ENT 350 Three Entrepreneurs Compare and Contrast

Compare & Contrast Three Entrepreneurs

A few characteristics of an entrepreneur include courage, determination, social responsibility, and to be a risk taker. After reviewing the three videos required for our ENT 301 assignment, I believe that Jim Garland, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson could classify as some of the worlds leading entrepreneurs. Although they hold different positions in companies and have achieved different levels of success, some of these characteristics can be seen in each of their lives. To understand the comparison and contrast between each of these entrepreneurs, they must be examined individually.

Jim Garland can be considered a wonderful role model for most entrepreneurs. The story of his business start-up, the aviation and boat cleaning service, portrays what many consider to be “the American Dream;” building a business from the ground up and making it successful. Some similarities that Jim Garland shares with Elon Musk and Richard Branson include they all started out as entrepreneurs from a very young age. Another similarity that Jim Garland shares Musk and Branson is he is a huge risk taker. During his video, he discusses how new regulation and the economy has greatly affected his business, however, he has not made any cuts to insurance for his employees and has tried to expand, despite a difficult a economy. I would say one thing that separates Jim Garland from Branson and Musk is his desire to invest back in his employees and to provide them with the same opportunity he has experienced.

While Jim Garland is an excellent example of entrepreneurial characteristics, Elon Musk is an entrepreneur unlike most in the world. As I have previously stated, a common area among all three entrepreneurs discussed in the videos is that they all started out as young entrepreneurs. Musk created Zip2 and sold the software for 22 million dollars at age 28. In addition, another characteristic of an entrepreneur that all three have in common is their determination to take on risks. For example, Musk invested every last cent he had into his company Tesla in order to receive a 70 million dollar contract for smart car batteries. While he shares common characteristics with Garland and Branson, I believe that what defines Musk as an entrepreneur is his desire to forever revolutionize industries, including the online financial industry and the worlds dependence on fossil fuels. In addition, I think another entrepreneurial characteristic that defines Musk is that he is highly intelligent, thus allowing him to be deeply involved in product engineering and architecture, particularly SpaceX products.

In addition to Garland and Musk, Branson also shares several characteristics of what defines an entrepreneur. For example, some of Branson’s closest friends have said, “He was wired to be a business man from day one.” Much like Garland and Musk, Branson got his start early as an entrepreneur selling Christmas trees at age 13. In addition, Branson, like Garland and Musk, has had to overcome challenges, such as dyslexia, tax evasion charges, and has had to perform dangerous stunts to market his company Virgin. One major difference between Branson and the other entrepreneurs viewed is that he isn’t impressed by wealth when creating his ventures. For every venture he has created, he’s been more interested in how much fun and exciting his experience creating these businesses has been. Although he’s driven by money, he’s not impressed by wealth.