Entrepreneurship in a volatile economy

Here is a post from Joshua Snyder. Joshua is the graduate assistant for the Center for Entrepreneurship, here at Rollins. Joshua is on to something. Microsoft was not able to attract outside funding until four or five years of operation. Access to capital isn't the only success factor. During times of volatility, existing business relationships are up for graps. New gaps are formed in the economic system. Gaps that new entrepreneurs can fill.

I read a short article in Kiplinger’s last week about an MBA student specializing in finance named Chris, who is about to graduate this May from Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame. Chris completed his summer internship on Wall Street with the investment arm of the Swiss mega-bank UBS. After he didn’t receive a job offer (due to the stock-market meltdown) he decided to forego his investment banking dreams on Wall Street and head into a career doing corporate restructuring. Chris realized that there is a much more solid market in helping businesses refinance and eliminate bad dept than there is in investment banking.
Chris’ story made me think that with all the doom and gloom being talked about on the trading floors, in the board rooms, and all the way down into the classrooms, graduating MBA students (especially aspiring entrepreneurs) should take heart in the knowing that with all of the shake up going on in our economy as a result of this crisis, there are going to be tons of brand new opportunities available for those with enough vision and determination to find them.
The greatest entrepreneurs are the ones who are always willing to look at the big picture. It is impossible to find the best opportunity unless you are examining all of your available options. Chances are, if you start your education with an idea for a new venture, by the time you graduate you may have found that the market has changed, the economy has shifted, or you simply have learned through your education that your idea was not as solid as you originally thought. The important thing is that you should come away from your studies with the skills necessary to assess a wide variety of opportunities and be able to select the best one. And if a finance student can demonstrate that kind of flexibility, how much better prepared to adapt should you be as an entrepreneur?

Here's the link to the full article:
http://www.kiplinger.com/magzine/archives/2009/03/finance_majors.html