Week 2 Reading Reflection

In a world in which the amount of self-employers is growing at an extraordinary and fast rate, I think that this fact casts today's society as being full of entrepreneurs. In order to be your own boss, you want to be thinking of new and innovative ways to make your business a success. Some things that stood out for me the most in this chapter was how the entrepreneur is the leader of the economic world today. With gazelles becoming increasingly more popular since the 1990s, entrepreneurs must be all around us and in everyone. I think most people, especially college students, are always thinking about what they want to do after they graduate, or in other words, what job they want to do that already exists. Few people say I want to be a (blank), "blank" being a career title that has never been invented. But without an economy led by people who do think in those terms of creating your own job, there wouldn't be a lot of jobs that exist today, as well as an overwhelming amount of unemployment. As new things are invented, such as cell phones, old careers have become obsolete, such as telephone operators. Such inventions can lead to unemployment, however, there are also plenty of jobs that didn't exist before that now do, such as director of social media. As entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg, have set out to create things, such as Facebook, new jobs have resulted in these business creations, possibly jobs that weren't even intended by these creations.
Something else that surprised me was how the book mentioned small business owners weren't innovative or looking to make a large profit. I think that small business owners could be innovative in they're thinking and wanting and willing to improve on different aspects that are no good in big-businesses. However, I'm not sure if I just misunderstood this part of the chapter, as the author was possibly saying that "small business owners" who are innovative in their business practices and ideas are mislabeled as "small business owners," as they are actually "entrepreneurs."
I was surprised as to how much research has gone into the career of "entrepreneur." Especially with the different schools of thought that exist. After reading the different stands, I really enjoyed the Micro view of entrepreneurship, as I liked how this school looked from within out. I am constantly finding myself dissecting myself or other's characteristics and analyzing how they can use these skills to their advantage, such as in their careers. I really liked the table on page 11, table 1.2, as it showed some examples of characteristics and phrases we commonly hear and what those phrases measure so we can be aware of these skills we posses to utilize them to their fullest potential.
One thing that is confusing to me, that maybe the next chapter will better answer, is how an entrepreneur can be made. Being how organized and prepared the textbook illustrates entrepreneurs, so much so that they can be surprised by the unexpected and are so well rehearsed that they can still conquer the venture, I don't understand how anyone can encompass these traits. Plenty of people are not as quick or smooth as the book made this skill sound. Especially with the short attention spans many Americans now have with today's fast moving society, many people don't have the focus to think so quickly on their feet. I myself get so set on one idea of thinking or solution, that when this idea falls through I am too surprised to immediately think of the next best idea.
Some questions that I would have for the author would be how do entrepreneurs exhibit a normal life with real-life bills and desires without certainty as to where their next paycheck is to come from. I understand that entrepreneurs are risk-takers, but with a family and monthly bills, how can you be a "smart" risk-taker that lives a "normal" life. Also, what classes do entrepreneur majors take with such an open-ended major, do you make a resume or not because you're your own boss? I guess my question(s) really are, how does this infinite career of very broad description play out in the real world. I know in the book it is mentioned that no "gazelle" survives, so is this career not a forever career?
Bedsides the disagreement, or misunderstanding of the author's definitions of "small business" owner versus "entrepreneur," I had little disagreement with what the author said. In fact, I learned a lot. I enjoyed learning how much potential there is in this career, especially being that I always thought of entrepreneurs as inventors, and that they had to be creating something new, not just being innovative in business ideas and organization. Though, it does worry me a little as to how risky this career still seems to me.