Wasted Dreams

The Williamson County insert in the Sunday Tennessean ran a story about a group of young entrepreneurs gone bad.

They had started a business installing audiovisual systems in people's homes in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. As an entrepreneurship professor I love to hear about young folks exploring the world of entrepreneurship. I developed a couple of small businesses when I was young and I know that is part of the reason I caught my life-long passion for entrepreneurship.

However, it seems these young boys were after more than a little experience and spare cash. They got greedy. The profits they made from their work were not enough.

"The alleged robbery happened last week while the owner of a Belle Meade home where the company had done work in the past was out of town, according to Brentwood Police.

"The teens entered the client's garage and stole a new Mercedes-Benz that was delivered while the homeowner was away. The suspects allegedly returned a second night, broke into the house and took more than $100,000 worth of property including jewelry, plasma televisions, computers and other personal items."

While I encourage young entrepreneurs to dream about the financial gains they can make as entrepreneurs, it is critical to ground their ambitions, the skills they develop, and the lessons they learn in values.

Entrepreneurs have no corporate code of ethics or even basic rules to follow in their work unless they develop them on their own. That is why it is so very important to understand how to integrate a sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust into your business from the very beginning. You set the rules and you enforce them.

I try to help my students understand the importance of this and how it can be accomplished in every class I teach. Sadly, it seems clear that these kids never got this lesson.