Introduction
Entrepreneurial development may come from different sources, either from focused studies of entrepreneurship, examples, and case studies, or personal experience. Every successful businessperson has a unique tale of how they got started. This essay will focus on the experiences and skills that are key in my entrepreneurial development and will stress that networking and personal skills are the most important.
Discussion
One of the most important factors in creating a business is networking. Applegate and Carlson (2014a) state that with a substantial number of contacts in the field that a starting businessman is planning to work in, they will be able to identify opportunities much faster (pp. 8-9). This additionally allows for valuable feedback from professionals in that sphere. This can be seen in the cases of Leo Fernandez, Robin Chase, Antje Danielson, and Evan Williams in the course “Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities” by Applegate and Carlson (2014a) (pp. 5-9). Thus, networking is valuable, as it allows a businessman to have connections in the required fields, which allows for more opportunities and information to be found, making this the main focus of my entrepreneurial development.
Personal skills are another experience that is required for a successful venture. As stated by Applegate (2014b), an ability to conduct teamwork, as well as to set concrete goals, and to adapt to the growth of a company are the major skills in this category (p. 24). This conclusion is derived from the case of Jeff Bezos in the Applegate’s (2014b) course “Becoming an Entrepreneurial Leader”, where each of these qualities was put to a test (pp. 5-24). This allows for more adaptability and stability while a company grows, as well as keeping the morale of the staff at high levels (Applegate, 2014b). Thus, solid personal skills are a prerequisite for any successful business, and achieving them is a major goal in my entrepreneurial development.
Conclusion
Both networking and personal skills are a must for any entrepreneur that wants to achieve success. These experiences can be acquired in a variety of different ways. With networking, the easiest way would be to attend networking events, as well as conventions in the desired field of work. With personal skills, however, the best way to achieve them would be to start a small-scale business or another venture that requires the skills listed above. To summarize, both of these experiences can be hard to obtain, but they are invaluable in the field of entrepreneurship.
References
Applegate, L. M., & Carlson, C. (2014). Essential Reading. In L. M. Applegate & C. Carlson (Eds.), Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities (pp 5-9). Harvard Business Publishing.
Applegate, L. M. (2014). Essential Reading. In L. M. Applegate (Ed.), Becoming an Entrepreneurial Leader (pp. 5-24). Harvard Business Publishing.
