Exploring Entrepreneurship Summary

Monica Ratliff
2006 URE OMS Research Student

On June 12, 2006 Sanjay Mishra, a professor of the school of business at the University of Kansas, presented an educational workshop that covered basic concepts and characteristics of entrepreneurship. The presentation was titled “Exploration of Entrepreneurship”. Mr. Mishra was mainly focused on presenting the most important characteristics an entrepreneur should develop before and during all endeavors. Most of the content was developed from presentations and discussions with Ray Smilor, the head of the FED foundation in La Jolla, California. Statistics were provided to assist the effort of understanding how important it is for a certain amount of society to pursue an interest or even a degree in entrepreneurship.

The first point covered was the awareness of entrepreneurship and the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. According to Mr. Mishra, seventy percent of high school students desire to have their own businesses and thirty percent of college students in America desire to become entrepreneurs. The main reason is because they want to be their own boss. As society becomes more mature, they realize how difficult it is to become an entrepreneur at such a young age and eventually change career paths. There are two major classes of entrepreneurs. One is acquired through necessity and the other by opportunity. Mr. Mishra stated that entrepreneurs were not born to be entrepreneurs, they were made. It was very interesting to understand that entrepreneurs are not risk takers, they are risk managers. He explained that tangible values revolve around their businesses and communities. These include, employees, customers. suppliers, and yourself. He claims that without all these, you have nothing. Having networking skills is valuable to an entrepreneur as well. Creating value as an entrepreneur is critical in being victorious.

The last portion of the presentation touched base on the characteristics of an entrepreneur. A successful entrepreneur should comprise of are a drive to pursue opportunities, development of a passion with a purpose, creates value, leverages resources, and lives proactively. Pursuing opportunity in the field of entrepreneurship means to create changes and to manipulate then to your advantage. Looking for opportunities to gain experience is always a positive action to take. Acting with passion for a purpose will affect your business and everything around you. Having passion for career will eventually help you become more successful because you pursuit challenges, have energy, and with that uplifting purpose you can accomplish almost anything. Most entrepreneurs enjoy their purpose in life and according to Mr. Mishra, “It is the true joy in life-the being used for a purpose recognized by you as a mighty one.” Living proactively as an entrepreneur means that their behavior is a function of their decisions, not their conditions. You need guts and logic to be a successful entrepreneur.

In conclusion, Mr. Mishra warned all entrepreneurs about the dark side of becoming an entrepreneur. Their main mission as an entrepreneur is, “Don’t run out of cash and don’t destroy from within.” I could not see my self pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. Mr. Mishra did an exceptional job of trying to convince us to pursue a risky career. I admire that all entrepreneurs do all that they do with the very best of their ability and with the strongest enthusiasm. Success is everything to an entrepreneur.