This morning we had the opportunity to visit the Guinness Enterprise Center. First, we learned about how the Irish government has programs, like Enterprise Ireland, that support the growth and development of Irish businesses with the end goal being to create the next multi-national Irish corporation. Ireland also has educational programs that create a pipeline of educated and talented students ready to enter the workforce with a very large percentage of graduates in science and engineering. I also found how the Guinness Enterprise Center goes about helping companies very interesting and different than how a for-profit enterprise center would conduct operations. It appears as though they have expertise in business practices in the health field and sustainable practices, but it seems like a large part of the benefit that corporations receive by working with the Guinness Enterprise Center is the connections that they are exposed to. On top of making connections with fellow center partners, these corporations receive access to the network of partners that the center has already developed.
When looking at the skills required to become an entrepreneur, the first thing that comes to mind is having the creativity to come up with a product or service to offer. Then you need other skills in areas like networking, communication, leadership, flexibility, and time and resource management in order to grow your business into a successful one. I believe that I possess most of these traits other than I am not the most creative person. I have some leadership experience in clubs and captaining a high school soccer team for two years. I would also say that I am a pretty flexible person. For example, for one of my summer jobs, the manager would let us know at 11 pm the night before a 7 am shift if you were working or not, and I ended up missing no days of work. Time management is one of my biggest strengths mainly because I’m very organized. I very rarely turn in assignments late or am pressed for time. Resource management I only have experience with my personal finances, but I would say I have managed my money well other than during this trip.
