My Entrepreneurship Story

Back in freshman year of college, my roommate and I had serious entrepreneurial aspirations. We recognized that first-year students, particularly those from out of state, often had a hard time acclimating to the different nuances that college offered. Of these nuances, included the social pressure of meeting new people and developing friendships. While many students alleviate this concern by joining Greek Life, we recognized that not everyone may be interested in joining such a culture nor have the monetary means to do so. Thus, my roommate and I hoped to create an app that would allow for connectivity amongst students on a college campus based on mutual interests and aspirations. During weekends, we frequently found ourselves in Marston Library, where we would be sketching the interface of the app on paper and ironing out different details. When attempting to further develop the idea, however, we realized that the "need" that we were addressing was never adequate enough to begin with. We had sold ourselves on an idea and continued to pursue it without taking the time to analyze it with a critical eye. That freshman year experience served as a valuable lesson to both my roommate and I. We realized that entrepreneurial efforts will not succeed if a sufficient need is not being addressed. We were rather naive and confused at the time, fueled by romanticized college success stories like Bill Gates and Evan Spiegel.

Despite that whole experience, I still maintain entrepreneurial aspirations today. I still want to devise an innovative plan and pursue my own business idea. But, before doing so, I want to have a deeper understanding of what the process of entrepreneurship truly entails. This is the very reason why I have enrolled in ENT 3003. By learning the different facets of entrepreneurship and what it really means to be an entrepreneur, I would be able to apply that knowledge to any of my future endeavors. Funny enough, my roommate is also currently enrolled in this course---with the same intentions and question in mind: what is entrepreneurship?