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Is wealth the only measure of success?

Watch Matt Mount and Steve Jaynes from Deakin University give their view on wealth as a measure of entrepreneurial success.
8.4
If we are defining wealth in a financial sense then my answer to that question is no. I think that entrepreneurial success can be measured through a variety of goals or metrics right across social and environmental values and goals so wealth is just in that true traditional sense being around money building and capital creation is really just one of a number of measures. So increasingly I think we have focussed on social goals and on environmental goals and on sustainability so there is a much broader range of metrics to measure entrepreneurial success. So, when I hear wealth I always think of Dollars, Pounds or whatever currency you want to think of. No, its not.
56.7
So, wealth is not the only measure in terms of, well economic wealth so we might want to look at wealth in different ways. So is its social wealth, any other type of wealth. So, because we can have different types of entrepreneurs the success of that entrepreneur then is measured in a different way.

Having explored how being entrepreneurial can result in a huge range of different outcomes, by a variety of different entrepreneurial ‘types’, we are now going to think about how we know whether those outcomes are successful.

The accumulation of wealth is often seen as a typical indication of successful entrepreneurship. No matter their goals and values, most people would say that they would like to be comfortable and able to live off their earnings. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that people act entrepreneurially because they want to make money; a view supported by the economic perspective of entrepreneurship that we discussed in Week 1.

However, even if wealth is the primary aim of entrepreneurship, there are often other motivations at play that can lead to an entrepreneur developing a more nuanced idea of what success will look like for them.

Watch the video to find out what Matt Mount and Steve Jaynes from Deakin University think about wealth as a measure of entrepreneurial success.

Your task

Do you think wealth is the primary indicator of success in entrepreneurship?

Can you think of any alternative measures?

Share your ideas in the comments. Explore what other learners are saying and reply with your own thoughts.

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Demystifying Entrepreneurship: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur

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