Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
—Mark Twain
Entrepreneurs are men and women who search for and exploit new business opportunities. Because such opportunities are untried, entrepreneurs must take risks. Successful entrepreneurs direct resources into ventures that turn out to satisfy consumers, generating benefits that exceed costs.
The Development of Entrepreneurship Theory:
- Richard Cantillon (early 1700): Coins term entrepreneur (“go-between” or “between taker”)
- Late 1700: Entrepreneur bears risks and plans, supervises, organizes, and owns factors of production
- Jean Baptiste Say (early 1800): Proposed that profits from entrepreneurship were separate from profits of capital ownership
- Late 1800: Distinction made between those who supplied funds and earned interest and those who profited from managerial abilities
- Joseph Schumpeter (1934): Described the entrepreneur as someone who is an innovator and someone who “creatively destructs”
- Peter Drucker (1964): Described the entrepreneur as someone who maximizes opportunity
