The document discusses four notable entrepreneurs: Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers; John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil; Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate; and Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. It provides brief biographies of each, describing how they started with little and built hugely successful business empires in industries like computers, oil, steel, and investments. The document also outlines some key aspects of great entrepreneurs, including being hard workers who can make good investments and predict future customer wants, and the role of an entrepreneur in bringing together the necessary components to start and direct a new business.
2. What is a Entrepreneur An Entrepreneur is a individual who has possession of a business, venture or idea and is accountable for the risks and outcome of the product or service.
3. Four Notable Entrepreneurs Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Computers. John D. Rockefeller, famous for founding Standard Oil: one of the first great monopoly's Andrew Carnegie, a Scot who came to America and made his fortune in steel manufacture Warren Buffet, world famous majority shareholder and CEO of the investment company Berkshire Hathaway.
4. Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumfermline, Scotland in 1835 but emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1848. As a boy Carnegie worked in a cotton mill but later became a messenger and later operator for a telegraph company. He then went and worked for a railway company soon becoming superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. After the Civil War Carnegie left railroads and focused solely on the steel industry. By the late 1880’s was the largest manufacturer of coke, pig iron and steel rails in the world. Due to this when Carnegie died in 1919 he was worth, inflation adjusted, $298.3billion.
5. Michael Dell Michael Dell was born in Houston 1965 to well-off Jewish parents, from an early age he showed the drive and cleverness typical of all entrepreneurs: as an early teen he invested the earning from his part-time job into stocks and precious metals. In high school he earned over $18,000 in one summer by selling newspaper subscriptions. While in college studying medicine Michael Dell started the computer company which would bear his name, by upgrading standard computers and selling them on. In 1992 at the age of 27 he became the youngest CEO to have his company listed in the Fortune 500. Today Michael Dell has grown his company and is now worth $14.6billion.
6. John D. Rockefeller Rockefeller was born in 1839 and when he left school in 1851 he went and worked as an assistant bookkeeper at a small firm. In 1863 he and a partner established a small oil refinery in Cleveland. After the Civil War changed the name of the company to Standard Oil, and quickly expanded by buying up rivals and bargaining for cheap transport for his products. By the end of the 1870s Rockefeller was refining 90% of the US oil production. In 1911, due to it becoming a monopoly, Standard Oil was broken up and the companies that came out of it are some of the biggest in the world. When Rockefeller died in 1837 he was worth, inflation adjusted, $663.4billion making him the richest person in the world even today.
7. Warren Buffet Warren Buffet was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. As a boy Buffet had an interest in making and saving money going to door to door selling golf balls and stamps amongst other things. At university he got a Degree in Business and Economics which would serve him well in later life. From 1951 to 1969 Buffet was involved in a number of small partnerships which made him a millionaire but nothing notable came from them. In 1970 Buffet bought Berkshire Hathaway, at the time a struggling textile firm, he quickly turned the company into an investment company and holding company. By 2000 Berkshire Hathaway was one of the top 20 companies in the world.
8. Aspects of Great Entrepreneurs A great entrepreneur is a very hard worker who has the ability to make investments where they get the better part of the deal. They also have the ability to see far into the future and predicate what the customer will want and then plan accordingly. This is what makes a great entrepreneur.
9. Role of the Entrepreneur in the Business The entrepreneur brings together the four aspects of business; land, labour, capital and enterprise, and directs and manages the business in it’s infancy.