I’m passionate about entrepreneurship and its intersection with where people can discover their personal career journey. I’ve studied entrepreneurship programs in some of the most selective business schools like Wharton, UVA Darden, and Toronto Rotman. In that study, my colleague and I found that academic programs were beginning to break free from a narrowly defined approach to entrepreneurship. Our research showed that even in the classroom students could learn mold-breaking entrepreneurial methods, that tapped into more of our minds than simply scientific management.
I’m passionate about entrepreneurship and its intersection with where people can discover their personal career journey. I’ve studied entrepreneurship programs in some of the most selective business schools like Wharton, UVA Darden, and Toronto Rotman. In that study, my colleague and I found that academic programs were beginning to break free from a narrowly defined approach to entrepreneurship. Our research showed that even in the classroom students could learn mold-breaking entrepreneurial methods, that tapped into more of our minds than simply scientific management.
Gain an understanding of your own philosophy, beliefs, and motivations
Mindset
Develop your mindset through action, reflection, and purpose
Your Philosophy:
What is entrepreneurship?
The starting point for understanding your Entrepreneurial Philosophy begins with examining your beliefs about what constitutes entrepreneurship. What does entrepreneurship mean to you? The typical way of defining entrepreneurship is to simply start a business, but it can also be defined as a way of thinking. Entrepreneurship is ambiguous and up to your interpretation.
It can be very useful to identify your entrepreneurial philosophy before diving into the process of starting a company. Ask yourself thought-provoking questions that reveal your own beliefs. Must entrepreneurs be profitable? Who is an entrepreneur and what qualities do they display? Must entrepreneurs seek to innovate? Are your local coffee shop, a franchise, and a family business are not examples of entrepreneurship? What are your perspectives on where novel ideas come from and how they are advanced?
As you move forward on your entrepreneurial journey, your philosophy is likely to change. The Founder Challenge encourages you to constantly assess your own beliefs through continuous reflection.
Passion: why be an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur's passion comes in many varieties. Research has been done to identify the goals and motivations of successful entrepreneurs; there are several categories under which entrepreneurial passion falls under. Growth embraces the love for building things and scaling your business, growth is your source of passion. The desire to work with others and build meaningful relationships with customers and employees stems from a passion for people. You may have an overwhelmingly love for a product or service and want to create a way to share it or to improve upon it. You might love championing a social mission and addressing the needs for a group of people that are underserved by the current market. A passion for competition is wanting to prove that you are more successful and provide better products than other businesses.
Alternatively, some entrepreneurs found companies because they desire to helm a company and be the "king" or "queen" of that organization. Of course, many founders are motivated by the prospect of making a lot of money through a venture opportunity they have identified.
The Founder Challenge encourages young entrepreneurs to assess their own passions and motivations to determine what is important to them. This will help you make many decisions about how you will run your company, what your company will value, and even how you might eventually decide exit (or not exit) your venture.
