Why This Entrepreneur Doesn’t Regret Leaving His Successful Business?

Article Title: Why This Entrepreneur Doesn’t Regret Leaving His Successful Business?

URL: http://fortune.com/2015/12/28/entrepreneur-successful-business/?iid=sr-link7

Entrepreneur Name and Position: Chris Boehner, founder and CEO of Western Natural Foods

Issue Discussion

The news article is based on an interview where Chris Boehner is asked about his organizational activities and passion for his work over the last few years. He astonishingly reveals that he used to own a business in China. He started his first business at the age of 26. He is fluent in Mandarian. He used to conduct face to face interviews with Chinese students who had applied for admission into US universities. The interviews were conducted on behalf of the US universities to screen the eligible students. The students would apply to US universities stating that they knew to speak fluent English but when they arrived at these universities, some of them were not able to speak English. Chris had a good business running. But after being into 6 years of running the business, Chris realized that this is not what he loves to do. He said that he had to sit down and brainstorm about what his real passion was. The rest of the discussion revolves about the decisions that Chris made that changed his future and made him do a business that he feels passionate about.

Was it resolved?

As I said earlier that Chris was faced with a conflict inside his own mind of whether to continue the interviewing business or quit it and look for his life calling. In the article, Chris states that he gave it sometime and at the end he was sure that he does not want to do a business he does not enjoy. In Chris’s own words he wanted to do a business where “Twelve-hour workdays will feel like half days when you love what you do.” He loved to talk about nutrition and health food. He wanted to do something that was environmentally sustainable, which is also one of the quality of entrepreneurial leaders (Lussier, and Achua 395). Chris was able to resolve the issues of adopting to a business that he loved and for that reason he came back to US.

How did leaders respond?

I believe Chris’s response was really courageous. He was not driven by an emotional attitude to pursue his ambitions. Chris came to US and started thinking strategically. He started visiting stores that were offering organic food. He was not satisfied in the quality and started to investigate where this food came from. He found out that the food came from formers who did not get their proper share of the money that they deserved. Chris says that that was the moment that he know what he was going to do. Chris started the healthy food company “Western Natural Foods (WFN)” with an aim to be a benefit organization but the benefit is not be at the expense of integrity. WFN is a successful company that invests in companies who are interested in producing good natural and healthy food. The strategic leadership of Chris has made the company gain a good share of the natural food industry. Chris is a leader who encourages learning knowledge among his staff member and other business partners. This contributes heavily to the success and rapid growth of the company.

What could have been done better?

In my opinion Chris did great. He followed his passion instead of staying at a job that one day would have collapsed due to his lack of interest and attention. When we look around, we can see that all of the present day successful entrepreneurs are passion driven not just profit driven. With passion comes innovation which is an important ingredient for an enormous success like the one Chris has with WFN.