Major in Entrepreneurship

Video Transcript

[00:00] My name is Evan Gove. I'm majoring in entrepreneurship. So from a young age, I knew that I wasn't really cut out to fit into a classic corporate culture. I really don't like rules that much and I really don't like a lot of structure. So it put me in this unique position where I had to find something that I was uniquely qualified for, but also had the flexibility I was looking for. 

[00:26] So probably one of the biggest struggles I've faced in my entire life so far is deciding if I should go to college and find a job that I might not like, or if I should go ahead and go straight into being an entrepreneur and starting my own business. It wasn't until recently that I really made a decision to commit to college because of this entrepreneurship program here at UAB. 

[00:50] So the thing that really surprised me was when I heard the entrepreneurship major was coming, that came with an endowed chair, Dr. Murphy, which is a huge deal. For those that don't know what an endowed chair can do, it's the cream of the crop. It's the best you can get. The faculty themselves, the faculty that's here is really second to none. There's such a wide range of experiences. They come from all backgrounds and they really understand what an entrepreneur needs to succeed. 

[01:19] So Birmingham is really unique and it has one of the nation's largest incubators, Innovation Depot. It's also the largest in the Southeast for tech startups. We've actually had the opportunity through the program, through the ENT major program, to work with the clients directly out of Innovation Depot. Just to describe what that means to an entrepreneur like myself, it's very inspirational. We get to see so many entrepreneurs coming from so many different backgrounds, working on so many different companies. It really helped me get really well connected with them to learn from them. 

[01:52] So getting connected as an entrepreneur is huge because those connections can bring you knowledge, they can bring you business. I think that's why Birmingham and UAB is possibly the best entrepreneurial environment that I could be in at this point my life because we have programs like gatherings every Wednesday at noon where entrepreneurs come from far and wide. We've had entrepreneurs from out of state come over just to visit with us as students, and they don't see us as students, they see us as fellow entrepreneurs. Which is really important because it's not about students, it's not about entrepreneurs, it's about helping students understand what entrepreneurship is all about and helping them grow.

[02:30] I think the traditional idea about getting an education is getting a degree to get that piece of paper. So now you can go do a job. Well, as an entrepreneur, that's not what I need. The program gives me exactly what I need. That is the knowledge, the tools, the connections and the mindset that it takes to be an entrepreneur. Having the right mindset is probably the most important thing that you can get from a degree in entrepreneurship. It teaches you how to commit and be okay with uncertainty. It teaches you how to understand risk and weigh it against the uncertainty. Ultimately, it teaches you how to understand what failure is and understand how to learn from it so that you are truly a successful entrepreneur. 

[03:09] My ultimate goal for myself and as an entrepreneur is to reach my fullest potential so that I have the opportunity to give back, and the way I want to give back is by helping others understand and achieve their fullest potentials.