Introduction
Reflective learning is one of the best learning styles. It enables to link theory to practice and draw a clear link between the efforts someone put into his/her development and the benefits get out of it. Consequently, I, as a student who follows an industrial based degree programme, present my reflective thoughts on learning grasped throughout the module of SPG8015- Introduction to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in Science and Engineering in this report.
1.0 The Practice of Reflective Learning
“Reflective learning is a generic term for those intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations” (Boud, Keogh & Walker, 1985, p.
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They are the four main characteristics which keep an entrepreneur elevated from an ordinary owner manager. In addition to them, I found some more behaviours, skills and attributes that a person should possess as an entrepreneur. They can be shown as in Table 1.
When I was learning these behaviours, skills and attributes, one question that I asked from myself was, “Do I possess these characteristics?”. It made me to do a self-analysis. Accordingly, I stepped back to my past to discover my personal tendency to become an entrepreneur.
Though I have not engaged in an enterprise or enterprise related activity earlier, I found certain entrepreneurial characteristics inside me. For an instance, the decision making ability under uncertainty can be shown. Studying in UK was a decision taken under an uncertainty following few sacrifices.
Table 1: Behaviours, skills and attributes of an entrepreneur
Behaviours Skills Attributes
• Opportunity seeking
• Taking initiative
• Coping with uncertainty
• Taking calculated risks
• Making things happen
• Responding to challenge
• Managing interdependence
• Rapid use of judgement
• Social networking • Problem-solving
• Persuasiveness
• Negotiating
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• Creativity
• Strategic thinking
• Articulation
• Sense-making
• Socialising
• Holistic management • Self-confidence
•
Personal Characteristics: Under this category, it would be important for an entrepreneur to have optimism, the hopeful feeling that all is going to turn out well. An entrepreneur should have a vision, the ability to envisage a compelling future and articulate it to others. An
Most successful entrepreneurs exhibit certain characteristics. Some entrepreneurs are open-minded, able to learn quickly, and skilled at conceptualizing.
A remarkable amount of people most definitely agree that an entrepreneur is someone who started his or her business. Understand that this bland definition does not quite give a full understanding of entrepreneurship. When launching any form of entrepreneurial leap, it will create circumstances that can make you better as a person mentally, physically, spiritually. By understanding your passion and visualizing the dreams you possess can push start your drive to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship also requires a massive amount of trust in not only for yourself but your product and employees. At one point of most entrepreneurs life they have gone through the worst imaginable, having resilience most definitely sets them apart from the average. Even though it is extremely difficult to accept tough times, your dream should not go on pause. As an entrepreneur having patience and controlling the situation, especially tough ones is a major key factor on entrepreneurship. Thus being said there are 5 great qualities that describe a successful entrepreneur resilience, agility, Patience, trust, and passion.
The modern society of entrepreneur occasionally surf the Web and use e-mail to save time and knows how to hit the nail to the head of their market with information and uses sales tactics effectively. Entrepreneur’s business mind is excellent. Entrepreneurs are very good when it comes to spotting business opportunities. Some of them are so good they become millionaires in their early 20s.
These theories of enterprise consider that it is the personality / traits of the entrepreneur that defines their actions. The traits most often proposed by various approaches are achievement motivation, risk-taking behaviour and the desire for control. However there are traits such as need for autonomy, determination, initiative, creativity, self-confidence and trust, which have also been observed.
To truly reflect on one’s own teaching, to collect information on what you do in the
Even tough entrepreneurship was not historically considered a viable “career path” in his family, Kevin Popović became intrinsically motivated to start his own company the day his daughter was born. As he reflected during our interview, he could not handle being systematically brought down by his former boss, a characteristic we seem to find in a lot of entrepreneurs. Kevin also had experience in a variety of different industries, but did not know how to combine them all. As soon as he realized he could combine all
In his view, the entrepreneur is a revolutionary innovator that “requires aptitudes that are present only in a small fraction of the population” (Schumpeter, 1946, p.132). These aptitudes include; a strong intellectual capacity, drive and determination, creativity, and leadership skills (Schumpeter, 1934).
According to the first segments on the TSBDC training website, one does not have to have a certain personality in order to be a successful entrepreneur. One does, however, have to obtain certain personality traits, or characteristics, to truly have what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. For example, a person who lacks confidence, is shy and uncomfortable breaking rules or not willing to work as hard to find opportunities will most definitely struggle in entrepreneurship. On the other hand, someone who has perseverance, integrity, drive and willingness for innovation has potential to make it unbelievably far. This is why if someone becomes interested in becoming an entrepreneur, it is a good idea to make sure they have what it takes. Comparing your personality traits to one of entrepreneurs is a great start. The lengthy list of characteristics ranges from competitive, positive, and good money management to confidence, accessibility and reputation. Where it gets tricky, though, is that someone might not have every personality trait listed. For that reason, one might want to ask themselves different questions to ensure their true ability. The main five questions one might want to ask them self are as listed: Are you comfortable breaking rules? Are you going to be able to handle making enemies along the way? Will you be willing to start off small in attempt to work your way to the top? Can you rapidly move and change your strategies? Can you close the deal? (TSBC)
Being an entrepreneur is difficult. Not any one can be a successful entrepreneur, there are some characteristics entrepreneurs must have to face the challenges and to rise again after every failure.
An entrepreneur is a businessperson who not only conceives and organizes ventures but also frequently takes risks in doing so. Not all independent business people are true entrepreneurs, and not all entrepreneurs are created equal. Different degrees or levels of entrepreneurial intensity and drive depend upon how much independence one exhibits, the level of leadership and innovation they demonstrate, how much responsibility they shoulder, and how creative they become in envisioning and executing their business plans. The Five Levels of Entrepreneurial Development Brad Sugars, a world-renowned business author and founder of his own
Previous research on cognitive factors and an individual’s intention to enter entrepreneurship were found to overlook personality traits and take them into account when designing curriculums or training classes on entrepreneurship (Zarafshani and Rajabi 2011). In fact, not much has been done to explore the association between entrepreneurial intentions and personality traits.
This paper examines the myths associated with what it takes to be an entrepreneur, the profiles and the common characteristics among these successful entrepreneurs.
The history of entrepreneurial research falls into three phases, each representing a change in the viewpoint of whether entrepreneurs are born or made (Nielsen et al., 2012). The first phase began between 1960s and 1970s, and is also known as the “optimistic” phase (Nielsen et al., 2012). The understanding during this phase was that entrepreneurs are born with a distinct set of traits, which differentiates them from other non-entrepreneurial individuals (Nielsen et al., 2012). The next phase occurred in the 1980s and it brought about critical changes in the field of entrepreneurial research (Nielsen et al., 2012). During this phase, entrepreneurs were looked at as more than a set of personality traits. This gave rise to more diverse theories, which focused on the interaction of individuals with their environments and made way for the view that
"Entrepreneurs are born by circumstance where there is hunger, where there is despair, where there is desire." (Chye, pg. 1) According to Brown (1999) some people are born entrepreneurs, with or without education they will succeed, whereas no amount of education can provide business success for someone that does not have the entrepreneurial spirit '. (Brown, 1999, pg. 3) Skills and characteristics that entrepreneurs require include: critical thinking, reliance on experience, venture feasibility analysis, venture strategy and evaluation skills, networking, deal-making and harvesting skills. (Brown, 1999, pg. 4)