Week 3 Reading Reflection

             To try and summarize the entrepreneurial mindset and discover patterns and use them to build models is an ambitious task. Despite growing effort to create the discipline of Entrepreneurship and take it to classroom to teach, I personally believe that Entrepreneurship is such a comprehensive reflection of life that it is quite difficult to build models that work, even just most of the time. Having said that I do find these attempts helpful in trying to provoke people and inspire them to explore the pursuit of Entrepreneurship. This chapter begins by listing the major sources of information which are publications, direct observations and presentations (case studies) by practicing entrepreneurs. I found that very helpful and informative for myself. I believe making the effort to read as many of these sources as possible will help anyone make better informed decisions at any point in time, regardless of the type of decision in question. The long list of characteristics often attributed to entrepreneurs is quite contradictory. It is difficult to have the decisiveness, determination and leadership while maintaining a low need for power and control. I think the author makes a mistake by not giving skills of adaptability the emphasis it deserves; an entrepreneur may and sometimes should have all the afro mentioned attributes, but to be especially successful he/she will know which characteristic to work better on depending on the situation. Another point where I disagree with the author is the his conclusion that creativity and innovativeness are not solely genetic. I believe that has really nothing to do with genes. A person’s curiosity is only inspired by exposure to different processes, things and perspectives, and yes it can be cultivated in certain environments like family, but I don’t see how could it passed down genetically. Some of the characteristics mentioned such ability to trust others, to delegate work, to have a sense of humor etc I find very refreshing to be listed as needed for an entrepreneur, because we often forget the human dimension and its importance in any sphere of life, including entrepreneurship. Just as important for success is being aware of the dark side, for which the author makes a good summary of the possible pitfalls of this type of pursuit and ways to prevent/battle them.