Discussion on Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship
The local entrepreneur that I have chosen to conduct an interview with is my neighbor Mr. John Pete. I chose him because I know that he would be the best person to help me to develop some insights into the rewards and challenges of entrepreneurship.
Mr. Pete is a serial entrepreneur who is running multiple businesses in different niches. He was born in Las Vegas, NV, and lived there until he attended college in San Diego, California. He did not consider himself a very good student, and knew after his first year in an engineering program that college wasn’t for him. He just had to find something else to do. So, after talking to a few of his friends he changed directions, which is the primary reason Mr. Pete became an entrepreneur. His circle of friend inspired him into entrepreneurship because they were themselves entrepreneurs. Pete believes that one can measure success by the number of failures one experiences, and it is through failure that one learns.
He considers himself a go getter, who sees an entrepreneurial opportunity and grabs it without apologies. When asked what makes him different from those around him, he stated that, “He believes in taking action even though that action produces negative results.” In other words, he believes that without taking risks, one cannot realize progress or lack thereof in any entrepreneurial endeavor.
When Mr. Pete entered the world of technology in 1985 in he was green. All he knew was that there was money to be made in building and selling mobile applications but did “not have the expertise” (In Little, In Go & In Poon, 2017) to make this succeed. However, he realized that he can leverage of the expertise of professional programmers who would build the apps and he would launch them to the market.
His successes have not been without facing several failures. For instance, he did not break-even from his first technology that he launched partly because he had not researched the market well and partly due to technical hitches because the program had many bugs when first launched. So, I asked him, “How did failure make him feel? He simply stated, “I just have to find my niche, which in turn lead me to down a few different paths”. Venturing down different paths prove to be the right move, because it led him to start several companies. Starting several businesses is the reason he is referred to as a serial entrepreneur. He started an application that helped his customers collect and grow leads, a company offering auto-responder services to customers, and a company that provides a platform for selling and buying solo ads.
I must say that he is a very successful entrepreneur safe for his first business that flopped. It appears he learnt from his mistakes and developed a winning strategy that has helped him launch and grow successful companies.
One take away from this interview regarding entrepreneurship is that persistent is the key. As much as there will be failures, one should study the failure and apply those lessons until he or she succeeds.
References
J. Pete, personal communication, January 18, 2018.
In Little, S. E., In Go, F. M., & In Poon, T. S.-C. (2017). Global innovation and entrepreneurship: Challenges and experiences from East and West.
