Abstract

I want to rethink, reevaluate, and explore how a business lasts longer, how an entrepreneur really helps and advances the environment, society, and people, and what the true sense of responsibility and pursuits of an entrepreneur are. In addition to financial gains, an entrepreneur can contribute to which area and how much they can improve the human beings’ living standards and explore high-quality living status for the entire society. 

Key Words

Entrepreneur • Environmental Status • Sustainability • Possibility of Living Improvement

Introduction

After knowing and joining Dr.****, I have learned many valuable and practical knowledge and skills of business. I interested in business and entrepreneur affairs since I was a little child because I have been impressed and impacted by my parents, who are successful businesspeople. Due to my parents’ great success in their business, I have been living in a state of abundance. While I am grateful for the rich life my parents have created for me, I am super lucky to meet my spiritual mentor, Dr. ****. My parents and my spiritual mentor have challenged me to rethink and reevaluate what it really means to be an entrepreneur, what social responsibilities are as an entrepreneur, and how an entrepreneur can lead humanity to a higher plane of life. Therefore, in this paper, I will explain my new thoughts of an entrepreneur, delve into a wider range of social responsibilities as an entrepreneur, and motivate what innovations an entrepreneur can bring to the environment and humanity.

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur represents success, the abundance of money, and more freedom living status. However, after learning from Dr. ****, I obtain a new concept and understanding of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur does not blindly pursue the growth and accumulation of personal wealth but cares about the common interests of the people and the whole of mankind and the overall development of concepts for the entire human being. Mainly, I feel that I have been instilled countless strengths that I am more willing to contribute my parts for mankind, society, and the long-term development of the future of mankind. If all entrepreneurs take the common development of the whole of mankind as their business mission, they will surely lead people to a more environmentally friendly, harmonious, and long-term life. Therefore, in my opinion, an entrepreneur not only pursues personal interests and wealth accumulation but also cares about the people and regards the common interests and progress of the whole of mankind as an important part of his social responsibility. 

Social Responsibilities

An entrepreneur should take into account of social responsibility greater than his/her own interests and financial pursuits. According to the article “Entrepreneurs Are Called to Be Socially Responsible”, it emphasizes, “A socially responsible entrepreneur is proactive with eliminating corrupt, irresponsible or unethical behavior that might bring harm to the community, its people, or the environment before the behavior happens” (Whitney, 2017). As a successful entrepreneur, he/she is responsible for eradicating corruption, creating peace, and exploring the way humanity can live better from now on to the future. As an entrepreneur, he/she should consider which kinds of products or services they will introduce, produce, or provide because the environmental protection of the product and the immediate and long-term impact on people is far more important than how much profit the entrepreneur can make. 

Furthermore, as an entrepreneur, the triple bottom line is the basically important ethics line that they must uphold. According to the Harvard Business School article “THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE: WHAT IT IS & WHY IT’S IMPORTANT”, it explains, “The triple bottom line is a business concept that posits firms should commit to measuring their social and environmental impact—in addition to their financial performance—rather than solely focusing on generating profit, or the standard “bottom line.” It can be broken down into “three Ps”: profit, people, and the planet” (Miller, 2020). Prior to profit pursuits, the earth and human beings are crucially important factors that entrepreneurs must position to their first consideration in their business activities and execute their entrepreneurial responsibilities. If an entrepreneur’s product has a protective effect on the earth and the environment, the product is worth making even if the profit is meager, and vice versa. If an entrepreneur’s product or service can bring people long-term convenience and promote progress, the entrepreneur’s product or service is valuable in the long-term, and vice versa. Entrepreneurs should always think that they are the ones who can make a real difference and progress to humanity. The positive difference can make a real change in humans’ lives. However, the negative difference or result, the entrepreneurs can lead people into the abyss from which they will never recover both in the short and long run. Therefore, all entrepreneurs have to position the planet and people’s lives and benefits prior to or much greater than entrepreneurs’ profits when they run their businesses. 

Innovations

Entrepreneurs have the ideas and the drives to innovate humans’ living status; also, they have the ability to fulfill their ideas. Therefore, entrepreneurs’ innovative ideas and actions can make real changes and improvements to entire human beings’ lives. According to the Forbes’ article “How Entrepreneurs Could Shape the Climate Change Battle”, it tells, “Solar energy, wind power, electric cars, remote working tools and technologies to reduce emissions are present, and it is entrepreneurs who can bring these into reality. Bring innovation to the fight against climate change” (Rafi, 2021). From reality, we have already seen so many innovations that entrepreneurs have brought to our lives. Moreover, these existing innovations are not the endpoints; on the contrary, they are the proof that entrepreneurs have the ability to transform our lives into an unprecedented convenient level. Also, these proofs are only the starting points that reality requires more innovations in order to save our earth, such as saving water innovations, preventing air pollutions innovations, sustainable innovations, and many more. At the current stage, climate change, air pollution, and water scarcity are crucial issues in our life. If I were an entrepreneur, I would innovate new creatures in order to address the issues. More sustainable technologies, products, and services will be my pursuits if I were an entrepreneur. 

Once an entrepreneur executes their businesses’ affairs, they should consider whether their raw materials, procedures, and techniques are environmentally friendly or not. Otherwise, the entrepreneur might be the contributor to environmental vandals. According to the Forbes article “How Entrepreneurs Could Shape the Climate Change Battle”, it reports, “Entrepreneurs have been one of the main causes of global warming for centuries. The industrial revolutions, which have caused carbon emissions throughout the last few centuries” (Rafi, 2021). When entrepreneurs are careless about environmental factors, they easily step into environmental vandals. Thus, instead of helping and protecting people and the earth, the entrepreneurs destroy the earth’s environment in many directions and in a very profound way. When I understand the truth that water can carry a boat and can also overturn the boat, I decided to do an ethical entrepreneur because entrepreneurs have the ability to innovate people’s lives unpredictably; at the same time, entrepreneurs also have the ability to destroy human lives in an instant. If an entrepreneur only pursuits monetary accumulation and is careless emissions, our globe will be warmer and warmer until human beings cannot live on the earth longer. As a result, entrepreneurs’ careless activities can destroy our lives very fast and unconsciously. After knowing the above facts and examples, I deeply understand how big an impact an entrepreneur can make. Positive impact can lead people to go into a new innovative world; simultaneously, the negative impact can ruin our life and our planet. If I can be an entrepreneur in the future, I will explore saving water innovations, preventing air pollutions innovations, and sustainable innovations. I know these are a severe ordeal, but I think these are the obligations that I have to undertake as an entrepreneur. 

Conclusion

We need to define entrepreneurship in a new way because entrepreneurs create so many new things to make our lives more convenient and innovations; simultaneously, many entrepreneurs are unwittingly destroying the planet we live in. entrepreneurs have their social responsibilities and must focus on environmental issues rather than only pursuing their own personal wealth. The prosperity and development of the whole humans and the reasonable protection of the earth are more important than the profit growth of entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs can run their businesses for a long time only on the premise of not destroying the earth's environment and the healthy life of human beings. Entrepreneurs should not only check the environmental quality of raw materials and production processes but also need to produce and deliver environmentally friendly final products and services, which can lead human beings to go to the new innovative world and provide countless convenience to humans’ life. All in all, entrepreneurs should position people and the planet above their profits in the triple bottom line because innovative human beings’ lives and non-polluted environment are crucial premises for an entrepreneur to operate their businesses in the long term. Therefore, I will be an ethical, careful, and thoughtful entrepreneur when I run my own business in the future.

References

Miller, K. (2020, December 8). THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE: WHAT IT IS & WHY IT’S      IMPORTANT. Harvard Business School Online. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-the-triple-bottom-lineLeng, S. (2020, August 7). China no longer top clothes exporter to US as Vietnam gains market share. South China Morning Post. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3096504/china-no-longer-top-clothes-exporter-us-vietnam-gains-market

Rafi, T. (2021, March 3). How Entrepreneurs Could Shape the Climate Change Battle. Forbes. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/03/how-entrepreneurs-could-shape-the-climate-change-battle/?sh=2bd86af928f3

Whitney, G. (2017, November 19). Entrepreneurs Are Called to Be Socially Responsible. HuffPost. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from huffpost.com/entry/entrepreneurs-are-called-to-be-socially-responsible_b_5a11c8c9e4b0e30a9585080d#:~:text=A%20socially%20responsible%20entrepreneur%20is,environment%20before%20the%20behavior%20happens.