This course is aimed at providing means to make self-made men/women. There is no blueprint for starting a business (“entrepreneurship”) and becoming a successful entrepreneur, but there are milestones that are typical or common to most entrepreneurial projects and new ventures. In this course, we will discover and deliberate on these milestones and topics, and discuss common practices and how to deal with obstacles, problems, and failures. We will draw on our own experiences as well as the experiences of local entrepreneurs and documented cases. Students will learn about themselves, discover and deal with group dynamics, and will have the opportunity to focus on the stages of the entrepreneurial “process” that they find of most interest.
The course touches on both scholarly literature on entrepreneurship and practical knowhows and how-tos. We will explore what entrepreneurship means as well as what it is about, and we will learn directly from very successful local entrepreneurs and have opportunities to get involved in the creation of new businesses.
The course is not a directed study course, but consists of suggested readings on topics that may be of interest to the student and supplemental readings in self-study. This way, the student has the opportunity to pursue his/her own interests, and attempt to deal with and come to grips with his/her identified weaknesses and/or potential threats in order to best prepare for a life as an entrepreneur. Students are expected to explore the scholarly literature as well as documented cases in addition to the suggested readings, and pursue opportunities to learn from real-life entrepreneurs and business leaders.
The course uses Blackboard; for announcements and your grade scores, please visit bblearn.missouri.edu. This page will contain general information about the course and structure. The syllabus is available here: 4710Syllabus.