Very Short Interview No. 1 (Two)

My hope with the entrepreneur interview was to get two viewpoints.  Therefore, from an impact sociologist perspective, I reached out to Dan Price who is the founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit card payment processing company that is community focused and committed to conducting business in a responsible fashion.  Dan was awarded entrepreneur of the year in 2014 by Entrepreneur Magazine but his real claim to fame is being recognized as the $70K CEO because he made sure that everyone at Gravity Payments earns at least $70,000.

Gravity's financial services focus and Dan's commitment to social responsibility made him an ideal candidate for me to approach.  He responded promptly but did express that due to time constraints he may not be able to meet my deadline.  I pressed further and he promised to give it his best effort.  The big lesson learned in this instance was that I should have approached him sooner being more considerate about the fact that successful entrepreneurs are very busy.

I also wanted to get a multi-dimensional perspective so I contacted Asif Khan who is a CPA and owns his own CPA firm in the Tampa area.  Asif has been quite successful continuing to grow his accounting practice over the years through excellent service and multiple acquisitions.  I felt that Asif's accounting background and exposure to many businesses would allow him to offer entrepreneurial advice from both vantage points, an entrepreneur and a professional who regularly works with entrepreneurs and has a good sense of their characteristics and best practices.  I asked Dan and Asif the same three questions.

Question:  How would you define entrepreneurship?  Is it restricted to business ventures only?

Dan's Answer:  Coming soon...

Asif's Answer:   I would define entrepreneurship as developing or launching a product or service based on certain resources in order to make a profit.  So since I said profit, I believe it is restricted to businesses only and for profit only.  I would consider a non profit organization more a social work rather than entrepreneurship.

Question:  What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?

Dan's Answer:  Coming soon...

Asif's Answer:   I think in any business venture the most important thing to learn is to manage risk.  There are a lot of resources given and what business managers fail to do is manage the risk and usually they don't have clear vision so if you learn how to manage risk you can really be a good business manager.

Question:  What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?

Dan's Answer:  Coming soon...

Asif's Answer:  I would say again managing uncertainties is very important.  What is usually taught in school is usually black and white but when you go to the real work you see that you're faced with uncertainties that you have to really manage with given resources so if in business school, you're taught the real life uncertainties that business managers of certain type faces that would be really helpful.

Dan was quite busy this week so I sent questions to him via email and I was able to speak to Asif on the phone.  The biggest surprise was how quickly Dan and Asif responded to my inquiries.  They are both very busy people but they showed a keen interest in helping out.  I look forward to following up with them in a few weeks.