrian) their perspectives helped influence and from which their ideas evolved. Schools of thought are essentially groups of people who might or might not have personally known each other, but who shared common beliefs or philosophies.

Figure 1 – Historical and Evolutionary Entrepreneurship Thought (Illustration by Lee A. Swanson)

The Earliest Entrepreneurship

The function, if not the name, of the entrepreneur is probably as old as the institutions of barter and exchange. But only after economic markets became an intrusive element of society did the concept take on pivotal importance. Many economists have recognized the pivotal role of the entrepreneur in a market economy. Yet despite his central importance in economic activity, the entrepreneur has been a shadowy and elusive figure in the history of economic theory (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 1).

Historically those who acted similarly to the ways we associate with modern day entrepreneurs – namely those who strategically assume risks to seek economic (or other) gains – were military leaders, royalty, or merchants. Military leaders planned their campaigns and battles while assuming significant risks, but by doing so they also stood to gain economic benefits if their strategies were successful. Merchants, like Marco Polo who sailed out of Venice in the late 1200s to search for a trade route to the Orient, also assumed substantial risks in the hope of becoming wealthy (Hebert & Link, 2009).

The entrepreneur, who was also called adventurer , projector , and undertaker during the eighteenth century, was not always viewed in a positive light (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Development of Entrepreneurship as a Concept

Risk and uncertainty.

Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was born in France and belonged to the French School of thought although he was an Irish economist. He appears to be the person who introduced the term entrepreneur to the world. “According to Cantillon, the entrepreneur is a specialist in taking on risk, ‘insuring’ workers by buying their output for resale before consumers have indicated how much they are willing to pay for it” (Casson & Godley, 2005p. 26). The workers’ incomes are mostly stable, but the entrepreneur risks a loss if market prices fluctuate.

Cantillon distinguished entrepreneurs from two other classes of economic agents; landowners, who were financially independent, and hirelings (employees) who did not partake in the decision-making in exchange for relatively stable incomes through employment contracts. He was the first writer to provide a relatively refined meaning for the term entrepreneurship . Cantillon described entrepreneurs as individuals who generated profits through exchanges. In the face of uncertainty, particularly over future prices, they exercise business judgment. They purchase resources at one price and sell their product at a price that is uncertain, with the difference representing their profit (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Farmers were the most prominent entrepreneurs during Cantillon’s lifetime, and they interacted with “arbitrageurs” – or middlemen between farmers and the end consumers – who also faced uncertain incomes, and who were also, therefore, entrepreneurs. These intermediaries facilitated the movement of products from the farms to the cities where more than half of the farm output was consumed. Cantillon observed that consumers were willing to pay a higher price per unit to be able to purchase products in the smaller quantities they wanted, which created the opportunities for the intermediaries to make profits. Profits were the rewards for assuming the risks arising from uncertain conditions. The markets in which profits were earned were characterized by incomplete information (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Adolph Reidel (1809-1872), form the German School of thought, picked up on Cantillon’s notion of uncertainty and extended it to theorize that entrepreneurs take on uncertainty so others, namely income earners, do not have to be subject to the same uncertainty. Entrepreneurs provide a service to risk-averse income earners by assuming risk on their behalf. In exchange, entrepreneurs are rewarded when they can foresee the impacts of the uncertainty and sell their products at a price that exceeds their input costs (including the fixed costs of the wages they commit to paying) (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Frank Knight (1885-1972) founded the Chicago School of Economics and belonged to the American School of thought. He refined Cantillon’s perspective on entrepreneurs and risk by distinguishing insurable risk as something that is separate from uncertainty, which is not insurable. Some risks can be insurable because they have occurred enough times in the past that the expected loss from such risks can be calculated. Uncertainty, on the other hand, is not subject to probability calculations. According to Knight, entrepreneurs can’t share the risk of loss by insuring themselves against uncertain events, so they bear these kinds of risks themselves, and profit is the reward that entrepreneurs get from assuming uninsurable risks (Casson & Godley, 2005).

Distinction Between Entrepreneur and Manager

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832), also from the French School, advanced Cantillon’s work, but added that entrepreneurship was essentially a form of management. Say “put the entrepreneur at the core of the entire process of production and distribution” (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 17). Say’s work resulted in something similar to a general theory of entrepreneurship with three distinct functions; “scientific knowledge of the product; entrepreneurial industry – the application of knowledge to useful purpose; and productive industry – the manufacture of the item by manual labour” (Chell, 2008, p. 20).

Frank Knight made several contributions to entrepreneurship theory, but another of note is how he distinguished an entrepreneur from a manager. He suggested that a manager crosses the line to become an entrepreneur “when the exercise of his/her judgment is liable to error and s/he assumes the responsibility for its correctness” (Chell, 2008, p. 33). Knight said that entrepreneurs calculate the risks associated with uncertain business situations and make informed judgments and decisions with the expectation that – if they assessed the situation and made the correct decisions – they would be rewarded by earning a profit. Those who elect to avoid taking these risks choose the relative security of being employees (Chell, 2008).

Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), from the English School of thought, was one of the founders of neoclassical economics. His research involved distinguishing between the terms capitalist, entrepreneur, and manager. Marshall saw capitalists as individuals who “committed themselves to the capacity and honesty of others, when he by himself had incurred the risks for having contributed with the capital” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 775). An entrepreneur took control of money provided by capitalists in an effort to leverage it to create more money; but would lose less if something went wrong then would the capitalists. An entrepreneur, however, risked his own reputation and the other gains he could have made by pursuing a different opportunity.

Let us suppose that two men are carrying on smaller businesses, the one working with his own, the other chiefly with borrowed capital. There is one set of risks which is common to both; which may be described as the trade risks of the particular business … But there is another set of risks, the burden of which has to be borne by the man working with borrowed capital, and not by the other; and we may call them personal risks (Marshall, 1961, p. 590; Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 776).

Marshall recognized that the reward capitalists received for contributing capital was interest income and the reward entrepreneurs earned was profits. Managers received a salary and, according to Marshall, fulfilled a different function than either capitalists or entrepreneurs – although in some cases, particularly in smaller firms, one person might be both an entrepreneur and a manager. Managers “were more inclined to avoid challenges, innovations and what Schumpeter called the ‘perennial torment of creative destruction’ in favour of a more tranquil life” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 781). The main risks they faced from firm failure were to their reputations or to their employment status. Managers had little incentive to strive to maximize profits (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005).

Amasa Walker (1799-1875) and his son Francis Walker (1840-1897) were from the American School of thought, and they helped shape an American perspective of entrepreneurship following the Civil War of 1861-1865. These scholars claimed that entrepreneurs created wealth, and thus played a different role than capitalists. They believed that entrepreneurs had the power of foresight and leadership qualities that enabled them to organize resources and inject energy into activities that create wealth (Chell, 2008).

Entrepreneurship versus Entrepreneur

Adam Smith (1723-1790), from the English School of thought, published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. In a departure from the previous thought into entrepreneurship and economics, Smith did not dwell on a particular class of individual. He was concerned with studying how all people fit into the economic system. Smith contended that the economy was driven by self-interest in the marketplace (Chell, 2008).

Also from the English School, David Ricardo (1772-1823) was influenced by Smith, Say, and others. His work focused on how the capitalist system worked. He explained how manufacturers must invest their capital in response to the demand for the products they produce. If demand decreases, manufacturers should borrow less and reduce their workforces. When demand is high, they should do the reverse (Chell, 2008).

Carl Menger (1840-1921), from the Austrian School of thought, ranked goods according to their causal connections to human satisfaction. Lower order goods include items like bread that directly satisfy a human want or need like hunger. Higher order goods are those more removed from satisfying a human need. A second order good is the flour that was used to make the bread. The grain used to make the flour is an even higher order good. Entrepreneurs coordinate these factors of production to turn higher order goods into lower order goods that more directly satisfy human wants and needs (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Menger (1950 [1871], p. 160) established that entrepreneurial activity includes: (a) obtaining information about the economic situation, (b) economic calculation – all the various computations that must be made if a production process is to be efficient, (c) the act of will by which goods of higher order are assigned to a particular production process, and (d) supervising the execution of the production plan so that it may be carried through as economically as possible (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 43).

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), from the English School of thought, considered entrepreneurs to be innovators. They “depart from routine, discover new markets, find new sources of supply, improve existing products and lower the costs of production” (Chell, 2008).

Joseph Schumpeter’s (1883-1950) parents were Austrian, he studied at the University of Vienna, conducted research at the University of Graz, served as Austria’s Minister of Finance, and was the president of a bank in the country. Because of the rise of Hitler in Europe, he went to the United States and conducted research at Harvard until he retired in 1949. Because of this, he is sometimes associated with the American School of thought on entrepreneurship (Chell, 2008).

Whereas Menger saw entrepreneurship as occurring because of economic progress, Schumpeter took the opposite stance. Schumpeter saw economic activity as leading to economic development (Hebert & Link, 2009). Entrepreneurs play a central role in Schumpeter’s theory of economic development, and economic development can occur when the factors of production are assembled in new combinations .

Schumpeter (1934) viewed innovation as arising from new combinations of materials and forces. He provided the following five cases of new combinations.

• The introduction of a new good – that is one with which consumers are not yet familiar – or of a new quality of good.
• The introduction of a new method of production, that is one not yet tested by experience in the branch of manufacture concerned, which need by no means be founded upon a discovery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially.
• The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not this market has existed before.
• The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created.
• The carrying out of the new organisation of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position … or the breaking up of a monopoly position (Schumpeter, 1934, p. 66).

Another concept popularized by Schumpeter – in addition to the notion of new combinations – was creative destruction . This was meant to indicate that the existing ways of doing things need to be dismantled – to be destroyed – to enable a transformation through innovation to a new way of doing things. Entrepreneurs use innovation to disrupt how things are done and to establish a better way of doing those things.

Basic Questions in Entrepreneurship Research

According to Baron (2004a), there are three basic questions of interest in the field of entrepreneurship:

• Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs?
• Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited?
• Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221)?

To understand where these foundational research questions came from and what their relevance is today, it is useful to study what entrepreneurship research has uncovered so far.

Entrepreneurial Uniqueness

Efforts to teach entrepreneurship have included descriptions of entrepreneurial uniqueness based on personality, behavioural, and cognitive traits (Chell, 2008; Duening, 2010).

• Need for achievement
• Internal locus of control (a belief by an individual that they are in control of their own destiny)
• Risk-taking propensity
• Behavioural traits
• Cognitive skills of successful entrepreneurs

Past studies of personality characteristics and behavioural traits have not been overly successful at identifying entrepreneurial uniqueness.

As it turned out, years of painstaking research along this line has not borne significant fruit. It appears that there are simply not any personality characteristics that are either essential to, or defining of, entrepreneurs that differ systematically from non-entrepreneurs…. Again, investigators proposed a number of behavioural candidates as emblematic of entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, this line of research also resulted in a series of dead ends as examples of successful entrepreneurial behaviours had equal counterparts among samples of non-entrepreneurs. As with the personality characteristic school of thought before it, the behavioural trait school of thought became increasingly difficult to support (Duening, 2010, p. 4-5).

This shed doubt on the value of trying to change personality characteristics or implant new entrepreneurial behaviours through educational programs in an effort to promote entrepreneurship.

New research, however, has resurrected the idea that there might be some value in revisiting personality traits as a topic of study. Additionally, Duening (2010) and has suggested that an important approach to teaching and learning about entrepreneurship is to focus on the “cognitive skills that successful entrepreneurs seem uniquely to possess and deploy” (p. 2). In the next sections we consider the new research on entrepreneurial personality traits and on entrepreneurial cognitions.

Entrepreneurial Personality Traits

While acknowledging that research had yet to validate the value of considering personality and behaviour traits as ways to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs or unsuccessful ones, Chell (2008) suggested that researchers turn their attention to new sets of traits including: “the proactive personality, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perseverance and intuitive decision-making style. Other traits that require further work include social competence and the need for independence” (p. 140).

In more recent years scholars have considered how the Big Five personality traits – extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (sometimes presented as emotional stability ), and openness to experience (sometimes referred to as intellect) – might be used to better understand entrepreneurs. It appears that the Big Five traits might be of some use in predicting entrepreneurial success. Research is ongoing in this area, but in one example, Caliendo, Fossen, and Kritikos (2014) studied whether personality constructs might “influence entrepreneurial decisions at different points in time” (p. 807), and found that “high values in three factors of the Big Five approach—openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability (the latter only when we do not control for further personality characteristics)—increase the probability of entry into self-employment” (p. 807). They also found “that some specific personality characteristics, namely risk tolerance, locus of control, and trust, have strong partial effects on the entry decision” (p. 807). They also found that people who scored higher on agreeableness were more likely to exit their businesses, possibly meaning that people with lower agreeableness scores might prevail longer as entrepreneurs. When it came to specific personality traits, their conclusions indicated that those with an external locus of control were more likely to stop being self-employed after they had run their businesses for a while. There are several implications for research like this, including the potential to better understand why some entrepreneurs behave as they do based upon their personality types and the chance to improve entrepreneurship education and support services.

Entrepreneurial Cognitions

It is only fairly recently that entrepreneurship scholars have focused on cognitive skills as a primary factor that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and less successful entrepreneurs. This approach deals with how entrepreneurs think differently than non-entrepreneurs (Duening, 2010; Mitchell et al., 2007).

Entrepreneurial cognitions are the knowledge structures that people use to make assessments, judgments or decisions involving opportunity evaluation and venture creation and growth. In other words, research in entrepreneurial cognition is about understanding how entrepreneurs use simplifying mental models to piece together previously unconnected information that helps them to identify and invent new products or services, and to assemble the necessary resources to start and grow businesses (Mitchell, Busenitz, et al., 2002, p. 97).

Mitchell, Smith, et al. (2002) provided the example of how the decision to create a new venture (dependent variable) was influenced by three sets of cognitions (independent variables). They described these cognitions as follows:

Arrangements cognitions are the mental maps about the contacts, relationships, resources, and assets necessary to engage in entrepreneurial activity; willingness cognitions are the mental maps that support commitment to venturing and receptivity to the idea of starting a venture; ability cognitions consist of the knowledge structures or scripts (Glaser, 1984) that individuals have to support the capabilities, skills, norms, and attitudes required to create a venture (Mitchell et al., 2000). These variables draw on the idea that cognitions are structured in the minds of individuals (Read, 1987), and that these knowledge structures act as “scripts” that are the antecedents of decision making (Leddo & Abelson, 1986, p. 121; Mitchell, Smith, et al., 2002, p. 10)

Cognitive Perspective to Understanding Entrepreneurship

According to Baron (2004a), by taking a cognitive perspective, we might better understand entrepreneurs and the role they play in the entrepreneurial process.

The cognitive perspective emphasizes the fact that everything we think, say, or do is influenced by mental processes—the cognitive mechanisms through which we acquire store, transform, and use information. It is suggested here that this perspective can be highly useful to the field of entrepreneurship. Specifically, it can assist the field in answering three basic questions it has long addressed: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2) Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited? And (3) Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221-222)?

Baron (2004a), illustrated how cognitive differences between people might explain why some people end up pursuing entrepreneurial pursuits and others do not. For example, prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1977) and other decision-making or behavioural theories might be useful in this regard. Research into cognitive biases might also help explain why some people become entrepreneurs.

Baron (2004a) also revealed ways in which cognitive concepts like signal detection theory, regulation theory, and entrepreneurial might help explain why some people are better at entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. He also illustrated how some cognitive models and theories – like risk perception, counterfactual thinking, processing style, and susceptibility to cognitive errors – might help explain why some entrepreneurs are more successful than others.

Cognitive Perspective and the Three Questions

• Prospect Theory
• Cognitive Biases
• Signal Detection Theory
• Regulation Theory
• Entrepreneurial Alertness
• Risk Perception
• Counterfactual Thinking
• Processing Style
• Susceptibility to Cognitive Errors

Entrepreneurial Scripts

• “Cognition has emerged as an important theoretical perspective for understanding and explaining human behavior and action” (Dutta & Thornhill, 2008, p. 309).
• Cognitions are all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used (Neisser, 1976).
• Cognitions lead to the acquisition of knowledge, and involve human information processing.
• Is a mental model, or information processing short-cut that can give information form and meaning, and enable subsequent interpretation and action.
• The subsequent interpretation and actions can result in expert performance … they can also result in thinking errors.
• the processes that transfer expertise, and
• the actual expertise itself.
• Scripts are generally framed as a linear sequence of steps, usually with feedback loops, that can explain how to achieve a particular task – perhaps like developing a business plan.
• Sometimes scripts can be embedded within other scripts. For example, within a general venturing script that outlines the sequences of activities that can lead to a successful business launch, there will probably be sub-scripts describing how entrepreneurs can search for ideas, screen those ideas until one is selected, plan how to launch a sustainable business based upon that idea and including securing the needed financial resources, setting up the business, starting it, effectively managing its ongoing operations, and managing the venture such that that entrepreneur can extract the value that they desire from the enterprise at the times and in the ways they want it.
• The most effective scripts include an indication of the norms that outline performance standards and indicate how to determine when any step in the sequence has been properly completed.

General Venturing Script

Generally, entrepreneurship is considered to consist of the following elements, or subscripts (Brooks, 2009; Mitchell, 2000).

• Idea Screening
• Planning and Financing
• Ongoing Operations

Searching (also called idea formulation or opportunity recognition)

• This script begins when a person decides they might be a potential entrepreneur (or when an existing entrepreneur decides they need more ideas in their idea pool ).
• This script ends when there are a sufficient number of ideas in the idea pool.
• overcome mental blockages to creativity which might hinder this person’s ability to identify viable ideas;
• implement steps to identify a sufficient number of ideas (most likely 5 or more) which the person is interested in investigating to determine whether they might be viable given general criteria such as this person’s personal interests and capabilities;

Idea Screening (also called concept development)

• This script begins when the person with the idea pool is no longer focusing on adding new ideas to it; but is instead taking steps to choose the best idea for them given a full range of specific criteria .
• This script ends when one idea is chosen from among those in the idea pool.
• Evaluate the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal climates
• Evaluate the degree of competitiveness in the industry, the threat of substitutes emerging, the threat of new entrants to the industry, the degree of bargaining power of buyers, and the degree of bargaining power of suppliers.
• Do a market profile analysis to assess the attractiveness of the position within the industry that the potential venture will occupy.
• Formulate and evaluate potential strategies to leverage organizational strengths, overcome/minimize weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and overcome/minimize threats;
• Complete financial projections and analyze them to evaluate financial attractiveness;
• Assess the founder fit with the ideas;
• Evaluate the core competencies of the organization relative to the idea;
• Assess advice solicited from trusted advisers

Planning and Financing (also called resource determination and acquisition)

• This script begins when the idea screening script ends and when the person begins making the plans to implement the single idea chosen from the idea pool, which is done in concert with securing financing to implement the venture idea.
• This script ends when sufficient business planning has been done and when adequate financing has been arranged.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps to develop a business plan and secure adequate financing to start the business.

Set-Up (also called launch)

• This script begins when the planning and financing script ends and when the person begins implementing the plans needed to start the business.
• This script ends when the business is ready to start-up.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps, including purchasing and installing equipment, securing the venture location and finishing all the needed renovations, recruiting and hiring any staff needed for start-up, and the many other steps needed to prepare for start-up.
• Start-Up (also called launch)
• This script begins when the set-up script ends and when the business opens and begins making sales.
• This script ends when the business has moved beyond the point where the entrepreneur must continually fight for the business’s survival and persistence. It ends when the entrepreneur can instead shift emphasis toward business growth or maintaining the venture’s stability.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to establish a new venture.

Ongoing Operations (also called venture growth)

• This script begins when the start-up script ends and when the business has established persistence and is implementing growth (or maintenance) strategies.
• This script ends when the entrepreneur chooses to harvest the value they generated with the venture.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to grow (or maintain) a venture.

Studying Entrepreneurship

The following quotations from two preeminent entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education researchers indicate the growing interest in studies in this field.

Entrepreneurship has emerged over the last two decades as arguably the most potent economic force the world has ever experienced. With that expansion has come a similar increase in the field of entrepreneurship education. The recent growth and development in the curricula and programs devoted to entrepreneurship and new-venture creation have been remarkable. The number of colleges and universities that offer courses related to entrepreneurship has grown from a handful in the 1970s to over 1,600 in 2005 (Kuratko, 2005, p. 577).

Interest in entrepreneurship has heightened in recent years, especially in business schools. Much of this interest is driven by student demand for courses in entrepreneurship, either because of genuine interest in the subject, or because students see entrepreneurship education as a useful hedge given uncertain corporate careers (Venkataraman, 1997, p. 119).

Approaches to Studying Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a discipline, which means an individual can learn about it, and about how to be an effective entrepreneur. It is a myth that people are born entrepreneurs and that others cannot learn to become entrepreneurs (Drucker, 1985). Kuratko (2005) asserted that the belief previously held by some that entrepreneurship cannot be taught has been debunked, and the focus has shifted to what topics should be taught and how they should be covered.

Solomon (2007) summarized some of the research on what should be covered in entrepreneurship courses, and how it should be taught. While the initial focus was on actions like developing business plans and being exposed to real entrepreneurs, more recently this approach has been supplemented by an emphasis on technical, industry, and personal experience. “It requires critical thinking and ethical assessment and is based on the premise that successful entrepreneurial activities are a function of human, venture and environmental conditions” (p. 172). Another approach “calls for courses to be structured around a series of strategic development challenges including opportunity identification and feasibility analysis; new venture planning, financing and operating; new market development and expansion strategies; and institutionalizing innovation” (p. 172). This involves having students interact with entrepreneurs by interviewing them, having them act as mentors, and learning about their experiences and approaches through class discussions.

Sources of Information for Studying Entrepreneurship

According to Kuratko (2005), “three major sources of information supply the data related to the entrepreneurial process or perspective” (p. 579).

• Academic journals like Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice , Journal of Business Venturing , and Journal of Small Business Management
• Proceedings of conferences like Proceedings of the Academy of Management and Proceedings of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada
• Textbooks on entrepreneurship
• Books about entrepreneurship
• Biographies or autobiographies of entrepreneurs
• News periodicals like Canadian Business and Profit
• Trade periodicals like Entrepreneur and Family Business
• Government publications available through sources like the Enterprise Saskatchewan and Canada-Saskatchewan Business Service Centre (CSBSC) websites and through various government resource centers
• Data might be collected from entrepreneurs and about entrepreneurs through surveys, interviews, or other methods applied by researchers.
• Speeches and presentations by practicing entrepreneurs

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Entrepreneurship is the ability and vision to develop and manage a business. The goal of an entrepreneur is generally to run a profitable and sustainable business. Most entrepreneurs are considered as innovators and people who are willing to take a risk to turn their vision into a reality. There are no degrees required to start your own business. However, these days many business schools are offering entrepreneurship courses in India.

Many online education portals also have an entrepreneurship course for people who want to build their own companies. An entrepreneurship course will include the theories and practices required to build a business. Training in entrepreneurship can give you a fair understanding of the basics of running it. It will also teach you some skills necessary to either run a company or even to start a job with another employer. While the aim of these courses is to prepare entrepreneurs, it does groom them in general business management also. So that, even though a person might decide not to start his own venture after the course, he can still be a desirable candidate to potential employers.

Enrolling yourself in one of these courses would teach you how to make business plans , create presentations to raise funds for your business and be able to assess the opportunities and risks that you might face at work. As a student a lot of your time and effort will go in learning how to develop clear objectives for your enterprise. This will include knowing what kind of market you want to target, defining your target customers, analysing the competition in your desired field of business and assessing how you will fit in.

In the classroom you will also work with fellow class mates and learn about team management, generate ideas, pitch those ideas to potential investors and develop your strategic planning skills .

The method of teaching would usually be a combination of presentations, assignments and focused lectures. However, professors insist on applied learning and therefore students are encouraged to go for internships or join work immediately after the course, even if they aren’t ready to start their own start-up. Therefore, do not be surprised if you go for a course like this and are put on an internship or an experiential learning project. This is where you might be working for a company and learning the real side of things.

The experiential learning will prepare you for tough decisions that you might be making in the future. It might even help you manage your emotions better.

If you have a strong desire to be a successful entrepreneur , but you are not sure if you are ready for the real world then an entrepreneurship course might just be the answer.

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15.5 Reflections: Documenting the Journey

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Examine the value of journaling and reflection
• Experiment with reflection as a daily habit

Consider the journey of learning about entrepreneurship and of becoming an entrepreneur. What new knowledge have you gained about the world of entrepreneurship? What have you learned about your own interests in becoming an entrepreneur? Discovering your interest in specific areas helps to inform the possible entrepreneurial opportunities you might want to pursue and informs you of specific processes and actions where you might excel within an entrepreneurial endeavor. Consider how you can add value to an entrepreneurial team as a team member, or in the capacity of a mentor, consultant, or champion, as you reflect on your own interests, goals, passions and desires.

The Power of Journaling

Reflection supports personal growth through identifying actions that worked well and actions that didn’t work out as well as hoped. A formal reflection journal for capturing daily thoughts, experiences, lessons learned, and other material, can lead to insights and identify patterns in thinking and in behaviors that may be helpful to recognize—both for personal growth and for growth as an entrepreneur.

In daily life, people seldom have the time or training to be mindful of their actions—to be aware of how they interact with others, or how they act in the variety of situations that fill their days. A daily practice of reflection can improve your ability to be mindful throughout the day and to grow through your documented reflections. Being mindful is the action of being in the moment, being aware of surroundings and fully engaged in awareness of the people around us, hearing their communications and understanding the complexity of their messages. Mindfulness moves us out of our reaction to situations from our own personal perspective into a more objective awareness —a bit like viewing your life as though you were watching it as a spectator on the sidelines. This change in perspective moves us away from reacting to situations and toward a clearer, unbiased, and focused understanding of the situation with awareness of the situation’s nuances. As we develop the practice of mindfulness, we become skilled at being aware of our own emotions and patterns, which can make us aware of more options about how we want to respond: Rather than acting in a habitual or reactive manner, we can consider responses before we react. Reflection is the first step in developing this skill.

Take a few minutes to reflect on your life up to this point. Can you identify milestones, significant decision points, and understand why you made these decisions? Forming a daily habit of writing down your thoughts about the day, challenges you faced and how you responded to each, tracking what went well and what didn’t go well is the process of reflection. Over time, you will begin to see patterns in your behaviors. Identifying these patterns or habits provides key insights into how you think, process information, make decisions, and react to decisions. Once you notice these patterns, you have the power to analyze them and decide which are helpful and which are not. The patterns that are not helpful should be removed and replaced with better patterns. You can write down the new patterns that you want to develop as a goal in your daily reflection journal. You can then identify if you’re moving closer to following the new pattern and achieving this goal.

This type of journaling activity might seem like busy work, or you might think that you don’t have time for reflection. If this is how you feel, try following this advice for a couple of weeks and then reconsider, or conduct your own research to find articles that discredit reflection. There is a vast body of research that supports reflection as an important part of self-growth and self-realization. Some documented benefits in these studies include learning from mistakes, discovering new insights and ideas, and increases in reported happiness and satisfaction with life and relationships, increased mindfulness, and increased self-understanding resulting in feeling more power to choose how one interacts with the world—feeling empowered rather than the victim of a situation. 13 , 14 , 15

The Impact of Reflection

George Washington University researchers Scheherazade Rehman and James R. Bailey interviewed over 400 executive leaders to understand which of their experiences had the most positive impact on their leadership abilities and pathways. The researchers used data analysis software to process and categorize the highly varied responses, then management professors validated the results. Three themes emerged: surprise, frustration, and failure. 16 Again, these were the experiences that positively affected the executives.

The reflections of surprise typically occurred after a major deviation from expectations. The reflections of failure often involved making mistakes that could have been avoided, such as being involved in “organizational politics,” instead of focusing on a project’s success. The reflections of frustration often involved mismatched priorities or miscommunication within the executives’ organizations. 17

Through the process of reflection, the leaders uncovered deep-seeded issues that became learning experiences for them. The most impactful experiences were negative ones, frequently ones that the executives characterized as mistakes—sometimes their own, sometimes others’. As Rehman and Bailey wrote, “Mistakes provide raw evidence of what we should not do in the future. Mistakes allow us to learn by ‘negative example’, otherwise known as ‘errorful learning.’” 18

For this learning to take place, however, the executives—and anyone seeking to improve—need to understand and process what they’ve experienced. Reflection is a critical process to gain that understanding.

Documenting Your Journey

As part of your reflection activity, another benefit is to document your journey. If you have identified an opportunity or have started to build your venture, now is the perfect time to keep a journal and document your journey. Each day you face new challenges and exciting ideas that stretch your own learning and growth. Tracking the daily events provides you with a roadmap to use for your next venture, or as a guide to build your knowledge base in moving into a mentor or consultant role. Have you ever asked yourself, why didn’t I write that down? We assume that important and insightful ideas will stick in our minds and that we will readily remember them. But in reality we often forget these key insights and ideas. Through journaling, we can record and reflect on our daily activities and key insights.

Rehman and Bailey indicate that a journal should not simply be a collection of facts or a timeline of events. They recommend that whenever you feel a strong emotion at work—such as surprise, frustration, or failure—you should take a moment to add it to your journal. (Keeping the journal in a convenient place or format, such as on your phone or computer, will help.) Document what occurred, how you felt, and, if possible, why you felt that way. Set aside time to review your notes, and add to them as needed. Similar to many study techniques, such a detailed and active retrospective process will help you find more insights into cause and effect. Your reflection will have focus, outcomes, and the best possibility of success.

Link to Learning

This TED Talk on creatives by Adam Grant presents some of the concepts of this chapter, framed around Dr. Grant’s research as a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, on creatives. His book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World , shares more of his findings.

Are there biases and habits that hold you back from being a creative, as defined in this chapter and by Dr. Grant? If so, what methods can you use to break through these biases and habits?

• 13 Cable Neuhaus. “The Multimedia Journal: More Than Just a Notebook.” Saturday Evening Post , 289 (6), 16. December 5, 2017.
• 14 Deborah L. Starczewski. “Encouraging Students to Think Beyond the Course Material: The Benefits of Using Reflective Journals”. Teaching Professor , 30 (8), 5. October 2016.
• 15 J. L. Nelson. Express Yourself. Scholastic Parent & Child , 19 (1), 52–54. 2011.
• 16 James R. Bailey and Scheherazade Rehman. “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection.” Harvard Business Review . March 2022.
• 17 James R. Bailey and Scheherazade Rehman. “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection.” Harvard Business Review . March 2022.
• 18 James R. Bailey and Scheherazade Rehman. “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection.” Harvard Business Review . March 2022.

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Entrepreneurship Courses: What Students Can Expect

Many successful entrepreneurs never walked across the stage to receive a college diploma, but schools are increasing their offerings to educate and train the next generation of big thinkers.

According to the entrepreneurship research group the Kauffman Foundation , more than 2,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer a course in entrepreneurship. What’s more, a growing number of schools are offering curriculum leading to an undergraduate minor or a master's in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship centers with seasoned business owners serving as coaches are becoming more readily available to students.

The foundation also reports that on average, entrepreneurs are about 43 when they launch their companies, yet 54% of Millennials either want to start a business or already have started one.

Although recent graduates are often burdened with student loan debt and a lack of capital right out of school, getting an education in entrepreneurship can provide more non-traditional career options in the future, says Nick Bayer, CEO of Saxbys Coffee and entrepreneur in residence at Cornell University .

“The current generation of Millennials is generally characterized as being somewhat self-centric, confident and averse to traditional social conventions, traits that are consistent with those most seen in entrepreneurs,” he says.

Benefits of Entrepreneurship Training

Whether students take a few courses on the side or decide to focus on a degree, entrepreneurship training can give them critical skills and make them more desirable candidates to employers, according to Bayer.

“These classes will help you learn to write business plans, create a pro forma and learn to manage when and when not to take risks in your career,” he says.

Students in more technical degree fields can also gain valuable experience from these entrepreneurship courses, says Doug Neal, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan .

“Engineers actually make tremendous entrepreneurs but they sometimes lack exposure to some of the skill sets or the education to make that leap,” he says. “In many ways, the natural curiosity of an engineer or scientist leads them to be a great entrepreneur if they’re shown the way.”

What to Expect in the Classroom

Students can learn how to identify and establish a strategic planning process for a future business through their coursework, says Dina Dwyer-Owen s, CEO of The Dwyer Group who informally teaches entrepreneurship courses at Baylor University .

“I actually spend a good 30 minutes in my presentation talking about the importance of getting clear about what your values are in operating your business and how you can attract the types of team members that are like minded,” she says. “You certainly want team members that have strengths and weaknesses that complement yours, but having the same values in mind is key in building a business.”

At the University of Michigan, professors focus lectures, assignments and presentations on applied learning to give students realistic business experience, says Neal.

“They have to quickly apply it to a venture they’re working on or maybe they can join a team because it’s somebody else’s venture--we really take the skill or knowledge and apply it directly to something they’re working on so that they can ingrain that knowledge into their work.”

Bayer explains that advanced entrepreneurship or master’s courses include experiential learning and job shadowing situations that help prepare students for risk tolerance and how to learn from mistakes.

“Having to make the tough decisions first hand and understanding the heartache that comes is hard to teach from a text book,” he says. “New entrepreneurs often misunderstand how much risk is associated with operating a business and these experiential classes can greatly help prepare students.”

To find success in the long run, it’s critical that budding entrepreneurs isolate the industry or field they are truly invested in before jumping into a business venture, says Neal.

“Part of entrepreneurship is passion and when you are going down the route of being an entrepreneur, it is going to be an all consuming activity and you need to be doing something you’re very passionate about,” he says. “In the toughest times when people are saying ‘no’ to you all the time, you have to have that commitment to some set of people, to some idea to see through that and persevere.”

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Lessons Learned: Key Takeaways from My Entrepreneurial Journey

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May 10, 2023

Embarking on the path of entrepreneurship can be an exhilarating, albeit challenging, adventure. Over the years, I've encountered numerous trials and triumphs, each contributing valuable lessons to my overall growth and development as a business owner. 

In this edition of The Fearless Business Blog , I'll be sharing some of the invaluable lessons I've learned throughout my entrepreneurial journey, delving into how they have shaped my mindset and contributed to my overall success. By understanding and applying these key takeaways, you too can navigate your own entrepreneurial endeavours with greater confidence and clarity.

Key Takeaways on My Entrepreneurial Journey

• Embrace failure as a learning opportunity : Understand that failures are an essential part of growth and can provide valuable lessons for future success.
• Build a strong support network : Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can offer guidance, encouragement, and collaboration as you navigate your entrepreneurial journey.
• Prioritise personal well-being : To maintain peak performance and avoid burnout, it's crucial to find a healthy work-life balance and prioritise self-care.
• Deliver value to your customers : Focus on providing exceptional products and services that solve real problems for your clients and exceed their expectations.
• Stay adaptable and resilient: The entrepreneurial landscape is ever-changing, so it's essential to remain flexible and resilient in the face of challenges and evolving circumstances.
• Continuously learn and grow : Invest in your personal and professional development to stay at the forefront of your industry and maintain a competitive edge.

1. Embrace Failure as a Learning Opportunity

One of the most critical lessons I've learned is that failure is an essential part of the journey. When we experience setbacks or disappointments, it's vital to recognise them as opportunities to learn and grow. By embracing failure as a stepping stone towards improvement, you'll be better equipped to adapt, pivot, and ultimately achieve your desired outcomes. Furthermore, acknowledging that failure is inevitable allows you to approach it with curiosity and resilience, using each setback as a chance to refine your strategies and strengthen your resolve.

2. Build a Strong Support Network

No entrepreneur can succeed in isolation. Building a robust support network of mentors, peers, and like-minded individuals can be a game-changer in your entrepreneurial journey. These connections not only provide guidance and encouragement but also help you stay accountable and motivated. Make it a priority to join networking groups, attend industry events, and engage with fellow entrepreneurs through social media platforms. In addition, consider forming or joining a mastermind group, where you can regularly share ideas, resources, and support with like-minded individuals who are also on their entrepreneurial journey.

3. Prioritise Your Personal Wellbeing

It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of entrepreneurship, often neglecting our own mental and physical wellbeing . However, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is crucial for long-term success. Schedule time for self-care, exercise, and relaxation, ensuring that you are at your best when making important decisions and driving your business forward. Moreover, be mindful of burnout and the negative effects of chronic stress on your overall health. By prioritising your wellbeing, you'll not only foster greater personal satisfaction but also boost your productivity and effectiveness in your professional life.

4. Master Your Mindset

Developing a positive and resilient mindset is fundamental to overcoming obstacles and achieving success as an entrepreneur. Recognise your limiting beliefs and replace them with empowering thoughts that propel you towards your goals. By cultivating a mindset of abundance, confidence, and determination, you'll be better equipped to handle challenges and seize opportunities that come your way. Additionally, practice gratitude and focus on the positive aspects of your journey, as this will help you maintain an optimistic outlook and foster a greater sense of fulfilment.

5. Invest in Continuous Learning

In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, it's essential to stay ahead of the curve by continually updating your knowledge and skills. Dedicate time to learning about industry trends, mastering new tools, and refining your craft. By committing to lifelong learning, you'll ensure that you remain agile, innovative, and competitive in your chosen field. Furthermore, consider investing in professional development opportunities, such as workshops, courses, and certifications, to expand your expertise and enhance your credibility in the eyes of your clients and peers.

6. Focus on Providing Value

One of the most effective ways to stand out in a crowded market is by consistently delivering value to your customers. Focus on understanding your target audience's needs and pain points, and tailor your products or services to address these challenges. By establishing yourself as a trusted and reliable solution provider, you'll foster loyalty, drive repeat business, and ultimately grow your enterprise. Additionally, prioritise exceptional customer service and consistently exceed your clients' expectations. By nurturing strong relationships with your customers, you'll not only enhance your reputation but also generate valuable word-of-mouth referrals.

7. Cultivate Resilience and Adaptability

The entrepreneurial landscape is ever-evolving, requiring business owners to be adaptable and resilient in the face of change. Embrace change as an opportunity to grow and evolve, rather than a threat to your existing strategies. Stay informed about industry developments and market shifts, and be prepared to pivot when necessary. By demonstrating flexibility and resilience, you'll be better positioned to capitalise on new opportunities and weather any storm that comes your way.

8. Establish Clear Goals and Measure Progress

Setting clear, specific, and measurable goals is vital to tracking your progress and maintaining focus on your entrepreneurial journey. Break down your long-term objectives into smaller, actionable steps, and continually assess your progress to ensure you stay on track. Regularly reviewing and adjusting your goals will help you stay aligned with your vision and make informed decisions about the direction of your business. Moreover, celebrate your milestones and accomplishments along the way, as this will boost your motivation and remind you of the progress you've made.

9. Delegate and Outsource

As your business grows, it becomes increasingly challenging to manage all aspects of your operations single-handedly. Learn to delegate and outsource tasks, allowing you to focus on your core competencies and higher-value activities. By entrusting specific tasks to skilled team members or external professionals, you'll not only enhance efficiency but also free up time to strategise and drive your business forward.

10. Embrace the Power of Collaboration

Collaboration can be a powerful catalyst for growth and innovation in your entrepreneurial journey. Seek out partnerships and joint ventures that align with your values and objectives, enabling you to expand your reach, leverage complementary skills, and unlock new opportunities. By embracing collaboration and pooling resources with like-minded entrepreneurs, you'll be better positioned to scale your business and achieve long-term success.

FAQs on Lessons for Entrepreneurs

As you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, you'll likely encounter numerous challenges and opportunities for growth. To help you navigate this exciting and sometimes daunting path, we've compiled a list of frequently asked questions and their answers. In this FAQ section, we'll explore valuable insights and advice gleaned from years of experience, addressing topics such as learning from failure, building a support network, prioritising well-being, delivering customer value, and more. By understanding these key takeaways, you'll be better equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve success in your entrepreneurial endeavours.

How do I learn from failure and turn it into a valuable experience?

Embrace failure as an opportunity to gain valuable insights and grow both personally and professionally. Analyse what went wrong, identify areas for improvement, and apply these lessons to future endeavours. Developing a growth mindset will help you view failures as stepping stones towards success, rather than setbacks.

How can I build a strong support network?

Begin by connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs, mentors, and industry professionals through networking events, online forums, and social media platforms. Seek out individuals who share your values and can provide guidance, encouragement, and constructive feedback. Additionally, consider joining mastermind groups or enrolling in relevant courses to further expand your network and gain valuable insights.

How can I prioritise my well-being while running a business?

Develop a daily routine that incorporates self-care practices such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and sufficient sleep. Schedule downtime and set boundaries between your personal and professional life to prevent burnout. Remember that taking care of your physical and mental well-being is crucial for maintaining productivity and achieving long-term success.

Why is it essential to focus on delivering value to my customers?

By consistently providing value to your customers, you'll enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and trust in your brand. This focus on value can lead to repeat business, positive word-of-mouth referrals, and long-term success. Ensure that your products or services cater to your target audience's needs and continuously improve your offerings based on customer feedback.

How can I cultivate resilience and adaptability in my entrepreneurial journey?

Stay informed about industry developments, market shifts, and emerging trends to anticipate change and capitalise on new opportunities. Embrace change as a chance for growth, and be prepared to pivot your strategies or business model when necessary. By demonstrating flexibility and resilience, you'll be better positioned to navigate challenges and achieve long-term success.

What's the best way to delegate and outsource tasks in my business?

Begin by identifying tasks that can be delegated or outsourced, such as administrative duties, social media management, or content creation. Then, entrust these tasks to skilled team members or external professionals who specialise in the required areas. This approach allows you to focus on your core competencies and higher-value activities while ensuring your business runs efficiently.

How can I leverage the power of collaboration to grow my business?

Identify potential partners or collaborators who share your values and objectives, and explore opportunities for joint ventures, partnerships, or co-marketing initiatives. By pooling resources, skills, and knowledge with like-minded entrepreneurs, you can unlock new opportunities, expand your reach, and drive innovation in your business.

In conclusion, entrepreneurship is a journey filled with challenges, growth, and transformation. By learning from and applying these key takeaways, you can navigate your own path with greater confidence and resilience. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity, build a strong support network, prioritise your wellbeing, and continually invest in your personal and professional development. Stay focused on delivering value, embrace change, and leverage the power of collaboration to propel your business to new heights. Remember, your entrepreneurial journey is unique, and the lessons you learn along the way will ultimately shape your success and fulfilment.

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What to expect in the life of an entrepreneur.

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Tyler Martin is a Certified  Business Coach  and Consultant who helps business owners grow and scale their business using proven systems.

There is a story about one of the most famous inventors of the modern world, Thomas Edison. When asked if he was ashamed to have put in so much work without results, Edison  replied : “I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.” If there were ever a quote to sum up the experience of being an entrepreneur, I think that was it.

As a business owner, you might do a lot of thinking about whether your experiences on the business landscape are normal. You might ask yourself: “Do other entrepreneurs go through the same ups and downs as me?” On one side of the coin, being an entrepreneur gives you the power to create your own destiny. But then, it’s also true that very few people experience the kinds of highs and lows that business owners may cycle between.

The life of an entrepreneur is a roller coaster.

For some people, the idea of trying something hundreds or thousands of times — only to be met with defeat every single time — might sound like a tremendously discouraging proposition. But as an entrepreneur, the truth is that your life will probably feel  eerily similar  to this on a daily basis. And even if you don’t feel this way for at least a few hours every day, odds are good that you will still feel it at least some of the time.

One moment, you may be riding the high of a new, successful product launch. And in the next minute, five different fires pop up at once — forcing you to juggle the responsibility of putting them all out before they sink your business. Life for an entrepreneur is nothing if not a wild roller coaster of ups and downs. But, this is also normal. Imagining that it’s going to be anything different is quite unrealistic, especially in the formative years of your business.

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Even if your business is successful, entrepreneurship comes with a mix of inspiring days and challenging days.

Life as a business owner will be riddled with challenges, obstacles and hurdles that you’ll need to overcome in order to achieve the success you desire. But here’s the tricky thing: Even if you’re  wildly successful  in your business, that doesn’t always mean that you’re going to feel like you’re on top of the world.

Why? Because there’s always something else to worry about. Every time you crest a mountain top, you’ll find another valley filled with traps, holes, problems and potential disasters just waiting to happen along with the next stint of your journey.

It’s important to remember your original purpose.

A lot of positivity gets thrown around these days. People say things like, “Shoot for the moon,” and, “Believe in yourself.” Well, these are good things to say. And sometimes, we can jump onto these ideas and ride them out to incredibly emotional high points. But that’s not the full story, either.

There will surely be days on your journey when you feel like quitting. Business owners shoulder an  enormous  burden of responsibility. Every successful entrepreneur faces those days where they just want to hang their head in defeat and contemplate giving up.

“Why did you start this journey?”

In such moments, this is an important question to ask yourself.

There will be a lot of problem-solving and putting out fires.

“You could have been so much further ahead by now,” is a rationale that you may find playing over and over again in your head. If you would’ve gotten a normal job in a normal career and went to work every day like a  normal  person, you may not have to deal with all of these ups and downs, right?

In some ways, I think businesses are like toddlers. It’s a great idea — even a romantic idea — to think of bringing a child into the world. But what people  don’t  tell you about being a parent is that children are born adept at finding creative ways to endanger themselves. They jump off of trampolines, dive headfirst into the deep end of the swimming pool, eat batteries, play with matches, etc. And  none  of these things are good for their safety or well-being.

Why does it seem like toddlers can be hell-bent on their own destruction? Well, the truth of the matter is that they  aren’t . They’re just learning, discovering and playing to figure out what  is  and  isn’t  dangerous in the world. They learn by experience. They learn by trial and error. And a business needs to go through these exact same growing pains as it matures and stabilizes.

It’s worth it in the end.

Yes, being an entrepreneur can be challenging. But despite the dreariness, despair and despondency that can oftentimes descend upon you as you seek to navigate the incredible challenges associated with running your own company — there’s also a great  purpose  behind what you’re doing.

And if you remind yourself that this is all for a good reason and that it’ll be worth it in the end, well, you’re actually closer to unveiling the path to greater success than you might have realized. Because that’s exactly the kind of mindset that’s required to stay the course and achieve your goals. The backbone of true business success is made up of hard work and a willingness to endure the ups, downs and growing pains of entrepreneurism.

Let’s not forget one of the cardinal quotes from an anonymous source that I think perfectly encapsulates this journey: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” 

The fact of the matter is that you start this journey for a reason. It can be painful at times — but it’s also glorious and full of purpose. And in the end, I think it’s absolutely worth it.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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