By: Blakelock Brown Student #20509356

Psych101 Application Paper - Entrepreneurship

In a recent article entitled What College Can Teach the Aspiring Entrepreneur1, author Anna
Prior discusses how young undergraduates looking to become entrepreneurs can make the most of out
of their post-secondary education. The media article suggests numerous important activities for
students to pursue such as networking, building strong leadership skills through extracurriculars, seeking
out advisors for mentorship, pursuing internships during non-school terms and being mindful of student
debt if looking to start a business. The article mentions several important statistics and advice related to
the age and background of new entrepreneurs as well as the level education that they typically achieve.
Lastly, in the article there is a video of an interview with a high profile investor who mentions some of
his best tips for entrepreneurial students. The story is of high relevance to the University of Waterloo as
many students are attracted to the schools entrepreneurial community and are interested in pursuing
startup ventures themselves.
There are several aspects of psychology that can help provide insights to the article. First off one
application of psychology is good leadership qualities, which are perhaps the most important traits that
an entrepreneur can have. According to the media article, leadership is crucial for students pursuing the
career path. It suggests that undergraduates looking to become entrepreneurs should try to start new
student organizations or take on leadership roles in existing clubs at university so they can begin to
develop the social skills needed to run a business. Using psychology we can understand why this would
be such a good trait to have and we can also discuss other important traits that make someone a good
entrepreneur through leadership qualities. As the textbook2 suggests, good leaders generally share a
set of personal qualities that distinguish them from the rest of the work force. (p. 643) Of these skills,
the textbook mentions that it is important to have high standards of performance for oneself, have
strong social skills, have the technical knowledge needed to plan ahead, hold influence and have
powerful team-building skills. These qualities are the results of the work done by psychologists Hogan
and Warrenfeltz, and they hold important implications for students aspiring to become entrepreneurs.
Finding ways to build on these skills are essential to becoming a strong leader and this skillset in fact
matches very closely to that of the skills that the media article recommends entrepreneurial students to
pursue. The media article suggests that students looking to become entrepreneurs should try to go
above and beyond what they learn in the class room (achieve high standards), build strong social skills
through extracurriculars, improve their technical knowledge and team-building with the hackathons and
many other events that are hosted at university and also network consistently to build their influence. I
find it interesting that there is such a strong correlation between the psychology of a good leader and
the characteristics of a good entrepreneur. It shows that the way we perceive great leaders are often
synonymous to that of successful entrepreneurs.
In addition to the textbook, a study by the American Psychology Association Who Becomes an
Entrepreneur?3 is also helpful to provide insight to the media article. The results from this study show
that the people most likely to become entrepreneurs are those who are heavily influenced to follow an
entrepreneurial career path early in life. This is crucially important for students to understand, as
aspiring entrepreneurs need to start working on their dreams as early as possible. The psychological

By: Blakelock Brown Student #20509356

study concluded career choices and development by early socialization experiences in the family,
and early social skills and entrepreneurial intentions (in addition to family background factors and
other personal characteristics) are predictors of later entrepreneurial activities. It would be good for
aspiring students to know that the study predicts these as fundamental traits for entrepreneurs. The
mention of early social skills only reiterates the fact that a social, leadership-oriented mindset is one
of the most important aspects for students looking at this career path to pursue. We can also make
intuitive sense of this, as becoming the CEO of a company would require incredible amounts of
management and leadership skills. In fact, if we look at the worlds currently most successful
entrepreneurs, this may be one of the most crucial skills to have in the industry. Larry Page, Sergey Brin,
Mark Zuckerberg, Bill gates and Elon Musk are some of the most influential people in the world today
and all of them demonstrate exceptional leadership capabilities. As the psychological study suggests,
these individuals started on their paths early in life and have developed their skills through early social
interactions. Students aspiring to become the next world changing CEO would have to build their skillset
in a similar manner.
In my opinion, there were several aspects of psychology that helped to explain the advice given
in the media article. For instance, the author mentions to put networking above all else, which makes
a lot more sense after understanding how important social skills are to becoming an exceptional leader.
There were also areas of psychology that I think could have added additional information to the report.
As an example, the psychological study showed that entrepreneurship is also highly dependent on
personal characteristics and family background factors. These traits were not mentioned in the media
event and certainly would have been a good addition. Is it possible for students to become successful
entrepreneurs without certain personality traits or family background? If so, what should students
attending university do in order to change their mindsets? With these points in minds, we can see that
there were definitely areas of the media article that can be explained or extended using psychology.
On the contrary, there were also parts of the media event that psychology didnt help to explain.
Several statistics for instance were mentioned to help provide insight into which age students usually
start to become entrepreneurs, and also to help explain how much education one needs before starting
a company. These statistics are certainly better explained using math and data analysis as opposed to
psychology. While trend lines and the graphs certainly add a lot of value to the media article, these are
important areas of mathematics and not so much the study of human behavior. Another area that
psychology did not help to explain was the technical advice offered in the media article, such as learning
how to code or design websites. These areas can be better explained with an engineering background,
understanding how large problems are broken down into their smallest parts instead of using
psychology.
In conclusion, psychology was useful in explaining certain points in the media article and for
extending others. It led to a better understanding of the role of leadership skills in an entrepreneur, why
undergraduate students should start early and the importance of being social. It could not explain
everything, such as statistics or technical advice, but it still furthered ones understanding. This is the
very purpose of psychology in our daily lives, which is to improve our understanding of our own
behavior and of those around us. While it cannot solve everything, it is certainly a useful tool to have.

By: Blakelock Brown Student #20509356

References
[1] What College Can Teach The Aspiring Entrepreneur. The Wall Street Journal. Anna Prior,
November 3, 2014. Web: http://online.wsj.com/articles/what-college-can-teach-the-aspiringentrepreneur-1414965300
[2] Krause, M., & Corts, D. (2012). Psychological Science: Modeling Scientific Literacy. Pearson, 2012.
Print.
[3] Schoon, I., Duckworth., K. Who Becomes an Entrepreneur? American Psychological Association.
April 20, 2012. Web: http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/journals/dev/48/6/1719.pdf