UNIT II.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: MYTHS-MINDSET MANDATE

Overview
Roughly one in every 18 people worldwide owns his or her own business. Some launch
a company to pursue opportunity, while others — including many entrepreneurs in
developing countries — do so out of sheer necessity, because it’s the most promising
way to earn a living in their region. Whatever their location or motivation, every would-
be entrepreneur can benefit from learning what the role really entails.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this unit, I am able to:
1. identify myths and misconceptions that surround entrepreneurship;
2. identify the skills of a nursing entrepreneurship;
3. evaluate the scope of practice of nursing entrepreneur;
4. identify projects of Department of Labor and Employment for Entrepre-Nurse; and
5. apply ethics for entrepreneurs.

Most Common Entrepreneurship Myths

The following list provides some of the most common assumptions about entrepreneurs
and explains why they’re wrong.
1. Entrepreneurs are born that way. Many people assume that entrepreneurs are
born that way — and that only people who have certain natural talents can be
entrepreneurs. However, the truth is that almost anyone can become an entrepreneur if
they can learn the necessary skills. True, some people may adjust to the demands of
the role more quickly, but there’s no rule that says only certain types of people can
found companies. Entrepreneurs may be gregarious extroverts or quiet introverts; they
may be “big picture” thinkers or more focused on the details of executing an idea.
Entrepreneurism is a learned skill, not a natural-born ability.
2. The only requirement is a good idea. Many people also believe that all it takes
to live the American dream is to have that one fantastic idea for a company. While the
notion isn’t entirely false, it is misleading. Even the very best ideas — ones with the
potential to disrupt an entire industry — need proper execution to become reality. Ideas
are important, but so are planning, talent, leadership, communication, and a host of
other factors.
3. Starting a new business guarantees freedom. The appeal of breaking out of
the traditional, 40-hour work week draws many to the prospect of starting their own
business. What lots of people find is that while they leave behind their old schedule and
creative limitations, they exchange them for new demands. Sure, there will be more
freedom in some respects, but entrepreneurism often requires great sacrifices. It can
consume every part of your waking life; the work doesn’t end when the clock strikes 5
p.m.
4. Launching a company quickly leads to wealth. Some entrepreneurs
mistakenly believe that starting a business will put them on the fast track to earning
substantial amounts of money — fast. Although some companies are immediately
successful, others take a little more time to get there. Properly timing the expansion of
the company and sustaining growth are two of the entrepreneur’s biggest tasks.
5. Only money motivates employees. A myth related to the “get rich quick” idea is
the assumption that money is the best way to motivate employees. Recent statistics
have shown that Millennials, who are quickly becoming the majority in the workplace,
would rather earn less at a job they enjoy than secure a higher wage doing something
they hate. Overcoming this misconception puts a heavy obligation on the entrepreneur
to develop not only a business model that generates revenue, but also a company
culture that engages employees.
6. Businesses either flourish or fail. Because the select few startups that
skyrocket out of the gate receive the bulk of the press, it’s easy to adopt an all-or-
nothing outlook on entrepreneurism. The overall high failure rate for new businesses
may seem to confirm this idea. However, entrepreneurs need to understand that there’s
a lot of patience and strategy involved in getting a company off the ground and keeping
it afloat. Some companies that initially falter, or that have lackluster growth rates at the
start, go on to achieve healthy growth.
7. All responsibility falls on the entrepreneur. Another misconception about
running a new business is that everything depends solely on the entrepreneur. This
might be true at the earliest stages, but taking this idea too seriously is also the best
way to guarantee burnout. Collaboration and the art of delegation figure strongly in the
health of a company. No one can do it all alone.
8. There’s a secret, “silver bullet” key to success. In business, many successful
entrepreneurs promote the impression that they’ve found some kind of secret key to
success. However, this doesn’t take into account the entrepreneur’s previous ideas that
failed; the old-fashioned hard work and patience they put in; or any of the many other
factors that are necessary to build a strong company. The reality is that a single key to
success does not exist. If anything, entrepreneurial success requires a keychain of
different ideas, people, and resources that must come together at the right time and
place.
9. Businesses need someone with an MBA at the helm. Confusing value and
necessity is a mistake when it comes to entrepreneurs and business degrees. On the
one hand, a formal education provides immeasurable benefits. On the other, the market
does not require entrepreneurs to have an MBA or other business degree. Some startup
owners have degrees in subjects like engineering, for instance; they use their deep
technical knowledge to identify gaps in technology and devise solutions. Other
successful startup founders have no degree at all.
10. Quitting is for losers. One final misconception is the idea that entrepreneurs
have to stick everything out — no matter what. But the fact is that not every idea will
blossom into a sustainable company. Successful entrepreneurs often cycle through and
try out many ideas before they find one that has legs. Quitting might look like failure, but
really, it’s a common part of the entrepreneur’s journey and can provide incredibly
important lessons. Knowing when to walk away and move on to the next idea is
therefore critical.
Project Entrepre-Nurse of DOLE
An initiative of DOLE, in collaboration with BON-PRC, DOH, PNA, UPCN, OHNAP and
other government and non-government entities to promote nurse entrepreneurship by
introducing a home health care industry in the Philippines:
1. to reduce the cost of health care for the country’s indigent population by bringing
primary health care services to poor rural communities,
2. to maximize employment opportunities for the country’s unemployed nurses and
to utilize the country’s unemployed human resources for health for the delivery of public
health services and the achievement of the country’s Millennium Development Goals on
maternal and child health, consistent with the Formula One for Health framework of the
Department of Health.
The Davao Region will be the pilot area for the program wherein there will be one
nurses’ cooperative for each of the five provinces and one for Davao City. It is chosen
as the pilot area because the idea for the program was conceptualized by Dole regional
Director Jalilo dela Torre. Nearly 500 nurses in Region 11 have now banded together to
form nurses cooperatives and are busy complying with the requirements for registration
with the Cooperative Development Authority as a cooperative. After registration, they
will be assisted by MASICAP to put together business plans that they can use to ask for
grants from government and non-government sources. Among the potential sources of
revenues for the cooperatives are the local government units, Philhealth’s capitation
fund, foreign donors and migrant Filipino organizations abroad. The DOH will be a
critical partner as source of data on the status of health services delivery in poor rural
communities. Even before CDA registration, the Davao del Norte group, buoyed by the
expression of total support by Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, have already started
negotiating with local chief executives, with successful results. The program’s strategy
is to encourage nurses to form cooperatives with a minimum number of nurse members
of 500 and manage nurses’ clinic, under the supervision of trained and experienced
nurses, which will deploy newly licensed nurses to poor rural communities with little or
no access to basic health care.
Ethics for Entrepreneurs
Successful entrepreneurs operate on sound business ethics which are approved and
accepted in any society. Entrepreneurial Ethics are those codes of conduct, employed
by entrepreneurs which impact society positively, thereby increasing the entrepreneur’s
chances for greater success. Entrepreneurial ethics would lead to positive attitudes
towards raising successful entrepreneurs, who would, in turn, build entrepreneurial
institutions for societal growth and advancement. When entrepreneurial ethics are
practiced and visible, the entrepreneurs and their team, work with great zeal, dedication,
and purposefulness, to achieve the organization’s objectives, and together, they work
for the common good of all. It can be clearly seen that when good entrepreneurial ethics
are demonstrated, businesses can handle or tackle difficulty when they arise. A healthy
entrepreneurial spirit is certainly a viable option for many countries facing
unemployment crisis, especially in the third world countries. Entrepreneurial ethics,
combined with integrity and all the right motives, would allow for economic growth and
gradual development throughout the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in the
economy. Sound Entrepreneurial ethics helps to develop relationships built on mutual
trust and respect. Without this trust, businesses will not survive; investments will not be
made. Successful business empires have gained credibility and reliance as a result of
their sound ethical entrepreneurial practices. Ethical Entrepreneurial practices bring
forth positivity with the vision and mission of an organization. It, therefore, necessitates
a great sense of self-discipline and humility which grows small businesses into
successful empires.
The Importance of Ethics in Key areas of Business
1. Integrity - Hand in hand with entrepreneurial ethics is integrity in business. It is
important that entrepreneurs today don’t get caught up in moneymaking schemes and
lose sight of the importance of doing the right thing for the common good. Any
entrepreneur who willfully and dishonestly engages in business activity with the motive
of ripping people off or profiting at the expense of others, creates a harmful business
environment of distrust and antagonism. When you build a business on integrity, and
set off with an attitude of nobility, humility and service, and the intention of making a
living by providing your community with needed goods and services, you contribute to,
rather than detract from, the general good. An early and consistent stand against
questionable conflicts of interest is an important aspect of any entrepreneur’s ethics
effort.
2. Labour - How a company treats its workers is a good indication of its ethical
practices. An entrepreneur who sets out to cheat or underpay his employees will
indefinitely cause his organization to suffer and be subject to high staff turnover, low
morale, dishonesty among other negative things that could cause the downfall of the
business. It is important to treat all employees well as they represent the business daily,
but it will also benefit the entrepreneur because most people are more likely to
reciprocate what behaviours and attitudes they receive. It goes without saying, that
when good work habits are developed and practiced by all within an organization, a
special bond is formed and a loyalty to the company becomes apparent. Entrepreneurs
who manage to keep open lines of communication with their employees, grow to
understand their feelings about things taking place within the workplace, and they work
together to ensure that everyone is in alignment to benefit from their association with
the organization.
3. Clientele - Your clients are your key stakeholders and it should be quite obvious
as to how dependent your business is on its customers. The entrepreneur today should
seek out the opportunity to personally treat all clients well, and express great and
humble appreciation when they support your business. The ideal way to do this is to
always strive to provide goods and services that are of the best quality and service, as
good as you can make or get them, for your clients. An entrepreneur with an honest
motive and good ethical sense will realize that doing and giving the best to clients every
day is not only a good business decision, but a wise and ethical choice as well.
4. Environment - It is difficult, and possibly unavoidable, to engage in business
while having no impact on the environment. Even if you’re in the craft business, your
clients are looking on to see how you utilize resources or recycle products. If you are
truly invested in reducing your business’s Eco-footprint, then you can have a much
greater impact, not just in the business world, but in the community and environment as
a whole. The ethical entrepreneur today should explore, welcome, and employ the
many ways that a business can reduce its Eco-footprint on the environment, including
recycling, reducing energy waste, carpooling, minimizing paper packaging and usage,
and reducing wasteful business practices among other things.
While all of these activities have a practical basis, in that they protect the environment
and the public reputation of your business, they also have a great impact and influence
on others. When entrepreneurs model environmental ethics and encourage Eco-friendly
practices, others are likely to follow suit. Organizational Ethics should not only be
practiced by larger businesses. In fact, the entrepreneur today can consciously choose
to make ethics a part of their business plan. Start-ups can create and effectively commit
to sound ethical practices.
Entrepreneurs must first recognize that there are ethical dilemmas surrounding them
within the culture of entrepreneurship. They must decide to make ethics a principle
value of their business’s objectives and mission. The entrepreneur today should
embrace doing business ethically in order to improve their standards. Good business
ethics should be visible to all who come into contact with the business. Ethical policies
should be included in business plans, in the business’s mission statements, and in all
other business documents. The ethical entrepreneur ought to seek out favorable
opportunities to make his or her ethical commitment bona fide. It is the business of an
entrepreneur to communicate clearly to all, from the initial stages of business, the
ethical standards they employ. This entrepreneur will no doubt enjoy both financial
success and a superb reputation. The ethically made entrepreneur should be un-naively
aware of the inevitable and unavoidable tensions in the business world, and anticipate
these tensions not with fear, but with resilience, and so be able to put in place, a
reasonable action plan that helps the entire team to deal with these tensions before the
situations are actually encountered. This practice should be included in the business’s
plan and mission and become part of a more formal “ethics training” for all. Not every
situation can be anticipated, but the ethical entrepreneur must always keep an open-
door policy so that new and uncommon ethical issues can be worked out as they arise.
The ethical entrepreneur looks for opportunities to engage the business as a whole and
align them to the community and its needs. This aids in team building and strengthening
interpersonal relationships. The ethical entrepreneur thinks and talks about the ethical
values that matter at any given opportunity. The frantic and elaborate, rapid growth of
start-ups makes it easy to submit to the temptations of malpractices in order to stay
alive in this highly competitive business world. Always keep your objectives clear in front
of you and visible for all to see and acknowledge. The ethical entrepreneur challenges
growth and renews the commitment to ethical practices. Businesses change as they
grow, and so to, do their objectives. As the entrepreneur and his/her business grows,
re-valuation is important and needed where ethics is concerned. Ethical values and the
commitment to continued ethical practices must be reworked and re-communicated
every time change occurs, thereby preparing all involved in the business to deal with the
changing and evolving ethical dilemmas. The ethical entrepreneur looks for
opportunities to engage the business as a whole and align them to the community and
its needs.
The rewards of being an ethical start-up are many. Personal and business success is
accomplished, and client and team satisfaction is the most prominent benefit for all.
Everyone feels better about themselves and the butterfly effect happens magically as
everyone freely and satisfyingly chose to act ethically in their dealings with others. For
the individual entrepreneur, a reputation for much needed ethical practices can place
your business on the top lists of ethical businesses with which others will unhesitatingly
choose to do business with, increasing your opportunities for successful business
partnerships. It is imperative, that the entrepreneur today understand that the business
they run has responsibilities to everyone.

References
Keith Kratch, 2017, 10 of the Most Common Entrepreneurship Myths, retrieved from
https://medium.com/@KeithKrach/10-of-the-most-common-entrepreneurship-myths-
www.dole.gov.ph
Cherise Castle-Blugh, 2018, THE TIMELY ENTREPRENEUR retrieved from
https://www.desientrepreneurs.com