Entrepreneur
Mike Ramsey
OMM614: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Professor Adrienne Osborne August 19, 2013

Entrepreneur Richard G. Weingardt. was a structural engineer who was also a very successful entrepreneur that from the inception of his company, until the time that he retired, He and His firm completed over four thousand projects that still stand as a monument to his great work. This paper will discuss what it means to be and Entrepreneur, as well as how Richard G. Weingardt exhibited the necessary traits of an entrepreneur. Franchises are one form of entrepreneurship. In our society today, change is upon us, and if we do not have innovative people that can step outside the box and become a beacon in this world. There are millions of entrepreneurs in the world, and some have failed, while others have gone on to become very successful in their industries. An entrepreneur is anyone who takes on financial risk in pursuit of operating their own business based on their own innovation, or innovations of others that they have improved upon. A lot of entrepreneurs are not coming up with their own ideas, but they are taking others ideas and making them strengths in their area. One of the greatest examples of this is the ever growing world of the franchise. A franchise is a company that was started by an initial entrepreneur and then in order to expand the business quickly and eliminate some of the financial risk they begin to have other entrepreneurs invest in their company and purchase territories that they can operate in as long as they follow certain guidelines. Chem-Dry is a franchise that has exploded over the last few years. It started with an entrepreneur minded person that while riding on a plane spilled something on his suit and a lady sitting next to him told him how to get it out. He took his knowledge of chemistry and the suggestion of this women and created a carbonated cleaning solution for carpet and upholstery. Today, this franchise is in all fifty states and the original entrepreneur develops things, but has nothing to do with the cleaning any more. Also, every person owns their own business and pays for the right to use the technology and display the name that has grown so far. One of the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur that Richard G. Weingardt has shown to be a successful trait is the love for the work that he does. Richard was known to have quoted Confucius to say that “Confucius sad ‘Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life’ Engineering was my choice, and Confucius was right” (Weingardt) He used that love to become award-winning company receiving over one hundred engineering excellence awards for their designs. For example, they created the multi-sided terminals at the Denver airport to create the three different concourses. They also won awards for their Cowboy Hall of fame Museum in Oklahoma