Global entrepreneur week begins today, lots of activities taking place. Personally I have been in invited to speak at Gibs, Innovation Hub, at a chamber in Ekurhuleni and also a small group of young ladies have invited me to address them. So the week will be tight, but I am equal to the task because Entrepreneurship is extremely important to me. So if I can add value by sharing my experience, my thoughts and my story in order to encourage those on this path I will do it without hesitation. The young ladies who invited me have asked me to answer the old age question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made? For me this is one of those questions that can never be answered completely, simply because both sides can argue convincingly that entrepreneurs are born or made. Academics and entrepreneurs alike across the the world have debated this and the results are always the same, entrepreneurs are born and can be made. For me personally when I look at entrepreneurs or the people who are entrepreneurial, certain qualities immediately come to mind. I believe that if these qualities are innate that people get born with them, but also know that they can also be learned. I have certainly seen this in the few entrepreneurs I coach, Those qualities are as follows: 1. A sense of fearlessness. (Ability to take risks) If you were to listen in, on my very first session with an emerging entrepreneur you would probably think its a date because I ask a lot of personal questions. What I have found is that when you trace the life of that entrepreneur from a young age you find that somehow they have always had this sense of fearlessness in them. Their childhood stories almost always reveal this quality, they seem to have an innate appetite for risk taking and pushing to the edge. 2. Innovation By nature entrepreneurs have to have an element of innovation. By innovation I dont mean scientific things that Edison came up with. Innovation can simply mean taking a loaf of bread and slicing it. The sliced bread theory is about how simple yet innovative and transformative one can make things. Turning ordinary things into extraordinary stuff. 3. Restlessness or non conformity I have found that most entrepreneurs were Job hoppers (myself included). They usually make horrible employees, horrible not because they are lazy but rather because they are simply ungovernable, 2 years or maybe 3 years in one job was enough. Some got fired for non conformity and insubordination, while others just resigned at the slightest irritation from the boss or something. Theres a sense of restlessness and an inner drive that pushes them to try things for themselves even when they are still not clear what that is. 4. An ability to handle uncertainty This is a big one,this for me is the truest test. Uncertainty in any form is uncomfortable at best and unbearable at worst. Deliberately putting yourself in a spot where there will be a lot of uncertainty makes entrepreneurs quite special people. For the first 4 years or so the path of being an entrepreneur is layered with uncertainty after uncertainty, even with the best laid plans, it seem uncertainty is that constant shadow that accompanies a start up entrepreneur. If one can stomach and stand that and still function, laugh, work, sleep then one will not fail in the entrepreneurship path even if their first or second ventures fail. 5. Optimism Though this one seems obvious, you will be surprised how pessimistic people generally are. Try this, tell a colleague or a family member that you are starting a business next year. I bet you R100 that you would get a negative response or if its positive it will have lots of BUTS. Optimism is one quality that an emerging entrepreneur must have because they would be going against the normal flow of things. Optimism can and must carry you through... Yes, these qualities can be learnt and developed by those who are not born entrepreneurs. I believe given our situation in the Country, those who can take on the entrepreneurial path should and must, the Country needs you to.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 05:09:27 +0000
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