Spoken Thought

So, are you an entrepreneur? Well, for starters, if you have to ask that question, you probably aren’t.

There are all types of online and offline tests that’ll assess your character and ‘help’ you determine whether or not you are an entrepreneur. In some cases they’re right. If you don’t have the tools to be an entrepreneur, it may not be in your best interest to pursue it. Understand though, that these tests are limited by default. They do not have all of the answers, they can only assess what you can give them, and they can only give you the limited result based on who you are at that very moment in time.

So allow me to rephrase the answer to the first question. If you have to ask the question, you probably aren’t an entrepreneur…yet. You’re not automatically out of the running if you’re not yet ready. It just means that it might take a bit of development. So this raises a new question.

• Can I become an entrepreneur?

As you can probably guess, I do believe that you can. I believe that people can make core adjustments to themselves. I believe that people can change. So why wouldn’t I believe that an entrepreneur can be developed? I believe that a lot of our characteristics as human beings are developed through observation, learning, experience, and practice. Most of us are born with eyes, ears, a mouth, arms, legs, hands, feet, a nose, a torso, a brain, a heart, etc. Are we born with the ability to speak? Are we born with the ability to read? Are we born with the ability to write? with social skills? with the ability to walk? No. All of these things are developed with observation, learning, experience, and practice.

It is not uncommon to find the children of a doctor or a lawyer, becoming doctors and lawyers themselves. Quite the contrary, it’s actually pretty common. In the working field, children are usually expected (at times passively) to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Why is this? They aren’t being forced against their will. Well, for one, children like to feel as if their parents are proud of them. What better way to please a parent, than to succeed them in the same line of work? But do they enjoy it? They enjoy it just as much as their parents do (which, depending on the field, really isn’t saying much).

The child of a physician will probably know more about maintaining human health than the child of the car salesman who’d know more about cars than his peer. These are the things that they are exposed to at a very young age. They know the environment, they’re learning more about the concerns of the people, and it basically grows on to them.

Occasionally, you’ll have the child who wants to go their own way, but that does not necessarily make them an entrepreneur. The child of a mill worker may decide that he/she may want to go work with computers. It doesn’t mean he’s an entrepreneur, it just means that his interests are somewhere else.

So how does this have anything to do with becoming an entrepreneur? Well, part of being able to change routes or develop, is knowing where you currently stand. The first thing to do is to mentally break away from everything for a moment and ask yourself:

“What am I doing?”
“Where is it going to lead me?”
“Is this where I want to go?”

You need to be absolutely clear on what you’re getting out of life and what you want out of life. The goal is to make those two things connect.

If you don’t think that you need to become an entrepreneur to maintain the lifestyle that you want, then move on from the thought and be happy for the rest of your life. Entrepreneurship takes risk, motivation, and someone who knows what they want out of their lives.

If you are unsure at this point, then you need to take some time out and really dig deeper into yourself.

If you are absolutely sure about taking the entrepreneurial route, then you’re welcome to do so. There are some things that you do need to realize though, and here are a few of them:

• The entrepreneur will take risks

Part of being an entrepreneur is knowing that you set your own financial security. Many people work at jobs because they feel a sense of security knowing that they will be paid this amount, on this day, for this amount of work. How they go about getting the work done is all that they really need to worry about. You, as the entrepreneur, will not have that luxury when starting out. Even when your business is experiencing success, you may need to take a few calculated risks that will make it even more profitable.

You need to be able to ‘detach yourself’ (a phrase I use often) at times, for the potential good of the business. It is not in our nature to welcome change with open arms, without proper justification. The ability to welcome drastic change is something that is learned, developed, and ultimately understood. So learn to be able to detach yourself quickly. Be willing to just let things go. Doing so will allow you to take the risks that will present themselves over and over again to the entrepreneur.

• The entrepreneur is confident

I understand that a lot of people simply are not comfortable with who they are. I cannot stress how detrimental this can be. This is the skin that you will be in for the rest of your life. It is who you are. Get used to it. Stand straight, walk with your chin up, and observe the world as if it is your own. Everything you see is processed through your own mind, creating your own perception of what is and what is not. In a sense, it is your world.

People are attracted to those who are confident with who they are, and who they aspire to be. This will be useful in your ability to communicate and network with other people.

• The successful entrepreneur is creative

This is one of the things that sets the entrepreneur apart from others. It doesn’t mean that you need to be Leonardo Da Vinci, it just means that you need to know how to think outside of the little box. Connect different things to one another. Creativity can be developed as long as you’re willing to learn through observation, learning, experience, and practice.

If you find an image that can be looked at, or perceived, from more than one angle, learn to look at, and perceive, all images from more than one angle. If you find two objects that are similar, but equally lacking from one another in features, ask yourself why these features do not exist and how they can be applied. Then connect that with other things, like thought processes, interaction, chemistry, etc.

Once you can observe things from different points of view and think beyond what you see, the possibilities are greater. Think outside of this concept even. I think you can see where I’m going. Think beyond, and then think outside of that.

• The entrepreneur is in touch with reality

You may think that this goes against the last point, and it does in a way, but from a different point of view, they work very well together. The entrepreneur has a vision. It may not even be crystal clear, but it is there nonetheless. Being in touch with reality is what connects the creativity with the action. You can go as far as you want with your imagination, but as you relate it all with the situation at hand, things begin to come into perspective.

You can think of it like a giant oval. As you think things out, and allow your mind to go wild, the curved line starts forming one side of the oval that stretches as far upward as possible. Then, as you begin to connect it to what your view of reality is, the oval line curves over and makes its way downward, towards and into you again.

Learn to use your reality and creativity cohesively and it’ll do wonders for you.

• The entrepreneur can control their own emotions

If you have the tendency to panic very easily, that needs to be taken care of. The entrepreneur understands the situation and knows what difficulty is when he/she sees it. They will not, however, allow difficulty to cause them to lose self-control. Remember I said that the entrepreneur will take risks? that risk presents itself over and over? As a worker, would you be comfortable working with, or for, someone who was constantly going into panic mode when a decision was made? It’s not attractive. In fact, it pushes people (that you need) away. How far can your business go if no one wants to work with you?

• The successful entrepreneur is a good communicator

As an entrepreneur you’ll need to know how to communicate with consumers, potential consumers, your working team, business partners, freelance workers, lawyers and accountants (not in all cases), etc. If you cannot communicate, how can you develop relationships with all these people? How can you negotiate? A good ability to communicate is absolutely necessary. If you’re an exceptional communicator, even better. Be confident, be honest, be trustworthy, be loyal, and look out for others. Be everything that you’d like the other person/people that you’re communicating with to be. Show courtesy and respect.

• The entrepreneur is not after any titles

It is not often that you will hear an entrepreneur refer to themselves as an entrepreneur. Some might preferably tell you the subject of their work. Others might sarcastically joke around. Titles, at times, mean nothing. It does not do anything for the entrepreneur. It is not a profound benefit of any kind. The entrepreneur is concerned with being who they are and doing what they do best. You can worry about titles later.

Here are a few more to take into account:

• The successful entrepreneur is a leader

• The entrepreneur has self-respect

• The successful entrepreneur is focused

• The successful entrepreneur learns from their own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others

• The active entrepreneur is concerned about today and tomorrow

There is much more to what the entrepreneur embodies, and just know that there are all types of variations between differing people.

If you do decide that you’d like to take the entrepreneurial route, remember to stay focused and keep moving forward. Expect to fail often in the beginning, and it may discourage you at times, but then success is that much sweeter.