Essentials of Entrepreneurship: A Practical Approach

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What is an Entrepreneur and What Is Entrepreneurship?

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Individuals who create companies are called entrepreneurs.  These people decide to start a business and are either successful or unsuccessful.  The Webster dictionary defines an entrepreneur as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”  Individuals who decide to become entrepreneurs believe that their best career opportunity is starting, managing, and owning all or part of a company rather than working for others.

There are other definitions of entrepreneurship.  For example, a leading textbook defines entrepreneurship as “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled¹.”  A practicing entrepreneur who has thought a great deal about the subject, Bob Reiss, has expanded this definition to include the recognition of the opportunity and includes certain characteristics of entrepreneurs.  His definition of entrepreneurship expands the definition above and is “the recognition and pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources you currently control, with confidence that you can succeed, with the flexibility to change course as necessary, and the will to rebound from setbacks.”²  The latter definition will be used in this book and an entrepreneur will be considered a person who pursues entrepreneurship.  It is equally applicable to intrapreneurs who are entrepreneurs operating in a larger corporate context.

Next Section: Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
 

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