individual assignment [7-10]

7/30/2019 Individual Assignment [7-10]

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1.1 Entrepreneur

The concept of an entrepreneur is further refined when principles and terms from a business,

managerial, and personal perspective are considered. In particular, the concept of entrepreneurship

from a personal perspective has been thoroughly explored in this century. Third exploration is

reflected in the following three definitions of an entrepreneur:

In almost all of the definitions of entrepreneurship, there is agreement that we are talking

about a kind of behavior that includes: (1) initiative taking, (2) the organizing and

reorganizing of social and economic mechanisms to turn resources and situations to practical

account, (3) the acceptance of risk or failure.

To an economist, an entrepreneur is one who brings resources, labor, materials, and other

assets into combinations that make their value greater than before, and also one who

introduces changes, innovations, and a new order. To a psychologist, such a person is

typically driven by certain forces the needs to obtain or attain something, to experiment, to

accomplish, or perhaps to escape the authority of others. To one businessman, an entrepreneur

appears as a threat, an aggressive competitor, whereas to another businessman the same

entrepreneur may be an ally, a source of supply, a customer, or someone who creates wealth

for others, as well as finds better ways to utilize resources, reduce waste, and produce jobs

others are glad to get.

Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. The wealth is created

by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time and/or career commitment or

provide value for some product or service. The product or service may or may not be new or

unique, but value must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by receiving and locating the

necessary skills and resources.

Although each of these definitions views entrepreneurs from a slightly different perspective, they all

contain similar notions, such as newness, organizing, creating, wealth, and risk taking. Yet each

definition is somewhat restrictive, since entrepreneurs are found in all professions- education,

medicine, research, law, architecture, engineering, social work, distribution and government.

Entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the

necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic, and social risks,

and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction and independence.

For the person who actually starts his or her own business, the experience is filled with enthusiasm,

frustration, anxiety, and hard work. There is a high failure rate due to such things as poor sales,


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intense competition, lack of capital, or lack of managerial ability. The financial and emotional risk

can also be very high. What, then, causes a person to make this difficult decision? The question

can be best explored by looking at the decision process involved in becoming an entrepreneur.

1.2 What makes an entrepreneur successful

While entrepreneurs have in common certain characteristics and skills, there is a wide range of

individuality among them. In sports, some athletes do well because they love a sport and are trained

to play it. They have developed their skills. Others are full of natural talent and require much less

special training. Still others simply find their own successful approach to playing a sport even though

they may not have been trained.

While there is no recipe for becoming a successful entrepreneur, certain characteristics are

associated with entrepreneurial success. Here are several important ones.

Passion:According to research, one of the most important qualities associated with successful

entrepreneurship is passion. When people feel committed to what they are doing and when they

care deeply about it, they stand the best chance of being successful at it. The heart must become an

ally of the mind. Think about this popular business saying:

If your mind can conceive it,

and your heart can believe it,

then you can achieve it!

Entrepreneurs typically care more about what they are doing than how much money they might

make. They must earn an income, of course, or they cannot continue to be entrepreneurs; however,

the amount they earn often is secondary to achieving their goals.

Posit iv e mental att i tude:This is arguably the most important of all the characteristics. You will

never be a successful entrepreneur without a positive attitude. The one thing you can be sure of is

that you will experience difficult times. Your success or failure will be determined at these times. If

you maintain your confidence, persevere and continue to stay positive, you will be successful.Conversely, if you allow doubt and uncertainty to prevail, you will probably fail.

Enjoy being around p eople:Being a successful entrepreneur means you will continuously interact

with a diverse array of people such as customers, potential customers, colleagues, competitors,

suppliers, lawyers, accountants and coaches. It really helps if you enjoy being around these people.

Excel lent comm unicat ion ski l ls :Communication can be defined as the accurate exchange of

information between two or more parties. This is important because you will have many

conversations. You need to be able to accurately exchange information in a fast-moving world using


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a variety of communication methods (e.g., interpersonal, electronic). Of particular importance is the

ability to listen and truly understand where another person is coming from.

Have a need to achieve: Successful entrepreneurs are achievement-oriented. They value

accomplishment and the intrinsic rewards that go along with achieving difficult goals. It is a strong

motivator for most business owners.

Resourcefu l :Most new businesses have limited resources such as money, information

and time. Successful entrepreneurs figure out how to get the most out of these resources. They are

masters at stretching a dollar and making a few resources go a long way.

Objective:It is not easy to be objective about your business because you are passionate about

making it successful. However, you do need to be impartial and dispassionate when it comes to

making business decisions because emotion, bias and sentiment can result in poor choices.

Commit ted:Building a successful business requires an absolute commitment. It takes a lot of work

and there will be times when you become discouraged. It is during these times that you must be

steadfast, faithful and committed to your vision.

Dependable:This should go without saying but I will say it anyway. There is a strong positive

relationship between your perceived level of reliability and the success of your business. No matter

what type of business you have, your customers expect you to be dependable.

Proactive and not reactive: Successful entrepreneurs anticipate problems in advance and deal

with them before they occur. If you simply react to problems and issues as they arise, you may get

overwhelmed.


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2.1 Michael Furdyk

Co-founder of Talking ITGlobal, BuyBuddy.com

28 years old

Net worth 25 million

Some people are just successful at one business and they stick to it but for this Successful Young

Entrepreneur, hes own is not once, not twice but three different times, I think it is Wonderful and he

opened the first two before graduating from High School. He became millionaire at the young age of

17years old.

Michael Furdyk co-founded MyDesktop.com with Michael Hayman in 1997, a help site that help on

windows problem and information on games and some other topics, the site became very successful

in a short while drawing over a million hits per month. Two years after, the site (MyDesktop.com) was

sold to Internet.com for $1million in May 1999 and later, Michael furdyk founded BuyBuddy.com

which is a shopping assistant site, it raised $4.5million of venture capital.

He also co-founded TalkingITGlobal.com (TIG) with Jennifer Corriero which was officially launched in

2000. The Idea sprung from their deep desire to share their leadership and business experience with

fellow youth around the world, because they realized that some young people may not have the

support of family, friends, schools for their ideas and ambition like they did.

Furdyk serve as the Director of Technology while Jennifer is the Executive Director for

TalkingITGlobal.com. The site is a global online community for young people. It runs on 11 servers

having over 250,000 active members from about 261 countries across the world, and over two

million hits per day.


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Their Mission is to provide opportunities for learning, capacity-building, cross-cultural awareness,

and self-development through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. To me, their

site helps a lot in decision-making, it helps to inspire fellow youth to take charge. They are bridging

the gap between learning and action

The site is Unique in that it is a Social Community Site that helps to Motivate Young People achieve

their DreamsWell the site continue to grow with their passion to make positive changes in the

worldwide. Michael is involved with the TIGed education program, and has spoken to over 50,000

educators about the importance of engaging students and integrating technology and global

perspectives into the classroom

He was named as one of 10 Tech Revolutionaries Redefining the Power and Face of Philanthropy

by Contribute Magazine (2007), Honorary Top 20 Under 20 Award (2006), CANARIE IWAY Award

for Community Service (2003), Teen Peoples 20 Teens That Will Change the World (2001), Hilton

Distinguished Entrepreneur Award (2001), Selected as one of Converge Magazines Shapers of Our

Future (2000)

He has made numerous media appearances including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Time Magazine,

Fast Company, BusinessWeek, CNN, MSNBC, and USA Today. He is a board member and advisor

to numerous groups including Microsoft, Pollution Probe, and the Anytime, Anywhere Learning

Foundation, and several other national and global organizations.


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2.2 Yoshikazu Tanaka

32years old

Website Gee.jp

Net Worth $1.6 billion

Yoshikazu Tanaka holds the title as the youngest billionaire in Asia, the worlds second-youngest

self-made billionaire after 26 year old Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg. Ranked as the 18th richest

person in Japan, Tanaka assets reached 1.6 billion worth of U.S. dollars after the site became

popular and the stock price soared high. Almost twice as compared with 850 million U.S. dollars that

he had years ago in 2009.

Tanaka acquired his wealth after Gree, a social networking site that became popular and his stock

price soared.

He started Gree.jp a social networking site as a Hobby, while still working on Rakuten, Shopping

sites owned by Hiroshi Mikitani, the sixth richest man in Japan. He left in 2004 to face his social

networking site (Gree.jp) of which he owns 51%. Named his conference rooms Sunnyvale and

Mountain View, after the locations of Yahoos and Googles headquarters. The name of the site was

inspired by American social psychologist Stanley Milgrams concept of six degrees of separation.

The site which now has 15 million users (up from 8 million last year) was transformed into mobile

gaming to better compete against rivals. Gree.jp was listed in December. Users can change the


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game avatars and accessories by purchasing clothes and accessories for it. Which cost $2. 80% of

the sites income is earned from the sale of this virtual item. With the selling of virtual goods Gree.jp

is able to earn more than its local competitor.

Tanaka forges alliances with internet service providers, telecom companies e.g KDDI owns 7 % of

the site and allow users to access Grees website from the home page of KDDIs mobile phones.

90% of Gree subscribers play games on their mobile phones Gree.jp is Japans second most popular

social networking site. Tanaka is the only self-made billionaire in Asia who is under 35.

2.3 Tyler Dikman

Age 25 years old

Originally from Tampa, Florida

president and CEO of CoolTronics.com


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Tyler Dikman started his company at the age of 15 (January 2000 ). Cooltronics a site that sells,

delivers and sets up computers. Tylers father Bob Dikman is a real estate agent and his mother a

homemaker Jane Hardin. Tyler Dikman started his success story in business at the age of 5 while

making $20/hr through a lemonade stands to lawn mowing then babysitting, by the age of 10 our

young entrepreneur was charging $25 for 30-minute birthday party magic shows

He got his first computer from his Dad at the age of 10 which was an old Gateway, and as a young

boy he got interested in how the works, he took it apart studied it in and out, form there he started

developing interest in computer, by eight grade teachers were requesting for Tyler to fix their

computers. Tyler realized he could earn from it, at first $15 an hour. He latter got a babysitting job for

Malcolm Taaffe, then the vice president at Merrill Lynch which led to a nonpaying, summer

internship.

After two weeks, 14-year-old Tyler was on the payroll. Tyler took charge of computer acquisition,

setup, training and troubleshooting. By January 2000 our young successful entrepreneur in the

middle of his 10th grade started CoolTronics at the age of fifteen He said It started as a hobby and

fun thing that turned into a whole lot more,

Long hours are all part of the necessary process, but you only live once, and I know that Ill only be

successful if I seize the opportunities presented to me.

His parent help out by adding a room to the house made it up to his mom by paying his employees

to walk the dog and water the plants and mow the lawn and also clean his room. His employees then

were his friends which he was paying more than mini jobs that were around then. By the time he

reached 17years old, he has crossed a million dollars in sales for his business. Businessweek has

named Tyler as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under the age of 25. Currently Tylers company is

doing millions of sales per year.

In December, 2006 Tyler Dikman with cofounders Max Crane, David McIntosh, and Darian Shirazi

started a social networking company -Redux. The company raised $1.65 million in venture funding

for their FlickIM software, an application that allows their users to aggregate chat accounts and

watch TV and listen to music within the same window. FlickIM, which competes with Meebo, uses a

collaborative filter and proprietary technology.


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2.4 Catherine cook

Born in 1989

Website MyYearbook.com

Worth Over $10 Million

She is a young successful entrepreneur, 21 years old the founder of MyYearbook.com with her

brother David Cook 22. They came up with the Idea, six years ago when Catherine and David were

flicking through their yearbook during their freshmen year, they saw the picture of a girl in David

class that he liked and he was trying to show Catherine who she was, once they finally get to the

picture, he realized that the picture did not resemble the girl. Realizing that the yearbook photo was

a year old, they were able to come up with the idea of an online yearbook which will allow people to

update their own pictures.

They merged with Zenhex.com a quiz site which is ad-supported where users post their home made

quiz. But problems arise when potential investors wanted to move the companys headquarters to

New York but the Cooks wanted to stay and so on.

They came up with MyYearBook.com after telling their older brother (Geof Cook a serial

entrepreneur who sold hes first two sites Essayedge.com and Resumeedge.com for almost $10

million) about their idea, He saw the big picture of the idea and helped his younger siblings with it.

He offered $250,000 to get the project off ground, they got a webserver to host it and programming

team in Mumbai, India to turn it into a website for less than $25,000. Thus myYearbook.com was

born. .and it was marketing all the way firstly by wearing a T-shirts bearing the name of their site to

school then they started offering users a free T-shirt for every five person they introduced and within


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nine months they have nothing less than 950,000 members. Also in 2006 they signed a contract with

CliffsNotes to begin providing study guide aids free for all members.

Now they claim that the site have over 16 million members and their site coming third best social-

networking site after Facebook and Myspace

I can imagine them coming up into a market that is already saturated with over hundreds social-

networking site but yet they still believe in the possibility of their dream and they carry on with their

idea, at the same time combining full time education with running full time business, we all know

cant be an easy task but they were ready to dare and take the risk.

2.5 Adam Hildreth

Date of birth 25 March 1985 (age25)

Net worth 25 million (US$50 million)

Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

CEO (Crisp thinking)


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Adam Hildreth was born in West Yorkshire and attended a number of schools because of his fathers

job took him around the country and was forced to leave Nottinghamshire because of his bad

reputation as a troublemaker with an attitude. Though his life got a boost when he join Harrogate

school where he was introduced to Young Enterprise, a business and enterprise charity that

encourages young people to start their own business.

Adam Hildreth started his first company when he was 14 years old, in the year 1999 Dubit limited

(Dubitllimited.com) with 7 friends, making the Guinness Book of Records for being the youngest

group of directors in the U.K.

Dubit Limited launched an online payment card for teenagers and consulted on marketing to the

teenage market. The website was a hit and he has is time to pay for it to the extent of leaving

classroom to answer phone calls sometimes frustrating his teachers.

He left school at age of 16 to face Dubit limited full time. Dubit limited is one of the biggest Teenage

website in UK, which now markets itself as a Youth Marketing Agency, advising major brands on

how to market their products to young people.

In almost four years he led Dubit, as the managing director to become the most visited teen Website

in the UK.

By the year 2005 Adam Hildreth establish another business which he called Crisp Thinking an anti-

grooming software which develops online child protection technology, claims the product is effective

in identifying adults online with a sexual motivation.. The company claims to work closely with both

Internet Service Providers and child protection organizations to develop solutions that protect

children and teenagers from online grooming.

Crisp Thinking has been judged to be 98.4% effective, according to a recent University of Cambridge

study. He got the idea of crisp thinking while still at Dubit when they realize that adult male

groomers are trying to lure the young people online to either meet with them or take part in

pornography.

We have 99.9% spam protection and virus protection, but no one was doing anything to stop online

child abuse. I understand how groomers work, and the tactics they use, so I sat down with experts to

develop AGEand Crisp was born.

In 2003 Adam won an Achievement in Information Technology at the Yorkshire Young Achievers

Awards

In 2004, the British Broadcasting Corp. named Hildreth, then 19, one of the U.K.s 20 richest teens,

with an estimated net worth of 2 million pounds, or approximately $3.7 million.


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3. Conclusion

After all the research on young entrepreneurs, I can conclude that the main factor among all these

successful entrepreneurs was the willingness or ability to take risk. All of them gave their time and

effort behind it. Majority of them started small and worked their way up to be big and successful

entrepreneur.

individual assignment [7-10]

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