Week 3 Reading Reflection

In this reading, called the "The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set in Individuals", the thing that surprised me the most is the large amount of time entrepreneurs have to spend in order to keep their company "in shape". They work long hours to achieve their tasks, since they have multiple roles to serve. Thus, they end up with limited time for leisure and important people like family and friends. It is sad when a job becomes the barrier in one's social life. However, a lot of times when entrepreneurs are very passionate about their ventures, they love working with others.Work is something that fulfills them, despite the challenges that come across their career. Something that was difficult for me to realize was the way entrepreneurs decrease their stress levels; they maintain a high enthusiasm about their work by "passing it out" to their colleagues and employees. This creates an external optimism that allows others to believe in the entrepreneur during difficult times. This is something that I usually do and it happens as mentioned above. People trust me better when I show them a deep passion for something. It probably happens subconsciously due to my hidden stress. Another issue mentioned are the types of risks entrepreneurs take. These are grouped into: financial risks, career risks, family and social risks, and psychic risks. Something that was not elaborated by the author is the way the risks are linked to each other. Financial risks can influence family risks. If, for example, someones goes bankrupt he will automatically risk his family's financial state, because the money that will be lost from his business is the same money that supports his family. Financial risk may also influence social risk, because if someone loses money, then their friends may not believe in their capabilities anymore and start underestimating them. In addition to this, psychic risk is supposed to be the greatest risk according to the writer. I, however, don't think this is true, because a combination of these risks can bring substantial grief to an individual and influence their psychological state dramatically. It usually depends on the severeness of the circumstances that they are working in. Finally, it looks like becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy task to complete, since entrepreneurship involves a lot of stress management and competition. Being an owner of a company is a big responsibility in someone's shoulders and one has to make sure everything is operating well in order to take another step towards their success. The only question I would ask the author regarding the above information would be, What would he be willing to sacrifice in return for his company's success?