Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And now it's time for the AFLAC BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by AFLAC. Ask about it at work. And for this morning's Flashback, we're gonna do somethin' special. A solo performance. Walter Ulrich, entrepreneur, and President and CEO of The Houston Technology Center is gonna share with us his definition of being an entrepreneur.
Walter: Entrepreneurship entails hard work, persistence, passion, competency, risk, danger, and excitement. If entrepreneurship were to be captured in the popular culture, it would be an NFL playoff game with the entrepreneur as the quarterback of a team of only a couple of players. The entrepreneur stands in the pocket being rushed on every play by not just one team but the entire league. The entrepreneur has as many downs as he or she has the stomach and the money for, but rather than 60 minutes, the game is played for 10 or 12 or more hours every day, the goal line not just 100 yards but miles away and there are all manners of fumbles and incompletions and yet the entrepreneur stands in there minute after minute, day after day and month after month.
Not every entrepreneur succeeds but all are players. It reminds me of a quote by Teddy Roosevelt, certainly a bully player himself, when he said, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who's face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly." That was former President Teddy Roosevelt. I'm Walter Ulrich, President and CEO of The Houston Technology Center.
Russ: Okay, go Walter. Now what'd you think of that, John?
John: We really can't add anything to that.
Russ: Right, right. An NFL quarterback with two people on your team.
John: Two – couple of people on a team and, actually you're – you're not battling against the whole league, I guess. You're battling against the whole league and the fan base.
Russ: Right. (Laughter) Right, right.
John: 'Cause the fan base is the customer.
Russ: Yeah, yeah.
John: So all the fans are out there.
Russ: Yeah, no.
John: And it's – they're the ones who say yes or no on the idea and it's – they like what you're doin' you're a winner –
Russ: Yeah.
John: - they don't like what you're doin' you gotta go back get the playbook out or –
Russ: Redesign it –
John: - get the playbook out and read it and redo it, you know?
Russ: Right. No I love it and, and I would challenge our audience, our listeners. If you can come up with a cool definition of entrepreneurs, like Walter's –
John: That's right.
Russ: - send us an email. Go to the contact page on the website –
John: And what, what does the winner get?
Russ: We'll play their definition.
John: We'll play their definition. Okay. Yeah.
Russ: Yeah, I love it. That's Walter Ulrich, President and CEO of The Houston Technology Center –
John: Way to go, Walter.
Russ: - sharing with us his definition of entrepreneurship.
John: Yeah. Uh huh.
Russ: And that wraps up this morning's AFLAC BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by AFLAC, ask about it at work. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
