Business student needs help with essay

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Donna

Guest
hello all, i'm a bussiness student and need to do an essay, the title being "are entrepreneurs born or made?" debate.... the only problem being that i cant find one that i like, and one being related to the tourism industry (not being gillian bowler, its tooo obvious)!!!
could anybody help me please????????
 
Re: entrepreneurs!!!!!!!

Doesn't seem very entrepreneurial to solicit the name of your subject from a bulletin board. What has liking your subject got to do with the essay? Why not Mick O'Leary?
 
Re: entrepreneurs!!!!!!!

ClubMan said:
Doesn't seem very entrepreneurial to solicit the name of your subject from a bulletin board. What has liking your subject got to do with the essay? Why not Mick O'Leary?
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Can you not just make some suggestions or not post if you have no suggestions. It's as if you dont want people to post on the board at all by questioning why they are posting. Its not a trick question, the person is just looking for some suggestions! :rolleyes:
 
If you read my post carefully you will see that I did indeed make a suggestion. I am also at a loss as to why "liking" the subject is important and would be interested in an explanation.
 
Re: entrepreneurs!!!!!!!

Oh you did, sorry. But the tone of "doesn't seem very entrepreneurial to solicit...." - I just find that a needless and irrelevant comment. Comments and replies should be about the question at hand, not the person posting.
 
Clubman,

The poster asked a question seeking an answer, not for his question to be questioned, which you seem to do on a regular basis.
Johno
 
Please take discussion of contributors' tones to a separate thread to avoid taking other threads off topic. Or better still just ignore stuff that annoys you.
 
Re: entrepreneurs!!!!!!!

SteelBlue05 said:
Comments and replies should be about the question at hand, not the person posting.
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Indeed.

A couple of suggestions:

  • The guy who founded Aircoach
  • Paddywagon Tours
  • The guy in charge of Aer Arainn
 
Do they have to be Irish? What about that Stelios guy? Or actually did he come from a fairly wealthy background?
 
What about Richard Branson (some connection via his airline with tourism) or my personal favourite Anita Roddick (Bodyshop), not really tourism. Good luck
 
Donna

Does the essay have to be about just one person? - If I were presenting an essay / argument on the subject of entrepreneurs I would use examples from different people to support my point and no just the life / career of one.

Suggestions - Brian McCarthy founder of FEXCO - started off as a single Bureau de Change in the front room of his house in Kerry during the bank strike in the '70's

How about a local farmer who turned part of a field into a caravan park - entrepreneurs aren't all millionaires - a lot of them struggle just like everyone else


Don't forget to look at the element of luck as well - many successful entrepreneurs will say that their big break came from being in the right place at the right time!
 
Hi there Donna. Here's a thought. Ernst & Young, Accountants, run a competition every year to find the Irish Entrepreneur of the Year. The final was on RTE1 recently and the winner was Aidan Heavy who owns Tullow Oil. The runner up was a photographer in Kerry. A special award was made to John O'Se of GOAL in recognition of the contribution he has made in the field of social entrepreneurship over thirty years. The candidates appeared to be very modest and approachable while impressive in their achievements.

Maybe if you contacted E&Y they would give you a list of the selected candidates and you could contact some of then. Since it was in the public domain I think that would be quite ethical. I wouldn't imagine you could base your essay on the motivation of just one successful entrepreneur but maybe I'm wrong about that.
 
Donna

I agree with Ophelia. If I were doing the essay, i would choose Richard Branson. You could argure both sides i.e. born or made. Most people assume that RB is a self made millionaire, started from the bottom, traded from a barrow in the East End etc. He may have started from the bottom, but with the benefit of a wealthy background and the best education that money can buy. He would be ideal if the essay required the usual oxbridge style of writing i.e. selecting three arguments for the thesis in descending order of importance, and also three arguments against the thesis, again in descending order. You also get to slot in RB's quip that the best way to become a millionnaire, is to start as a billionnaire and buy an airline.

Regards

SM
 
Square Mile said:
You also get to slot in RB's quip that the best way to become a millionnaire, is to start as a billionnaire and buy an airline.
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Great quote, but he has infact made a decent profit on his aviation businesses (losses at Virgin Express and Virgin Ballons have been outweighted by strong profits at Virgin Atlantic... and he's got the space market cornered with [broken link removed] ;))

Other tourism/travel suggestions:

  • Pat Byrne - founder of CityJet; Irish airline, recently published autobiography.
  • Conrad Hilton - founder of Hilton Hotels, father was a Norwegian Immigrant, entirely self made millionaire - died in 1979 at age 91
  • Herb Kelleher - co-founder of Southwest Airlines, Micael O' Leary personality
  • Sheldon Adelson - 71 year old Jew, helped build modern Las Vegas, humble background - extensive article about his life in last weeks issue of Fortune magzine.
  • Sam Boyd - another Las Vegas casino owner, arrived with only $80 and worked his way up to become a millionaire.
  • Tony Ryan - Irish, founder of Ryanair and Gunniess Peat aviation.
  • Barbara Cassani - women behind Go Fly,went to Princeton

Non travel:


Oh and heres a short article worth reading - Wikipedia - Are Entrepreneurs born or made?
 
My choice is Niklas Zennstrom for being brilliant twice: Founder of Kazaa file sharing and Skype VOIP.

Lachlan Murdoch? Daddy was already rich.

Tony Ryan started as a porter in Aer Lingus aged 14 so he's a bit more valid.

Not sure I'd pick anyone from Las Vegas. Didn't one of them get bumped off by the Corleones?

And please stay away from Denis O'Brien.
 
Donna - you could write the essay based on CGorman's link to Wikipedia and then just give examples from the growing list being posted on AAM.;) Is an entrepreneur less one because he/she started out in life with material advantages or education etc? It might help but I wouldn't think that's a crucial factor.

Neither Bill Cullen, [broken link removed] nor the guy who owns the Point and a lot of Dublin's dockland (?) Crosby, had any obvious advantages at birth. I think myself it's down to personality and being a visionary, not to mention boredom with routine plus an awful lot of hard work. It's as well they're few and far between, otherwise we'd have no one to run our institutions!
 
:eek: Dear Club Man,was Donnas first and only post after joining a.a.m on the 18th.Please be gentle in future.After all you are an administrator up there at 9,998! .........what aboutTrump?
 
Just to point out that I think the OP needs to write about entrepreneurs using the example of someone in the tourism industry.
 
thanks for all the help, really apppreciate it! as for liking hte subject, i think that it would be more anjoyable if i actually liked the subject i am doing it on! and for the record, i dont think that michael o leary is actually classed as an entrepreneur!
 
Donna said:
i dont think that michael o leary is actually classed as an entrepreneur!
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Why not? Just because he joined an existing company, shook it up and made it a market leader? You seem to be taking a narrow view of what an entrepreneur is. Maybe you could clarify?
 
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