Entrepreneurs from Thailand, Texas, and many places in between, representing an array of industries from construction to computer technology, gathered in the Zone Club at Kyle Field on the Texas A&M University campus to celebrate the things they had in common: 1) They were all Aggies. 2) They were all extremely successful business people.
An innovative course on entrepreneurship specially designed for disabled veterans wounded since 2001 and made possible by generous donors made an impact on 14 would-be business owners. This is the second year that the program was offered at Mays, one of a five-school national consortium.
A new adventure is at hand for veterans disabled in the line of service since 9/11 as they have the chance to go through a different kind of bootcamp—one focused on entrepreneurship. Mays is again offering the national program Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans, an intense program that teaches disabled American soldiers how to start up and operate a small business.
According to Richard Lester, clinical associate professor and executive director of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, the shifting economic environment means the timing couldn’t be better for a new venture.
Entrepreneur Dr. Nancy Chang says she never considered failure to be a possibility when she leveraged all she had to launch her own pharmaceutical company, Tanox, Inc., in 1986. Though it wasn’t until 2003 that the drug she set out to produce was approved by the FDA and a few years later before it found commercial success, Chang says she was never afraid of failure during the long wait.
As students hurled paper planes and cardboard disks through the air outside the Wehner Building at Texas A&M University, who would have guessed that the competition in progress had less to do with aerodynamics than business?
Mays Business School at Texas A&M University is joining a consortium led by Syracuse University in a new program designed to assist veterans with disabilities. Called Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EVB), this program will offer training in small business start-up and management to service men and women injured in the line of duty since 2001.
