Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Speech to Montgomery College

I would like to sincerely thank Steve Lang and Elana Lippa for inviting me to speak to you to-day. Topic of my s peech is “Entrepre neurship and Leadership”.

W ha t is E ntre pre neurs hip?

Entrepreneurship is a way of life. It’s a powerful force deep down inside, driving you to achieve your dreams, despite dubious odds and the doubts of others. I’m sure many of you here today have the desire, the drive and the dreams to become entrepreneurs. Dreams give us the strength that carries us through. Indeed, I’ve often thought that perhaps it is not we who carry the dream, but the dream that carries us. I love entrepreneurship. There is nothing like the excitement, glory, fun and sheer thrill of starting something from scratch and watching it grow into a large enterprise of astonishing proportions. If you have the opportunity to be an entrepreneur, grab it. Find passionate and driven people and lead them. Give them all the necessary resources, and then give them some oxygen to breathe. I can’t stress strongly enough how determined you must be, for the road to success is neither short nor easy, as the following statistics so starkly reveal: 1. Only 1 in 6 million high-tech business ideas become an IPO 2. Venture capitalists fund fewer than 1% of the business plans they receive 3. Founding CEOs of high-tech firms typically own less than 4% after an IPO 4. 60% of high-tech companies funded by VCs eventually go bankrupt 5. It takes 3-5 years after their IPO for most high-tech companies to finally succeed1 Clearly, it’s not easy to be a successful technology entrepreneur. Many will fail at some point, and you must learn to overcome heavy doses of frustration, burnout and disappointment along the way.

So W hy Beco me a n E ntre pre ne ur?

For the true entrepreneur, this is a rhetorical question. For the emerging entrepreneur, there are at least three major motivations: The FIRST motivation is a yearning to create...