"Entrepreneurs Are Risk Takers"

Mr. James L. Dunbar presented his lecture, "Entrepreneurs Are Risk Takers" to Nichols business students on October 19, 2007, in which he emphasized that he was short on business theory, but that he was an entrepreneur, and therefore, he usually broke more rules than he followed.

He gave students a brief summary of his company: "I started what was then Federal Armored Express in Baltimore in 1956 with one truck, two guns, and a full tank of gas...I am still CEO and chairman, with day-to-day operations in the hands of my son, Kevin," he said. "In between were fifty plus years of challenges, opportunities, successes, failures, disappointments, excitement, and sheer terror--sometimes, all in the same day. That's how it is when you're an entrepreneur."

"This is what I think I know," said Dunbar, "it is absolutely imperative that you understand your strengths and weaknesses...My first job every day is to make an accurate, honest assessment of myself--my abilities and my limitations--in handling the potential challenges of that day. That's the hardest thing I do every day because I would like to think that no one can do what I do better than me. After all, I built this company. But that's just not the case, and in reality it never was."

Mr. Dunbar stated that not isolating himself inside an executive office was his greatest strength: "I'm really good at walking around. And the bigger my company gets, the more room I have to walk."

Following the seminar, Nichols students enjoyed a luncheon with Mr. Dunbar and his wife, Shelley, where they heard some additional stories of his life as an entrepreneur.