Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced. It results in the creation, enhancement, realization, and renewal of value, not just for owners, but for all participants and stakeholders. At the heart of the process is the creation and/or recognition of opportunities, followed by the will and initiative to seize these opportunities. It requires a willingness to take risks-both personal and financial-but in a vary calculated fashion in order to constantly shift the odds of success, balancing the risk with the potential reward.
Today, entrepreneurship has evolved beyond the classic start-up notion to include companies and organization of all types, in all stages. Thus, entrepreneurship can occur-and fail to occur-in firms that are old and new, small and large, fast and slow growing; in the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors; in all geographic points; and in all stages of a nation's development, and regardless of politics.

Paradoxes of Entrepreneurship:

1. An opportunity with no or very low potential can be an enormously big opportunity.
2. To make money you have to first lose money.
3. To create and build wealth one must relinquish wealth.
4. To succeed, one first has to experience failure.
5. Entrepreneurship requires considerable thought, preparation, and planning, yet is basically an unplannable event.
6. For creativity and innovativeness to prosper, rigor and discipline must accompany the process.
7. Entrepreneurship requires a bias toward action and a sense of urgency, but also demands patience and perseverance.
8. Adhering to management best practice, especially staying close to the customer that created industry leaders in the 1980's, became a seed of sel-destruction and loss of leadership to upstart competitors.
9. To realize long-term equity value, you have to forgo the temptations of short-term profitability.