Week Three Reading Reflection

I was not expecting the term Entrepreneurial Stress to come up in the reading; in fact I wasn’t expecting the word stress to come up at all. In my mind, when I think of successful entrepreneurs, I think about the profit, fame and more materialistic items they have gained over their careers. I do not think about the psychological tolls and risks they went under to achieve that success. Reading about back problems, indigestion, insomnia, and headaches really made me step back and think about what every entrepreneur has to go through.

One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the differences between the Entrepreneurial Ethics, Ethical Dilemmas, and Ethical Codes of Conduct. It is confusing to me that Entrepreneurial Ethics and Ethical Dilemmas are two separate categories but they both involve similar rules and parameters for “acceptable behavior”.

I would ask the author if there is a relationship between the amounts of stress an entrepreneur has and whether he/she is in charge of ethics in the company. This would be interesting to see if the entrepreneurs who are in charge of ethics have to overcome more stress in their lives, or whether there would be less stress as a result of control. The second question I would ask the author would be what he thinks drives entrepreneurs to achieve success. In the textbook it says that the current generation is the biggest entrepreneurial generation since the industrial revolution and I would ask him why he thinks this is.

I did not find anything in this chapter that the author was wrong about. However, I think that a good environment should be added to the list of entrepreneurial characteristics. A good environment in the sense of loved ones supporting you along the entrepreneurial path, friends that keep you on track instead of veering you off course, and motivated associates. Supportive family, good friends, and professional associates can all be added to the list of entrepreneurial characteristics.