For example, there are a lot of rose-colored ideas of what it means to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs may get to make their own schedules and not have a corporate contract committing them to a set time period. However, most of their time isn’t committed to themselves. In order to successfully run a business, an entrepreneur must consistently focus on their business. 

In the U.S. alone, women entrepreneurs generate $1.1 million in revenue on average across retail, professional and personal service businesses that have operated for 11 years. This stat comes from Visa’s new ‘State of Female Entrepreneurship’ report, which informed their recently announced program, She’s Next, Empowered by Visa, a global initiative to support and champion women in their efforts to grow their small businesses. This highlights the important role women entrepreneurs play in the prosperity and economic development of local communities. 

Wells Fargo, which has been the largest small business lender for the last 11 years, also announced their goal of lending $100 billion to small business by 2018. Wong said that this is an aggregate goal for all businesses, South Asian and otherwise, but that Wells Fargo has resources meant specifically for Asian business owners. “We host several financial seminars and workshops, across the Wells Fargo footprint, that partner specifically with Asian chamber associations and trade associations,” said Wong. 

This past spring Summit Series co-founders Elliot Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz made headlines for buying Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah. The largest ski resort in the U.S. came with a price tag of $ 40 million dollars. What made the purchase especially newsworthy though was the fact that the company, then only five years old, was run by four entrepreneurs all under 30. To some, the thought of a young start-up buying a mountain in Utah might seem daring and even somewhat audacious, but this kind of thinking epitomizes the Summit Series.