Building an Entrepreneurial-Individual Development Plan (E-IDP)

A core component of this course is supporting your development as a professional. Entrepreneurship in this course is broadly defined—not limited to launching a business, but focused on building competencies that are relevant in many professional contexts.

The Entrepreneurial-Individual Development Plan (E-IDP) is designed to help you identify specific areas for growth, set goals, and reflect on your progress throughout the semester. Similar to an individual development plan in a workplace setting, the E-IDP provides a structured way to track how your entrepreneurial mindset and skills evolve over time. Your mentor will also contribute by offering formative feedback based on their interactions with you.

The E-IDP will help you:

• Reflect on your entrepreneurial strengths and growth areas
• Track your development throughout the semester
• Receive feedback from your mentor based on real-world interaction
• Notice patterns in how you work and learn

Your mentor will also use the E-IDP to support your development by giving you feedback on your development mid-semester and at the end of the semester. You’ll each be working from the same set of entrepreneurial characteristics (listed below).

👉 View Mentor Instructions to understand what they’ll see.

Context and Setting

You’ll begin the E-IDP by identifying a few entrepreneurial characteristics that resonate with you. These are not technical skills, but qualities that influence how you work: things like vision, passion, or communication.

Over the semester, you’ll apply and strengthen those characteristics through specific activities in the course. Each course activity offers an opportunity to translate your mindset into tangible action—what we often refer to as skill building.

The activities may be the same across the class, but the lens through which you grow will differ depending on the characteristics you choose to focus on. That’s where the E-IDP and your mentor come in. Your mentor can help you unpack how your characteristics are showing up in action and where you might refine or redirect your efforts.

The Jordan Analogy: How Characteristics Drive Skill

Just like in sports, success in entrepreneurship—and in this course—isn’t just about having talent. It’s about how you develop and apply it.

Take Michael Jordan as an example. He became one of the greatest basketball players not just because he could shoot well or run fast, but because of the characteristics that shaped how he practiced and played:

• Competitiveness pushed him to train harder than anyone else.

• Resilience helped him bounce back from failure (like not making his high school varsity team).

• Leadership allowed him to inspire and elevate his team.

These characteristics guided the development of his skills—like footwork, timing, court vision—and made him better at applying those skills under pressure.

In the same way, your entrepreneurial characteristics—the ones you identify in your E-IDP—will shape how you approach and improve your skills throughout this course.

For example:

• If your characteristic is personal agency, you might push yourself to take the lead in the development of your team’s business case presentation.

• If your focus is problem solving, you’ll strengthen that by navigating challenges during the weekly case study discussions.

• If you choose communication, you’ll grow that skill during the podcast interview, where you’ll need to prepare, listen deeply, and respond thoughtfully.

• If your focus is team building, the weekly case studies and final business case presentation will give you direct experience navigating collaboration.

• If you’re working on creativity, you’ll stretch those muscles through problem-solving during the business case design.

Your characteristics give context and focus to your growth, just like they did for Jordan. The E-IDP helps you track that growth, and your mentor helps you reflect on it.

Final Thought

It’s not just about completing the assignments—it’s about becoming more aware of how you work, where you’re growing, and how to carry those gains into your future career.

Your entrepreneurial journey in this course will be shaped by how characteristics + skills + practice come together. The more intention you bring to that process, the more you’ll get out of it.

Why Inner Work Matters

Before you chart a career path—or even decide which opportunities to pursue—it helps to pause and ask: What do I actually want? In this short clip, Will Ahmed, founder of WHOOP, explains how most people get it backwards: they look outward first for answers before doing the inner work of understanding what they truly care about.

The E-IDP is designed to help you flip that script. It’s a tool for tuning into your values and goals—so you can move outward with more clarity and confidence.

Instructions

Select three characteristics among those listed below that feel meaningful or relevant to you right now.

This list includes commonly cited characteristics associated with entrepreneurial success. These are drawn from several sources, including the course textbook, Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, and Practice (Kuratko, 12th Edition). You’ll use these to guide your self-assessments and reflection.

You don’t need to be “good” at something to choose it. You might pick something you want to strengthen or explore. The goal is growth—not perfection.

Entrepreneurial Characteristics for E-IDP (summarized)

Each row represents a characteristic and shows how that trait might show up as a skill in different contexts: analyzing a case study, developing a case presentation, or producing a podcast. You don’t have to master every characteristic, but this framework can help you become more aware of your strengths and growth areas. As you move through the semester, use this table to reflect on how you’re engaging, not just what you’re doing—these are the habits that will carry forward into your future career.

Download PDF here

Source: Kuratko, D. F. (2023). Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, and Practice (12th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Characteristic	Description	Case Study Example	Case Competition Example	Podcast Example
Calculated Risk Taking	Makes strategic, informed decisions about when to take a risk, not reckless.	Proposes a bold case solution after weighing tradeoffs.	Suggests a pivot in the business idea after identifying market gaps.	Takes a chance on interviewing a less conventional guest to offer a fresh perspective.
Communication	Effectively conveys ideas and actively listens in professional settings	Clearly articulates your team’s recommendation during the fishbowl discussion	Delivers a concise, compelling story to audience	Conducts a structured, respectful interview that draws out relatable insights
Creativity and Innovativeness	Generates original ideas and sees possibilities others may not.	Comes up with an unusual solution to the case that reframes the challenge.	Develops a unique business case presentation.	Experiments with creative formats or questions in the podcast interview.
Determination and Perseverance	Total dedication to success, overcoming obstacles and setbacks, unwavering commitment to succeed.	Works through a tough case with limited information, revises submission after feedback.	Rebounds from a presentation that didn’t go well or team conflict to produce a strong final submission.	Follows through on editing and publishing the episode even with technical issues.
Drive to Achieve	A strong desire to compete, to excel against self-imposed standards, to pursue challenging goals.	Sets personal goals for improvement and strives to exceed rubric expectations.	Builds a creative, well-researched presentation that aims beyond the baseline requirements.	Prepares extensively for the interview and produces polished show notes.
Entrepreneurial Coachability	Seeks, integrates, and learns from failures, setbacks, or feedback to grow.	Revises work based on mentor or peer input.	Asks clarifying questions during feedback sessions and adjusts strategy.	Adapts podcast approach after receiving critique from peers or the mentor.
Entrepreneurial Hustle	Acts with urgency and creativity to solve immediate problems.	Takes initiative to move the team forward under time pressure.	Reaches out to external audiences to test assumptions while preparing the presentation.	Resolves a last-minute tech issue or integrates hard-to-get information to bring the episode to life.
High Energy Level	Demonstrates consistent drive and enthusiasm to sustain effort over time.	Shows consistent participation, takes initiative in group tasks, and keeps team momentum up.	Maintains intensity and enthusiasm through multiple iterations/drafts of the business presentation.	Brings energy and curiosity to the interview, actively engages with the guest and generates follow-ups.
Opportunity Orientation	Focuses on opportunity rather than resources; always scanning for possibilities.	Identifies a new angle or challenge in the case that others might miss.	Frames the business case around an unmet market need.	Uses the podcast to spotlight a mentor’s insight that others might overlook.
Passion	Demonstrates deep emotional investment in the work.	Shows enthusiasm during class discussion, invests energy into write-up.	Brings contagious energy to the business case presentation.	Curates thoughtful, engaging questions to spark an interactive conversation.
Persistent Problem Solving	Tackles tough problems with a methodical, realistic approach; doesn’t quit easily.	Breaks down a messy or ambiguous case dilemma into solvable components.	Iterates on a business idea that wasn’t working and comes back stronger.	Adapts when an interview doesn’t go as planned (e.g., awkward question, off-topic guest).
Personal Agency (Internal Locus of Control)	Believes success comes from personal responsibility and effort, not luck.	Owns their role in a group project—even if things go wrong—and makes improvements.	Steps up to lead part of the project rather than waiting for direction.	Volunteers to manage post-production or write the episode summary without being asked.
Seeking Feedback	Actively looks for input to improve performance; learns from critique.	Asks thoughtful questions during peer reviews and incorporates suggestions.	Takes mentor or instructor feedback seriously and uses it to refine the presentation.	Shares draft questions and welcomes team feedback to improve flow and focus.
Team Building	Builds strong, motivated teams; values others’ strengths.	Mediates conflict or reassigns tasks to ensure all voices are heard.	Creates a clear delegation plan and keeps the team motivated.	Makes sure each team member has a clear podcast role and supports each other.
Tolerance for Ambiguity	Comfortable operating under uncertainty or limited structure.	Makes confident decisions even with partial information.	Stays focused and productive when the business idea feels unclear.	Interviews a guest from a different background or industry, embracing unpredictability.
Vision	Has a clear sense of purpose or long-term direction.	Frames the case in terms of long-term consequences and strategy.	Builds a story for the business case presentation around a future-oriented mission.	Designs the podcast with a storytelling arc and mission in mind.

Timeline

You’ll return to your chosen characteristics throughout the semester:

Week	What You’ll Do
2	Choose 3 characteristics. Complete your baseline self-assessment in Qualtrics and explain why you chose them.
8	Your mentor will complete a brief check-in assessment on your progress. You’ll review their feedback and update your E-IDP.
16	Complete a final self-assessment and write a short reflection on how you’ve grown.