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Share“Fail fast; learn fast.” It’s a mantra that we’ve heard repeatedly over the past decade, especially as startup culture has entered mainstream consciousness, but a part of me has always wondered how many of us actually take it to heart. In my own entrepreneurial career, which has included both spectacular successes and failures, I’ve been forced to face my mistakes and grow from them as quickly as possible. However, I’ve also seen how easy it is to fall into a rhythm and get stuck in a professional rut. So a few years ago, when my company was approaching its 25th […]

3 Ways to Use the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Accelerate Your ...

 in Educate / Entrepreneurship Faculty / Useful Tips by
ShareWith the explosion of startups and the success of game changers like Google and Facebook, it’s no wonder entrepreneurship is more relevant than ever. The related concept of intrapreneurship is gaining prominence for the way it’s revolutionizing the business world as well as the academic sector. Intrapreneurship is simply the companywide adoption of an entrepreneurial mindset, and it’s driven by disruption. Startups unleash a level of innovation that threatens to make the most established companies irrelevant. Just look at how Airbnb and Uber disrupted legacy companies in their respective industries. To stay competitive, companies have been forced to consider an […]

Build A University Grounded In Intrapreneurship To Spur The Change ...

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ShareLike most people, I used to think that entrepreneurship was narrowly defined as the process of starting a new business. Like most people, I could not have been more wrong. The truth is that the talented artists, biologists, sociologists, computer scientists, social workers, education majors, and quite literally every other discipline on campus have as much to offer the field of entrepreneurship as do our business students and future entrepreneurship majors. Business students and self-identified entrepreneurs are critical, but we also need the artists’ ability to create something out of nothing. We need the biologists who are consummate systems thinkers […]

Why All Students Must Enroll In the Entrepreneur Certificate

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Share“As a young man, my grandfather gave me some advice: ‘Get with a good company, and stay for 40 years,’” said Charlie Hoffman, dean of the UMSL College of Business. “Those who did that are now finding themselves in their late 50s — at the edge of retirement and bored. These are successful people who’ve realized they’re not done growing and learning. They’re looking for more.” They’re not alone in that thinking. Seventy percent of Americans dislike their jobs, and 73 percent of 30-somethings would prefer to change careers. Professionals who’ve worked in their industries for decades have plenty of […]

Why Going Back to School Mid-Career May Be the Best ...

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SharePatrick Davis is in his last year at UMSL and working on his own business called Illlumenessence that focuses on custom automotive lighting. His story perfectly showcases an entrepreneurial journey. Hi Patrick, could you tell us a little bit about you? Hi, absolutely! I am graduating in the fall with a major in marketing and a minor in digital media. I will also earn my Certificate in Entrepreneurship. In addition to my academics, I work on my own custom automotive lighting company. Which entrepreneurship classes did you take? What have you learned from them? I have taken the Introduction to […]

Custom Automotive Lighting from an UMSL Student Entrepreneur

 in EC@UMSL / Entrepreneur in Residence / Entrepreneurship Courses / Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Certificate by
ShareA college education is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, attending a four-year university also carries some significant drawbacks. The latest data on student loan debt from Debt.org tells a grim story for new graduates: The average debt at graduation is now more than $37,172 per student. Related: Does a College Degree Still Matter? For anyone entering the job market, a college degree is simply the price of admission. Entrepreneurs, however, need more than a piece of paper; they need relevant, hands-on skills they can use to succeed in the real world. For new and established founders, getting the most […]

3 Real-World Tactics Entrepreneurs Should Take Advantage of During (and ...

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ShareEntrepreneur enthusiast Yaniv Dudaie grew up with interests in soccer, travel, business, and a love for different cultures. As a child, he wanted to own a hotel in Italy with a pizzeria attached to it. Now that he is college bound, Yaniv wants to learn how to develop and grow companies so his childhood dream could still come true. What will his next dream vision look like? He was born in Mexico, Grew up in Israel, and currently goes to school in St. Louis. Asides from his heavy involvement at UMSL Accelerate, his triple major in Finance, Logistics, and International […]

The Dream Catcher

 in Ameren Accelerator Internship / Entrepreneurship Courses / Entrepreneurship Faculty / UMSL Accelerate by
ShareFor entrepreneurs my age or older, there was really only one way to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation: The Hard Way. Knowing what to do and what not to do in a startup was an expensive process of trial and error, in real-time, in the real world, with real investors and real customers. If we were lucky, we might have picked up a mentor along the way who could provide occasional perspective and advice but, other than that, we were all pretty much on our own. Fast-forward a decade and a dozen or so startups later to 2016. A group […]

UMSL’s Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurship Courses

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ShareThe University of Missouri System organized a two-day event called the UM System Entrepreneurial Educator Summit (EES) for the first time earlier this February. I was invited to serve dual role: to advocate for more resources on behalf of my fellow students with entrepreneurial aspirations and to articulate the successes and the future of UMSL|Accelerate. Sara Cochran, Entrepreneurial Program Manager at the UM System was responsible for the event. She provided clear details, schedules and instructions beforehand, which included an announcement that the opening session would include a panel of leaders from our four campuses! Chancellor Hank Foley of MU, […]

First ever UM System Entrepreneurial Summit

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