Week 2 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise in the reading for me was the statistic about the gazelles. That companies growing at at least 20% sales growth every year is incredible. Most of the other things discussed in the chapter did not surprise me though. I feel as though I understand a broad view of entrepreneurship and that the ideas presented in the chapter supported my ideas. I did not expect entrepreneurship to be such a large part of the economy though. What was confusing to me in the reading was the integrative approach to the entrepreneurial process. If I could ask the author two questions I would ask, "what do you believe are the necessary components that any entrepreneur must have in order to succeed?" and "do you think that any entrepreneur can succeed or does it take the perfect setup of circumstances to be very successful like Bill Gates?" The reason I would ask these questions is because I believe that in order for someone to be successful they must not only have the drive, the intelligence, and the will to make something work they must also have a set of opportunities and circumstances that must be met in order for them to succeed. For example, Bill Gates just happened to attend an all boys boarding school that the mothers of the boys attending raised money and bought a computer for the school. This allowed him to get involved in programming at a young age and started his interest in the skill. He then went on to find any way possible to program. Without his coincidence of being at this boarding school and the group of mothers there to buy the computer he never would've been the entrepreneur he is today.