What are the connections between the disciplines addressing entrepreneurship at ODU?

I believe the connection between the disciplines is that they are trying to prepare students to have an entrepreneurial view.  They are trying to spark the entrepreneurial spirit in students.  This spirit is a very important key to the local economy and the country’s economy.  Students who become entrepreneurs will hopefully start small businesses.  These small businesses are the backbone of the country’s economy. These small businesses not only create new items or services but also new jobs.  These disciplines are trying to help the students see the importance of this way of thinking.  Even if the students don’t start their own business there will be a willingness to work with start-ups to grow new businesses.

Is entrepreneurship an art or science?

  I believe that entrepreneurship is both or people like to say interdisciplinary.  The science part is the bones of the spirit.  Using data to find your market to target with advertising. The science part which form of business to use based on your cash flow and the protection you want or need.  The parts of science are even interdisciplinary the fact that there is law, accounting, data mining involved.  Another way is that the classes at ODU that help spark entrepreneurship are connected.  The art part in my belief is the forming of the idea for the item or service you want to make or provide.  The person or persons look at a problem and try to solve or provide a fix for that problem.  The fact that the people involved have empathy for the people who suffer from the problem they are working on. 

How is failure good? 

Failure can be good in the entrepreneurial case because it can help the product or service grow.  By grow I mean that failures lead to data or information which the entrepreneur can learn from.  The failure of the product or service will give the people a learning experience.  It failed because may be too costly, so a price adjustment is needed.  The service failed because it was too narrowly focused, therefore the service needs to widen its scope.  Failure is good as a learning tool for future ideas or services.  The fact that this idea or service did not workout long term, but the information is there for the taking to better prepare the entrepreneur for future businesses.

What have I learned from failing?

  This is where I again do not have a lot of practical experience.  The one failure I learned from is my first degree.  The degree was useless. It gave me nothing because I did not want to follow a path that the degree usually opens.  I did not want to go to law school after 5 and half years to finish the degree.  The only job offer it opened up for me was not an option so wasted years of my life.  This led me to tell everyone who will listen to make sure the degree is job specific like engineering, cybersecurity, or medical.  Liberal arts is a fallacy and a total waste. 

What ethical issues might arise related to what I am working on?

I honestly don’t know what ethical issues might arise from the group project.  I think one might be since we are helping people, the fact that what we tell them should be correct, but we are not perfect.  This might cause ethical issues with how we handle mistakes.  The cost of any mistakes might lead to workers or the business to change service agreements.  The fact is that depending on the insurance coverage we might have to watch what we help with and what we can say.  We may have to cut off people who are not listening or having too much trouble with directions, because they might be taking too much time with the service personnel.  This I feel might be unethical because the person is paying for the service, but at some point if the person cannot take the directions well enough, we may have to just let them go.