Week Three Reading Reflection

1. Something that surprised me in this week's reading was the passage on commitment, determination, and perseverance. I realize that commitment is important both personally for the entrepreneur and for potential investors (you don't what to put your money on something that even the creator doesn't believe in), but what I didn't expect is that the text suggested that making personal sacrifice for a venture could actually look good in the eyes of an investor. I have always seen investing as a thing where you want to look as confident and secure as possible; the idea that a potential investor would view mortgaging one's own house to start a venture (and thereby making oneself very vulnerable) as a positive was startling. It makes sense the more I think about it, but it initially took me aback.

2. I was confused that the author included "low need for status and power" in the bullet list of common entrepreneurship traits; I wish that had been expanded upon. Isn't one of the driving factors behind entrepreneurship the want for independence, answering to no one but yourself. An entrepreneur is his/her own boss. The kind of person driven to become an entrepreneur seems the exact kind of person that seeks power and independent recognition.

3. Two Questions I would ask the author concerning this chapter:

• Could an individual believe or hold to an external locus of control and still be an entrepreneur?

• It has been stated many times already that failure is a learning opportunity. Is it not also possible to learn from success? 

4. The section about the "dark side of entrepreneurship" was a little silly to me, and a place where I disagree with the author, An entrepreneur accepts the inherent risk of their field. The fact that an individual is willing to accept these risks and move forward, this is not a "dark" or dangerous behavior. The riskier the move, usually the greater the rewarded. If an entrepreneur fails in his venture, it doesn't mean that his decision to go for that particular venture was a negative one.