Scenario

Wanda comes to you because she is discouraged and needs to talk.Her parents have heard she is thinking of expanding her businessand even possibly taking out a second mortgage on her home to fundthe expansion. They have never been overly supportive of herbusiness, but as long as it seemed like a “hobby,” they didn’t havemuch to say. Recently Wanda’s mother called and expressed strongreservations about Wanda taking such a large step. This made a bigimpression on Wanda. She tells you that she doesn’t want herbusiness to cause a rift in the family. Perhaps she should take herparents’ advice and just forget expanding the business. Moreover,she doesn’t understand why her parents aren’t as excited about theprospects for the business as she is.

For Discussion

1. Using what you know about entrepreneurs, why would Wanda’sparents not see things the way that she does? What positivecharacteristics of entrepreneurs is Wanda exhibiting?
2. Do you know an entrepreneur personally? If so, whatcharacteristics do you see in entrepreneurs that you have topresume Wanda shares? If you don’t know an entrepreneur, then lookto the world of business and use one about whom you can do a littleresearch. Some examples of famous entrepreneurs are Sir RichardBranson (Virgin Wireless, Virgin Galactic), Elon Musk (Tesla),Oprah Winfrey (The “O” Brands). What characteristics do you thinkthese famous entrepreneurs probably share with Wanda?