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| Entrepreneurship is spicy |
Have you ever seen a car with a sticker 'baby on board'? Well, not all the cars with the sticker actually have a baby inside. Same way not everyone with a business is an entrepreneur. Most of these business owners may not have anything else to do or they just need the 'business owner' title.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint at heart. Before you take that first step you need to do a self assessment test to see if you got what it takes. While at it you can also check your personality type here.
Here are some of the major traits and behaviors that make one start and sustain a business venture. Place a tick against each quality you feel you posses to see how many you stuck up.
Competitive Nature
True entrepreneurs are always ahead of the game. They have a competitive muscle and believes everything is achievable. They do not take no for an answer and they are never willing to loose.
When Larry and Sergey came up with the idea of starting google, there were several other search engines. They believed they could build a better search engine than all the others combined and because of their competitive nature, they would not lose to anyone. They for sure did it.
My favorite woman entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran was almost kicked out of the show shark tank even before she could join. The show producer called while she was on her way to the airport to announce that they had hired someone else and they were sorry. But Barbara wouldn't take that and she as since enjoyed 6 years on the show.
Academic research also suggests that entrepreneurs are typically optimists. Surveys of entrepreneurs consistently find that a majority believe that their business has a better chance of success than others in their sector.
An opportunistic mindset.
Opportunities are the heart of innovation and entrepreneurship. A real entrepreneur will see an opportunity in the most unlikely of situations. Have you ever seen an opportunity and believe that u can find ways to profit from them?
Resiliency
Entrepreneurs are survivors. If you are the kind of a person who dies a little every time an obstacle surfaces, entrepreneurship is not for you. Entrepreneurship is for soldiers, the never say die kind of individuals. Like my mother says, if you want to do this you better have 7 lives like a cat (How true is this anyway?). These are the kind of people who will figure out a way to fit a square block into a round hole while everyone else is laughing. Entrepreneurs are fighters!
Tenacity
Real entrepreneurs never ever give up. When failure happens, they sit down re-strategize and start all over again. Starting a business is like an ultra-marathon. You have to be able to live with uncertainty and push through a crucible of obstacles for years on end.
This world is full of nay-Sayers. People will tell you you are crazy, that it cant be done. Look at google founders, You think that anybody really believed in 1999 that two young kids out of Stanford had a shot at unseating Yahoo!. Of course not.
Passion.
Have ever heard a saying 'do what you love and you will never have to work a single day in your life'? Yeah! This applies to business too. Let your business be a cause close to your heart and you will love being in business. Trust me in business, there will be days/months/years when you don’t make any money, you have no customer and everything just sucks but your passion will drive you to keep pushing forward.
Risk taker
Willingness to take risk. Entrepreneurship is the willingness to risk a lot with the HOPE of success (my definition. hehe..). Every successful business was a risky business at some point. Eric Kinoti started his tent business with only Ksh 6,000 in a single room in Ngara market Nairobi. With the hope of getting where he is today. He never let fear of failure prevent him from achieving his goals.
I’m not talking about crazy risks, but entrepreneurs are people who are willing to start a business on a leap of faith. They don’t wait on the sidelines forever doing “side projects” until the day when they’re ready to start a company. If you aren’t willing to take a shot by going full time on your startup it tells investors you aren’t confident enough in the idea or in yourself.
Decisiveness
Entrepreneurs are 'do now' kind of people. They do not wait for tomorrow. Procrastination is not their style. Entrepreneurs are faced with a deluge of daily decisions – much of it minutiae. All of it requiring decisions and action. They cant afford to wait for later. That what separates them from everybody else.
Unpredictable
Yes! do not be an open book. hehehe! Anyway, that not what i meant by unpredictable. I meant be flexible. In the business world, things change by the minute. If you’re going to get ahead in this world you will need to be able to adjust to situation. According to Eric, Lean startup, this will improve the odds of your business success.
Attention to detail
If you’re going to lead an early stage business you need to be on top of all your details. You need to know your financial model. You need to be involved in the product design. You need to have a details grasp of your sales pipeline. You need to be hand on.
Organized
As an entrepreneur, organisation is key. Am assuming at the starting stage you cant afford a personal assistant. Hence, you will need to do all the planning by yourself. This will require you to be a bit organised.
See, its very easy to be an entrepreneur. Most of these things can be learned and the current technology makes it even easier. For example, your 'be organized' problem can easily be solved by a single app. lol! So, go out there and start creating employment (at-least for yourself) and stop blaming the government for youth unemployment.
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