Select members of the group happened to be on the same shuttle as Chuck E. Cheese’s founder, Nolan Bushnell, carrying them from their hotel to the airport in Fort Worth, Texas. Thirteen hundred students and sixty plus successful entrepreneurs gathered in Fort Worth earlier this month for the national conference of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO). Travis Wolfgang, a junior majoring in business management and entrepreneurship, was one of three students representing Ashland.

“The conference was a great networking opportunity, not only with successful businessmen, but also with other students who have already started personal businesses,” Wolfgang said.

Meeting Bushnell was the most memorable part of the trip for Wolfgang. Bushnell gave the students key entrepreneur advice when he happened to be on the same shuttle as Ashland’s Eagle Entrepreneurs, carrying them from their hotel to the airport in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Never listen to an expert; they are so interested in what is, not what could be,” Bushnell said.

To Wolfgang, this is the idea of entrepreneurship. He could find himself a safe job and retire wealthy, or he can chase his dreams, adding more spice to life and still end up retiring wealthy. He intends to “go where the pack fears” (in the words of Bushnell), to a place that has not been explored by a lot of other people.

Wolfgang currently serves as the vice president of Eagle Entrepreneurs.

“He is a great asset to the organization,” said president Amanda Januzzi. “He designs flyers and maintains the organization’s Facebook page. He has played a vital role in getting the organization up and running both through marketing efforts and attendance at events.”

Wolfgang and Januzzi were part of the small group that founded Eagle Entrepreneurs on Ashland’s campus last year.

“We set the group in motion and hope to see it grow,” Wolfgang said. The group frequently invites speakers to campus. Night class professors often bring whole classes to fill up the Ridenour Room in the College of Business.

Wolfgang’s interest in basic business began in high school accounting and investing classes. As a child he wanted to be a veterinarian, and later took an interest in recording engineers. During his early years of high school, he was very interested in psychology and entertained the idea of it ultimately being his major.

“I’ve always been the Dr. Phil in my group of friends. I liked when my advice helped people,” he said.

Yet, from a young age, people were telling him starting his own business was the way to go. He wanted to choose a practical career that would provide him with several options.

“My parents expected me to go to college. It seemed like the only option, like what I had to do next,” Wolfgang said.

His father works very hard at a blue-collar job. Several times he has said to his son that a good education will allow him to use his brain to make money instead of wearing himself out with daily manual labor, so Wolfgang set off for college intending to major in business.

Like many others, Wolfgang’s goal is to find a career that he enjoys and in which he can employ his passion. Wolfgang’s passion is music. His ideal career would be a business idea incorporating music.

“Entrepreneurship is a big risk. I get bored with the everyday ordinary flow of life; I like to shuffle it up a bit. I think taking a risk and starting a business would be exciting,” Wolfgang said. “It is frustrating sometimes. I have had dreams where ideas come to me and when I wake up I know I had something there and I just can’t remember it.”

Since then, he has put a pen and paper by the side of his bed.

Upon graduation, Wolfgang intends to start with a career in finance as he works towards owning his own business. Furthering his education may be in the cards as well. His entrepreneurship major is providing him with the roadmap, helping him with the “do’s and don’ts” of personal business. Most importantly, it is getting his imagination going. Watching other entrepreneurs change peoples’ lives inspires Wolfgang to create something of his own that will change the way some people live.

“I minimize stress with patience,” Wolfgang said. “I haven’t come up with an idea that really excites me, [but] I’m not trying to jump the gun and start something that I cannot go into wholeheartedly. I have faith that I will eventually come up with something; it is just a matter of keeping my eyes open. I have to find the void in the market.”

Entrepreneurship may be a risk, but it is a risk that Wolfgang is willing to take.