Background
Time has revealed that entrepreneurship is not for all because not everyone can take on the responsibilities that come with it. Researchers have been keen to detail the various traits that accompany entrepreneurs and the way they can showcase their prowess. While most entrepreneurs share the same set of attributes, there is not one single characteristic that guarantees anyone the full benefits of self-employment. Nevertheless, the standard characteristics provide insight to the very tenets required if one seeks to be a successful entrepreneur since not all can prosper.
Walter White is a character in the movie series Breaking Bad who is seen as the protagonist of the whole production. He went to the California Institute of Technology and proved to be a very resourceful chemist with a brilliant mind. While in school, Walter specialized in X-ray crystallography, something that proved to be a walk in the park for him. He later conducted numerous research projects with top chemists such as Herbert A Hauptman and Jerome Karle and received the honors for his involvement (Breaking Bad, 2008-2013).
In the movie series, Walter White has built a name for himself by starting a business of selling drugs and creating an empire out of it. In his walk to become the man “Heisenberg,” a word used to refer to him while in the business of selling meth, Walter was able to form and break alliances that propelled him to success. An entrepreneur, according to Smilor (2011), is a person who can create out of a position of lack and become successful in it. When we look at Walter White and this specific perception of an entrepreneur, we can then go forward and claim that Walter was able to become an entrepreneur and a successful one, for that matter. Even if the road to becoming successful involved treading into grounds he never hoped to, he was able to keep his calm and composure to achieve the things he did in this line of business.
Baumol theory analytics on entrepreneurship
Baumol brought about the idea of categorizing entrepreneurs based on their level of impact on society. In his theory on topology, he classified them as productive, unproductive, and destructive (Baumol, 1990). Walter White can be branded as both destructive and unproductive. His ties with Jack resulted in the death of Todd and Han, all in the name of doing business. So the business could accurately be termed as destructive because it not only increased drug outreach but also caused the deaths of people. Even if he had a great product, it does not seem to better the society in any way. When more drugs are available in the community, the economy of the country actually goes down since drug lords are known to amass wealth rather than redistribute it. According to Sobel (1990), institutions have a critical part to play in the whole process of entrepreneurship as they create the channels to success. In the analysis of Walter White and how he crafted ways to distribute his drugs, he was allied with different individuals, such as Krazy 8, Jack, Mike, Jesse, Todd, and Tuco. So these various individuals acted as institutions in the line of work that were important in ensuring that the flow of drugs was possible.
Personality Trait Theory
Psychologists have, over the year,s brought forward notions that the conduct of individuals in business is directly dependent on their personal traits. So the personality theories come into play for entrepreneurs because of their focus on innovation (Rauch & Frese, 2008). The ideal entrepreneur is independent in thought and action, creative, goal-oriented, able to handle risks, and has an internal locus of control. When Walter decided to get into the drug business, he believed in his product to the point that he teamed up with Jesse Pinkman, who was already in the market. So from a personal perspective, Walter understood what he wanted and how to achieve it. When the movie nears completion, Walter was able to create a brand from nothing at all because of his persona of treading forward regardless of obstacles. Walt was able to blackmail different people, including Tuco, who had refused to pay for a product, meaning that he was determined to enlarge his territory at all costs. In his line of business, fear was the only factor that built empires, something that Walter was ready to use to achieve his goal of securing cash for the future of his family. As a teacher, he was expected to be calm and handle situations calmly, but that was different when he led his secretive drug business.
Walter also comes out as a risk-taker because of diving into the pool of gangsters, even though he was a man who did not know how to handle a gun. So these waters were entirely new to him, but did not intimidate his desire to reap out the business. When we gauge Walter on the personality theories that converge on the tenets of trait, we can confidently say that his persona plays a huge role in his becoming a successful entrepreneur. Psychologists also suggest that some characteristics found in individuals are acquired from interactions, in that people learn while in contact with others (Rauch & Frese, 2008). Walter’s interaction with Jesse made him confident around other drug dealers and speak his mind. As the series starts, Walter has great difficulty bringing himself to murder, but as the movie ends, he barely gives a second thought when it comes to killing a man. Entrepreneurs also get to understand the risks they can stomach and ones that are out of their reach only after diving into the field. Walter seemed well-equipped to change his soft character to one that was staunch and rigorous. Psychologists claim that such abilities come from the genetic makeup of people and not cognitive response.
The Big Five Personality Trait Theory
This specific line of psychology stems from the notion of different scholars that humans are founded on five core personality traits. Unlike the general personality trait theory that borrows from various schools of thought, the Big Five personality trait theory believe the five personality factors represent ranges between two extremes. When gauging entrepreneurs on this theory, it is prudent first to understand the facets of the different categories involved. They include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness (Murugesan & Jayavelu, 2017). Extraversion is characterized by the sociability and talkativeness of individuals. In a business setting, this might come out in the creation of networks because one needs to advertise oneself. Walter White does not seem to fall into this category of individuals because his partner, Jess, does most of the talking regarding creating networks in the distribution of drugs. Whenever on occasions that have many people, Walter is seen reclined and quiet. On the trait of agreeableness, an individual shows attributes of trust, affection, and prosocial behaviors. Walter, however, ranks low in this character because he is competitive and even manipulative. He was a natural liar because he kept his “Heisenberg” persona all to himself and Jessee.
Conscientiousness means a person has high levels of thoughtfulness and control. Walter was neither high nor low in it because he lost his cool numerous times on his journey. He embraced his dark side of personality through tantrums and was always arguing with his business associate, Jesse. All his links with individuals such as Mike in the raid they undertook, Walter was still losing his cool. However, that loss of control revealed his more profound desire to become great in the business. Neuroticism, on the other hand, represents individual differences in adjustment and emotional stability. If one is high on neuroticism, they tend to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, hostility, depression, impulsiveness, and vulnerability. However, these feelings might also come from the environment. Walter showed high levels of tension and resentment while in the business, but mostly because he was sick and the line of work was dangerous. However, he was adamant and overcame the negative emotions, something that, according to Dyer (1994), only successful entrepreneurs can. He was confident in ensuring that his meeting with distributors such as Tuco and Krazy 8 would become successful in the end, even though the case was not so. Openness shows a person who is intellectually curious and tends to seek new experiences. When Walter was starting, he showed his interest in the business by asking Hank to take him on duty as he hunted drug lords. He was able to meet Jesse in the process and foster a partnership that would help him in the end. A study by Zhao & Seibert (2006) concluded that entrepreneurs score higher in this trait than managers, even though they might be in the same line of work. This is because entrepreneurs work from thepositions of uncertainty, unlike managers who are given different things to work with.
Cognitive Theory
The cognitive approach suggests that our thought process dictates the manner in which we behave (Sanchez et al., 2011). As a chemist, Walter was structured to follow thought patterns that sought to grant solutions rather than create other problems. So when a person/entrepreneur does not have the answers to a particular problem, they feel inferior and tend to go for strategic solutions that might eventually deal with the problem. Hank was his brother-in-law, who was also a policeman, and Walter did not want him meddling in his personal affairs. So White was fond of devising ways in which Hank would be kept in the dark, like the raid on Tuco. This is because he had no long-term solution to deal with Ha. After all, that would mean exposing the fact that he was dealing with drugs. Mike, on the other hand, was a drug lord who was continually destroying the avenues of revenue used by Jesse and Walter. So Walter agreed on giving up control of 35% of the company for a price of $15 15million. He later quit the business but was prompted back due to other personal issues.
Looking at the situations intently, we find that Walter was so cautious in treading grounds that he was not conversant with. He knew that he had to become prominent in the business and thus had to foster agreements that would aid just that. According to Cooper et al. (1988), most entrepreneurs start with a good sense of success but end up failing because of the total reliance on personal thoughts. The successful ones can counter this veil and cope with the limitations through partnerships. Even if Walter were able to create excellent products, his arrogant and egotistic nature would not have guaranteed him success in the business.
Education Theory on Entrepreneurship
Walter White was able to go to school and acquire an education, which in turn helped him advance his profession in terms of experience. Through such experience, he was able to handle more experiments that added to his insight when it came to the crystal composition of matter. He then tapped into this knowledge when it came time to start his meth creation business. So education was a critical factor that enabled all his achievements later in life. Researchers claim that there are some aspects of ambiguity when the relationship between education and entrepreneurship is concerned (Peters & Brijlal, 2011). The different surveys have sort to unravel the importance of education whether secondary or tertiary to the success of business ventures. When we go back to the subject of reference, Walter White had an education that was not at all related to the business field. Just like very many renowned businessmen of today, Walter was able to concentrate on his line of work and, as a result, developed a business out of it. So it is benign to state that it does not matter the specialization when it comes to education because such differences bring about the diversity of entrepreneurs. Walter was a chemist and entrepreneur because all of his success came from his brilliant understanding of molecules. So, based on education as a guiding force to entrepreneurship, it is safe to say that all the success Walter was able to have in the drug business was as a result of the education he received in college. Current research suggests that a significant portion of thetop-levell self-made entrepreneurs are individuals who left school as dropouts (Kochar, 2016). However, the case is different in Walter because if he dropped out of college, it is almost guaranteed that he would not be able to cook meth as well as he did.
References
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