Entrepreneurship is one of the most controversial and misunderstood occupations in the modern world. The video called “Shine: The Entrepreneur’s Journey” published by Niko Alexopoulos (2011) presents the real people, the entrepreneurs who have dared to quit their regular jobs and pushed themselves to pursue their dreams and following their real passion in life. These people explain why they have become entrepreneurs, the price they have paid for it, and reflect on the essence of entrepreneurship as they see it.
Most people understand the concept of being an entrepreneur incorrectly. It is not about fancy cars, large offices, and bank accounts full of money. The successful real-life entrepreneurs help the audience to see that it is about uncertainty, stress, failures, and many other unpleasant and frustrating things. However, the overarching theme of it is freedom.
The people in this video have gone through the difficult process of making the toughest decision: to continue work at the job each of them did not like but feel safe (to the certain extent) or to make a move towards uncertainty, potential failure, and problems but towards freedom as well (Alexopoulos 2011).
The main points raised in it are as follows: entrepreneurship is not what it looks like at the beginning, failures give the feeling of clarity and certainty, there is always a price to pay, and entrepreneurship is for life. The entrepreneurs from the video say that being an entrepreneur is being free in the methods and choose to identify their place in life. However, this freedom costs a lot because it is accompanied by too many unknowns that subject any entrepreneur to the constant stress at the beginning. Any beginner should be ready for it.
Another point is that failures are good for entrepreneurship. They provide clear answers to the question of how things should not be done in each given case. Failures can be very painful, but they are good teachers. Then, the success in the life of an entrepreneur is closely connected with failures in other aspects of life: family, friendship, and other similar areas. People spend too little time with the ones they love and then regret it, or their ideas contradict the opinion of family and entrepreneurs have to choose between family and business. It is very painful in any case, so it is ‘a must’ for any beginner that there is always a price for success.
Finally, all successful entrepreneurs say that it is the state of mind and soul, so it is the occupation for life. Abandoning something a person has created through the difficult choice, uncertainty, stress, and failures is not an option.
Betting in Australia is closely connected to sports. It is a form of gambling that has sports as the targeted area. Today, according to the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) of 2001 the Australian government prohibited any activities that involve “real-money online interactive gambling services” and advertising of “real-money interactive gambling services” (Tendler 2016, para. 7). However, the prohibition does not include online casinos that provide their services inside the country. Bets can be made online still, and there are many foreign operators on this market of Australia today. Moreover, IGA does not prohibit sports betting online (Jackson 2001).
It is related to the fact that since sports betting services operate on the Australian soil and have licensed and appropriately-registered brick-and-mortar businesses, the legislation is not against such activities. The government regulates such kind of gambling, using the rule that “if wagers are made before the event, this is not deemed to be ‘interactive’” (Tendler 2016, para. 11). It raises certain concerns in Australia. According to Gardner (2014), betting has a competitive advantage over other gambling services, being the same thing. The situation has been reviewed by the government, but no changes have been made yet, providing sports betting businesses with the opportunity to conduct their business legally for further.
Gambling, on the one hand, is a considerably safe way of enjoying risk in regular life. People put their money at stake hoping that this bet will bring them more money. It looks rather safe and innocent. However, some individuals are unable to assess the measure of risk, and they cannot control themselves in the desire to return the money spent or earn more than they have already received (Nordqvist 2015). The psychological effect of gambling is based on the combination of uncertainty and positive hope of a gambler. The probability theory would be a nice tool to be used by a gambler to assess the chances to win. However, a true gambler always hopes for the 50/50 ratio and own luck.
When there are no winnings, problems come in the form of anxiety, loss of control, physical manifestations of stress like a migraine, depression, loss of appetite, and many others (Nordqvist 2015). Gamblers become obsessed with the feeling that gambling gives them. It is the feeling of success that is achieved because of luck. It is a very unreliable partner, but gamblers pay little attention to such details until the winnings stop. Gambling is a severe psychological disorder that should be treated as any other disorder caused by addiction (drugs, alcohol, others).
Reference List
Alexopoulos, N 2011, Shine: The entrepreneur’s journey, video, YouTube. Web.
Gardner, J 2014, ‘Gambling laws do ‘nothing to control’ sports betting’, The Sydney Morning Herald. Web.
Jackson, K 2001, Gambling policy and regulation. Web.
Nordqvist, C 2015, Gambling addiction: how is gambling bad for you? Web.
Tendler, D 2016, Australian online gambling laws. Web.