Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Countries seeking to be admitted to the EU community Essay Example for Free

Countries seeking to be admitted to the EU community Essay The countries the have been recognized as accession candidates include Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey. They have all applied for the accession and their applications have been principally accepted. All these countries have already started or will in due course begin the process of accession by adopting the European Union law which will bring to the same level as other member states. Macedonia and Croatia applied for EU membership recently, these two states originated from the former Republic of Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Turkey has been a candidate for accession for several years; it formally applied for the accession in the year 1987 and only became a candidate in 1999. the delay have been caused by the complicated nature of making Turkey at par with the standards of EU and also as a result of the political concerns that surrounds Turkey thus making the conclusion of its accession difficult. However, none of these countries is yet to gain membership as they are all in the process of the negotiations (Mauro, 2006). Croatia applied to be a member of EU membership in 2003; the commission of the union has already recommended it and is thus Croatia is now officially a candidate. The status Croatia as an accession candidate was granted by the council of the union in 2004. The early negotiations were set to kick off in early 2005 but were delayed until late in the same year. After the negotiations finally started in October, the screening process of thirty three aquis chapters with the state was eventually completed in October of the following year (Mauro, 2006). After the state of Croatia has fully recovered from its breakup from the Yugoslavia, it has very high hopes of becoming a second state of the Yugoslavia to be accepted as a member to of the EU community. The market economy of the state of Croatia is stable; it in fact, has far many superior statistical indicators as compared to Romania and Bulgaria which joined the EU in 2007. Close to the end of 2005 the officials of EU predicted that Croatia accession is expected to occur as early as 2010 but can delay up to 2012. The conclusion of all the aquis communautaire chapters is likely to take place in 2009 while the accession treaty is likely to be signed in 2010. Before negations with the state of Croatia started, the aquis was split into thirty five chapters which were four more than the usual number of thirty one. The chapters which were new were formerly included in the policy of agriculture, which is an area that is expected to be quite troublesome as it was the case with other such applicants (Mauro, 2006). Macedonia just like Croatia originated from Yugoslavia; the state of Macedonia applied for EU membership in 2004. In the following year the commission of the EU recommended Macedonia to the council for it to become a candidate of accession. The leaders of the European Union accepted the commission’s recommendation which finally made the state of Macedonia to become an accession candidate officially. However, there has been no date which has been mentioned to start off the negotiation process. Peace in the country is observed although there are ethnic tensions which are still underlying in the country. The ethnic tensions in Macedonia are as a result of the Albanians, who after the Ohrid Accords were implemented became more autonomous. But despite the political challenges facing the state, the council of the European Union congratulated and welcomed the achievements so far attained by the state in implementing a number of agreements and reforms. As a result the European Union recognizes the nation as a republic that broke away from Yugoslavia, and in fact, this is the major denotation by which EU may hold any fruitful negotiations with the country. This issue’s resolution, in fact, became an accession precondition for Macedonia. However, it might take more time before Macedonia is accepted by EU since the state has numerous problems in achieving the standards required by EU such as sound economy and respect for the rule of law. There are also incidences of irregularities and violence especially in the recent parliamentary elections which were held in 2008, this particular event cast a lot of doubts on Macedonians candidacy (Roney, Budd, 1998). In the recent past, the status of Turkey in respect to joining the European Union has become an issue of chief significance and substantial controversy. Turkey is among the founding states of the Europe Council and the country has since 1964 been an associate member of EU. Turkey applied for EU full membership in 1987 and it took twelve years for the EU commission to recognize the candidacy of Turkey, it was recognized as a candidate in 1999 during the Helsinki Summit. After the 2004 summit which was held at Brussels the council of EU formally announced that the negotiations for membership with the country of Turkey were to be opened in 2005. The process of screening started in the same year and was completed in the following year (Arikan, 2003). The country of Turkey is recognized as a developed nation, its economy is the 7th largest among the members of the Europe Council, while in the world, the economy of Turkey is ranked at position fifteen. This has made the Turkey’s proponents for EU membership to argue that the country is a chief economic power in the region which also supported by the fact that it has the 2nd largest force of military in NATO. These are very important factors in enhancing the position of EU as a geo strategic global player, considering the geographic location of Turkey, its political stability, economic power together with its cultural and historic connection in the region which is endowed with a lot of natural resources its accession can be of much significance to the entire EU community. The proponents of Turkey also argue that the country abides to nearly all the conditions set by the EU for accession, they in fact, hold a firm position that it is unfair for EU to continue refusing the accession of Turkey arguing that its candidacy has been open for more than four decades. Turkey has also made a lot of reforms in respect for the rule of law and respect for the human rights, in order to satisfy the accession conditions (Arikan, 2003). However, there are countries such as Germany and France that are still opposed to the accession of Turkey. They argue that Turkey fails to respect the main principles expected in any democracy that is liberal such as expression freedom. In addition, Turkey laws which are potentially repressive such as Article three hundred and one. Both France and Germany further argue that the Turkish army plays a major role in the country’s administrative foreground. Another major issue about Turkey’s accession into EU is due to the fact that it still occupies the Cyprus Island, which since 2004 became a member of the EU. Turkey has more than forty thousand troops in the island since 1974 and continues to be acquainted with the fact that Cyprus has authority over the island. It is not clear when the accession of Turkey will take place since some members are opposed to the country’s accession while others are of the idea (Arikan, 2003).

Monday, January 20, 2020

How an Understaning of Sociology Provides Value to My Life :: Sociology Essays

First I would like to discuss the online encyclopedia â€Å"Wikipedia†. The value of knowledge that it offers is unlimited since the articles can be edited by anyone with their interpretation. As a result â€Å"Wikipedia† is a storage place of knowledge for anyone who wishes to contribute. I added this site to my favorites and now when I have questions about certain concepts I check the encyclopedia along with my other references. When I look up one word I end up searching through the encyclopedia for some time because of the many related links that â€Å"Wikapedia† provides that take you to so many interesting places. As of yet I have not found an article that I would like to contribute to but I am sure I will in the near future. Secondly I will take with me the principle of the power of public opinion. In class we discussed how individuals fail to realize the power that citizens collectively have over the government. The majority of the time we are persuaded to look at ourselves as individuals or small groups who have little power because we have to answer to our dictator (a.k.a boss). Masterminds such as Isama Bin Laden, Hitler and Bush for that matter realized this power of public opinion and used it to there advantage to persuade a whole nation of individuals to act in the way they wanted them to act. I will not use this knowledge for such practices but I will apply it to the workforce where I am a manager over older white women and men in the IT field who find it hard to accept duties from a 22 year old minority female. I am working on obtaining the majority public opinion that I am a great manager from not only my immediate peers but also those that are higher than and lower than me. Third the idea of â€Å"false consciousness† from Mannheim’s book â€Å"Ideology and Utopia.† We were discussing in class the different perspectives individuals have on the world based on their economic and social position in society. What really stuck out to me is the fact that people have a particular view of their own group’s best interest that is really in the best interest of the other group. This is called â€Å"false consciousness.† For example, the people who live in poverty think that the harder they work the higher up in society they will move, but in all actuality all they are doing is making the rich richer.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Intelligent Enrollment System

Intelligent Enrollment System for Magmata Science High School A Project Presented to the Faculty of SIT college Global City In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology by Conge, ROI Carrel Davis, Aimed All Maxima, John Voltaire Pinned, Emmanuel Mr.. Emerson Floors Project Adviser July 7, 2014 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Magmata Science High School is one of the most prestigious high schools here in Magmata or even the country.Its population is mainly a mix of smart students and skilled or experienced teachers. Students who made it to the school are mainly picked based on grades and/or their performance in the school's entrance exam. All enrolled students here are scholars from government of Magmata. They are even given allowances aside from free tuition, all of these are done because the students of this school are expected to hold the future of our countries science and technology area. As a science school, a common misconception by people is that the school has an automated system already.This proved to be untrue for Magmata science high school. Processes such as purchasing, enrolment etc. Re done manually and with a lot of paperwork. Among these, the proponents will be focusing on the enrolment process of the school. More popular universities and colleges in the Philippines have good enrolment systems. Some of them are done on the web while some are Just more efficiently structured for fast enrollment (Bank payment of tuition, RIFF, etc). Magmata Science's current enrolment process compared to other science high schools is not that good.Other science high school's population is big compared to them but they're optimism is present because of the current system they use. Most of the current process is composed of papers going through the guidance and registrar departments. Papers are important for this school as well on the interview, the CIT coordinator said that less paperwork is go od. Inconsistencies on the manual processes have been uncovered throughout the data gathering process. Since the employees themselves want to maximize their time, a good enrolment system could take care of the Jobs that would take time for them.While Magmata Science's current enrolment is still not that efficient compared to the others, the developers are planning to create a system for the school. The developers are expecting a gradual rise of the student's population for upcoming years that is why the proponents will develop a mixture of ADS (Decision Support System) and MIS (Management Information System) namely an â€Å"Intelligent Enrollment System†. This is a computerized system with a decision support function that can remove the inconsistencies of the current manual process.Since people in the school wanted to hasten the Jobs like sectioning, report creation etc. This system will do it for them with minimal management. It will also feature an easy to learn interface t hat even the unfamiliarity's ones can easily adapt. . 2 PROJECT BUSINESS RULES ADMISSION PROCESS Before the admission for the incoming freshmen, the principal will set the schedule for admission test then the CIT Coordinator will post it to their website (www. Masterpiece. Deed. PH) including the requirements needed. Their admission are only for freshmen.The applicant for Grade VII must be a member of the 2014 graduating class from any public and government recognized private elementary school; Have a grade of at least 85% in Science, Mathematics and English subjects and at least 83% in all other subjects for the first and second grading periods of the rent school year 2013-2014. Grades obtained in the succeeding grading periods (3rd and 4th) lower than the grade requirements will be a ground for disqualification. Be in good health and be of good moral character.The applicant must present the following requirements: a certification of good health from a government physician, a certi fication of good moral character from the Guidance Counselor/Principal, a certification from the elementary principal that the applicant belongs to the upper ten percent of the graduating class, SYS 2013-2014, statement of parent that the applicant has no pending application as immigrant in the USA or any other country within the next six years, principals Certification of Grade VI 1st and 2nd quarter grades and the final average for grade IV and V, two (1 † X 1 ID pictures taken within the application period with name tag of the applicant.All certification are found in the application form; separate sheets for certification are not allowed. The application form can be obtained from the Guidance Office of Magmata Science High School or can be downloaded here, http://www. Masterpiece. Deed. PH/ admission. HTML/Application form moms extranet test. UDF Applicants for admission are to secure and to accomplish application forms from the Guidance Office or Registrar Office. Only stu dents with duly accomplished forms will be allowed to take the entrance examination. The test permit will be issued to the parents or guardian upon presentation of the accomplished form at the Guidance Office. There are an average of 900 applicants who take the exam every school year.Checking of the exam papers and the sectioning of the student are done and will be processed for at least 2 months. Students who passed will have a section made by he year level chairman who made their section by having a list of the qualifiers' names. And they will be informed through their website or on the school's bulletin board. The Successful applicants will then be interviewed by members of the administrative staff for classification purposes. Schedule of interview will be announced through MOMS website. Only Two hundred eighty (280) successful applicants will be admitted to Grade VII this school year 2014-2015, those students are also going to undergo general encoding.Those who will fail to enro ll within the enrolment period will be replaced by the next in rank. ENROLLMENT PROCESS Enrollment in this school is considered as a formal acceptance by the students of the obligation to faithfully carry out their responsibilities and their expression of willingness to collaborate with the school administration and faculty. Students shall enroll on the date set for their particular year level. They will undergo final General encoding in the BEES office where in their information are obtained all of which are: LEARN, Name, Gender, Birthday, Mother tongue, Religion, Address, Barraging, Municipality, Province, Parents, Mother's Maiden name, Father's Maiden name, Guardian and Contact number.They will input these details by encoding it in an excel spreadsheet on one of the six computers set-up by the school in the BEES office. Report Cards (Form 138), certification of good moral character and Barraging Captain Certification of residence (proofs if necessary) are required for the enrollm ent. This requirements will be collected still in the BEES room, from the students by a representative from the registrar's office. The information will be disseminated to the guidance office and the registrar's office where the information will be stored. After all the enrollment processes, the enrolled students shall receive a certificate of enrolment.They don't have to pay since the government pays for their studies. The students who fail to come on the prescribe enrollment period will be scheduled to enroll after the last day of 4th year enrollees. Transferees must be a student in science high schools only, otherwise they will not be eligible to enroll. School date is absolute so anyone cannot transfer to the school if the school year already started even if they came from another science high school. GRADING PROCESS At the end of every grading period, the teachers will pass the final grades of the student to the respective advisers. There will be a watch list for those who fail s to meet the standard grading requirement, which is a AWG of 85%.Inaccurate and unreliable transferring of student information to the registrar During the general encoding, the BEES sets up 6 computers in the BEES office for the encoding of the student's information. The students encode it in MS Excel spreadsheet. The problem with this is that the computers are not networked and so the details are all separated. What the CIT head does is to copy and paste the information encoded by the student to the separate file that she made. This process proved to be tedious and unreliable so she double checks it and takes more time. Inefficiency in handling student entry in general encoding During general encoding, the student enters his/her information in an MS Excel spreadsheet.New students doesn't have a problem since they still don't have existing information. However a problem arises when the old students do the general encoding. Because the school stores the general information in hardco py documents, their existing data isn't available for editing in excel, so every year that they attend general encoding, they enter personal information from scratch again. This proved to be inefficient because it takes more time. The problem in scheduling the teachers' class load The scheduling of the teacher's time is done by the department head. Schedules are done during summer by plotting the schedules on paper or through excel worksheets.That means they will know their exam score on the same day the exam is taken. It will ultimately save time for the school to check the exam papers. Create a networked database connection between the PC's to handle separated data. To systematically connect the data in the six (6) PC's, the proponents will create a networked database to store data on only one (1) data storage so that the CIT coordinator will not be having a hard time in collecting information. It will also save time and effort for the remaining process. Create a process for insta nt retrieval of existing student information during general encoding The proponents will create a function to retrieve the student information.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

The Evolution of Jonathan Clarkes Fitness Platform - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2425 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/05/07 Category Sports Essay Level High school Tags: Fitness Essay Did you like this example? Review of Start-up Process Origin of Ideas All aspiring entrepreneurs must start with an idea. Although many people believe that entrepreneurs are ‘lucky people’ who had ‘Eureka moments’ research has shown that new venture ideas can originate from varies methods including idea search, experience, and effectuation in action. Idea discovery is the action of revealing something generally unknown and generating wealth from the idea (Fiet 2007). Idea search is a form of ‘idea discovery’, which involves entrepreneurs searching for their ‘big idea’. Neoclassical and psychological theories believe that opportunity discovery is mechanical, as these schools of thought suggest that all people can identify opportunity and that people’s attributes and willingness to take action determines who becomes an entrepreneur. The Austrian theories does not view idea discovery as mechanical as once the assumption of everyone having the same complete set of information is removed any individual cannot identify all possible opportunities (Shane 2000). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Evolution of Jonathan Clarkes Fitness Platform" essay for you Create order This concept has been developed into ‘alertness perspective’, which involves entrepreneurs accidently identifying a discovery that generates wealth without directly searching for it. This implies that true discoveries are unplanned, cannot be anticipated and therefore occur accidently (Fiet 2007). The major limitation of alertness perspective for aspiring entrepreneurs is that it can not offer them any guidance, other than to remain alert (Fiet 2007). Demsetz (1983) states that â€Å"if [alertness] is the essence of [entrepreneurial competence], there is another more familiar name for it – luck†. After discussing alertness perspective Fiet (2007) discusses the introduction of the ‘constrained systematic search’ concept that he developed. This concept relieves concerns linked to ‘alertness perspective’ by refocusing on the search of known information sources as opposed to the vague search for unknown venture ideas. The basis of this approach is to narrow the search area by focusing on areas the entrepreneur already has knowledge/information and experience. This concept links to Kacperczyk and Younkin’s (2017) discussion in The Paradox of breadth. This article discusses how past studies imply that there is a paradox of functional breadth, where entrepreneurs with a wide range of skills may be viewed as illegitimate as they enter a new market. This article discovered that entrepreneurs with a wide set of skills in a narrow market are viewed as more legitimate. Therefore, focusing on a narrower, constrained area in which the entrepreneur has previ ous knowledge will increase the likeness of discovering a business idea that they can pursue. Some entrepreneurial ideas may be a result of a spin off from a previous employment. These are start-ups established by entrepreneurs who have previously worked in the field. Spin-off entrepreneurs can be seen as superior to people setting up ‘de novo’ companies as they have prior experience in the field and may already have contacts in the field (Buendtorf and Costa 2018). From reading literature on idea generation, I believe that aspiring entrepreneurs should remain alert as they may discover an opportunity and focus on areas where they already have knowledge. Pre-founding Experience From my analysis of entrepreneurial literature, I conclude that most ideas and discoveries made by entrepreneurs are due to pre-founding experience or knowledge. This strengthens my opinion that not everybody can become an entrepreneur as discoveries are linked to the information you already possess. An article written by Scott Shane (2000) supports this theory as he states that â€Å"People recognise those opportunities related to information that they already possess†. He moves on to discuss how different people comprise of different information due to the different lives the live. Therefore, only some people will be aware of specific customer issues and gaps in the market. Buendtorf and Costa (2018) also support this concept as they state, ‘knowledge and skills acquired in prior employment are crucial determinants of entrepreneurial performance’. Fiet’s (2007) constrained systematic search concept also considers prior experience, which he defines as â€Å"understandings derived from a person’s occupation, on-the job routines, job related technology, specialised education, social relations and hobbies.† Venkataraman (1997) suggests that discoveries are generally a result of knowledge acquired from prior experience. As everybody’s prior experience is different, entrepreneurs are not equally competent to discover a wealth generating venture idea. Neoclassical economic theories disagree with this concept, and assume that people can discover the same opportunities, irrelevant to the knowledge and experience of the discoverer. This school of thought proposed an equilibrium theory, which does not allow people to an opportunity that others may not. This means that those who identify an idea are individuals that choose to become an entrepreneur. In contrast the Austrian theories believe that different people become entrepreneurs, based on the information that they obtain. People who possess ‘idiosyncratic’ information enables them to identify particular opportunities that others cannot see. Resource Mobilisation Idea generation is only the first step in an entrepreneur’s journey to success. Once they have developed a viable business idea an entrepreneur must determine how he is going to fund it. Rawhouser, Villanueva and Newbert (2017) subdivide resource acquisition into ‘projective strategy’ and ‘interpersonal strategy’. Entrepreneurs can use different tools to leverage capital; words, actions, associations and in-tangibles. Projective strategy is orientated around the venture idea. It involves the entrepreneur selling his vision of the business to a resource gatekeeper. The gatekeeper then offers the entrepreneur resources if they believe that they will benefit from the venture (Rawhouser, Villanueva and Newbert 2017). A study carried out in 2003 proves that storytelling can help an entrepreneur secure resources for their venture (Martins, Jennings and Jennings 2007). Effective storytelling will help an entrepreneur succeed if he is attempting to acquire resources through a projective strategy. In contrast interpersonal strategy focuses on the entrepreneur themselves and their relationships with third parties. They leverage new and existing relationships to acquire capital and other resources for their ventures (Rawhouser, Villanueva and Newbert 2017). Start-up companies may also leverage their potential consumers to generate resources. If a customer realises the value of the product, they may be willing to help resource it. The leverage assistance value proposition can help clarify what support and resources the customer firm will provide the start-up company and also show what they receive in return. This proposition comes after the start-up company has already convinced the customer of the value of their business proposition (Wouters, Anderson, and Kirchberger 2018). Resourcing Entrepreneurs can generate financial resources in several ways, including customer funding, crowdsourcing and venture capitalists. Bootstrapping is a common way for entrepreneurs to start funding their business. It involves starting your business with restricted funds, and possibly sharing workspaces and borrowing equipment. Customer funding is a beneficial way to fund your start-up as it provides the financial resources you need while allowing you to focus on developing your business idea without the distraction of chasing investors (Mullins 2013). Although it seems like a strange concept to have your customers fund our start-up, when you consider that you already pay certain professional before receiving any product/service, the idea develops into numerous opportunities. Mullins (2013) identified five ways to gather resources using customer funding. The matchmaker model, the deposit model, the subscription model the standardise and resell model and the scarcity model. Each of these models assist an entrepreneur, with restricted funds, in launching their business (Mullins 2013). Crowdsourcing is another potential avenue to generate resources for a start-up company. Although the concept of having many people funding your start-up is not a new idea there have been platforms developed in recent years to support crowdfunding. It involves numerous investors investing smaller amounts to help a start-up generate financial resources (Mulcahy2013). Companies like Kickstarter have encouraged crowd funding for new businesses, making it cheaper, easier to access and removing the geographical restriction that was there in the past (Fleming, and Sorenson 2016). Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to crowdsourcing, with the main one being that most start-ups fail within the first four years. Those that have invested in these unfortunate start-ups lose everything (Fleming, and Sorenson 2016). Venture capitals (VC) have been known to have funded some of the most successful companies worldwide when they were start-ups. Kaplan and Lerner (2010) simply define VC’s as a solution to a problem, â€Å"matching entrepreneurs with an idea and no money to an investor with money, looking for a new idea†. However, receiving funding from a venture capitalist is a rare occurrence, and even at that, having a VC fund your company does not guarantee success. There are three activities involved when a VC wants to pursue a start-up. Firstly, they analysis and screen potential business’s, secondly, they draw up a detailed contract and finally they provide start-up companies with advice, contacts and experience in the given field of the new company (Kaplan and Lerner 2010). Venture Creation Process In the early stages of a business, the entrepreneur may improvise from time to time. Although improvisation may be a reaction to an unexpected issue, in some occasions an entrepreneur may tactically improvise. Improvisation can be divided into four broad domains; the occurrence of strategic improvisation; tactical improvisation rising to the level of strategy; network bricolage; and improvisational competencies (Baker, Miner, and Eesley 2003). Improvisation can be essential in some start-ups in markets of high uncertainty as there no previous business to learn from. It can lead to the development of the business idea, contribute to the business’s strategy, network bricolage, which is drawing on the resources already available and finally, improvisational competencies or routines and patterns used to enhance the effects of their improvisation (Baker, Miner, and Eesley 2003). Effectuation is another method of venture creation. Similar to network bricolage it involves using resources that are already available to develop your business. These resources may be capital, skills or connections. With effectuation the means available are considered instead of the end result. Due to this plans and goals can change and the entrepreneur is always improvising (Sarasvathy 2001). The opposite of effectuation is causation. Causation focuses on the end goal and selects the means or resources necessary to achieve this goal. This method may be used where the future is more predictable. Entrepreneurs have been known to successfully use both causation and effectuation in their businesses (Sarasvathy 2001). Effectuation has four main principles that contrast with causation. Effectuation is focused around affordable loss rather than causations expected return. When using effectuation, a business considers strategic partnerships as opposed to competitive analysis. They leverage contingencies to generate profit, instead of using pre-existing knowledge. Finally, they aim to take control of an unpredictable future as opposed to predicting an uncertain future (Sarasvathy 2001). Evolution of Ventures Scaling a business can be very difficult for many entrepreneurs. In the early days, the company may have little, or very liberal strategy. As the company grows a management system needs to be introduced, and the entrepreneur needs to develop some strategy for the company so that employees can remain focused. As the company grows the entrepreneur will need to introduce a more structured management system. Studies have proven that there is a link between an established management system and company growth (Davila, Foster and Jia 2010). The introduction to an established management system can help establish focus with the company. Hamm (2002) wrote that entrepreneurs need to learn to focus on crucial tasks. Focusing on smaller, less important tasks can skew the focus of the whole company. Having a defined management team focus on specific goals can help the company grow. When scaling a business, entrepreneurs need to understand that their own ways may not be enough, and they need to develop their skills to help the company grow. They need to learn to put the company first and not let loyalty affect the company. If an employee that they were friends with prior to employing them is not a correct fit with the company the entrepreneur needs to let them go. They can’t choose friendship over the scaling of the company (Hamm 2002). When an entrepreneur scales it is important to consider their past experiences and life issues, as they may subconsciously link to their decision making. This is known as the psychodynamic school of thought and it maintains that’s a person’s past experiences and life issues may contribute to their personal and professional life decisions (Kisfalvi 2002). In the early days of the start-up this personal aspect is what gets the company started. However, as the company scales, the entrepreneur’s own experiences and decisions may not be what is best for the company (Kisfalvi 2002). That is why it is essential for entrepreneurs to be openminded and willing to learn about all aspects of the company when they scale. Being single-minded and solely focusing on the product, and not the business as a whole could jeopardize the whole company (Hamm 2002). Review of entrepreneurs There is no definite answer to the question ‘Are Entrepreneurs born or made?’. If entrepreneurs are born it would linked to traits that they have grown up with, confidence, social skills and determination. In contrast, if entrepreneurs are made, they are made up of skills they have acquired through their life. Although I can not answer the question are entrepreneurs born or made, I can conclude that I believe that not everyone can become an entrepreneur. Robert Baron (2004) supports this by writing that individual mental processes contribute to everything we think, say and do. Optimistic bias, entrepreneurial alertness and systematic processing are all mental processes that vary from person to person. These contribute to how people can analyse situations, identify business ideas and remain optimistic when pursuing a business idea (Baron 2004). Not all people will have the correct frame of mind to carry out these processes. An entrepreneurial idea is not worth anything unless people are willing to invest and or purchase the product or service. Having people believe in your entrepreneurial idea is a major contribution to the success of the idea and I firmly believe that social capital and social skills can help to enhance this success. Social capital is actual and penitential resources generated from an individual’s relationships with others. Reputation, social class and referrals are all examples of social capital. Social skills are how an individual acts and behaves around and with others.These two combined in my opinion are crucial traits for successful entrepreneurs. (Baron and Markman 2000). Many people view entrepreneurs as creative risk-takers, who have a high need for achievement. Although these seem like daring, striving characteristics, they can also be deemed as negatives. Kets de Vries (1985) wrote an article on â€Å"The dark side of entrepreneurship†, which details how some entrepreneurs are the cause of their own demise. The need for control, sense of distrust and need for applause can engulf some entrepreneurs and skew their focus from developing their own businesses.