FACTORS PAPER
By R080230
The Entrepreneur
In the strictest meaning, an entrepreneur is a person who is willing to help launch a new venture or enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome[1]. I am inclined to believe that there are qualities that help make a person become an entrepreneur but that there’s only one thing that a person needs to be a good entrepreneur. An assessment of one’s self allows us to gauge whether we have the qualities to become entrepreneur. However, it should never deter us from pursuing this career path for qualities can be picked up along life’s journey. Some may be born with it, but it is through life that we get to realize these potentials in us.
Qualities that I have that will help me become an entrepreneur:
Courage and willingness to try on new things
This is an important factor because an entrepreneur needs to have the heart to keep on trying new things, exploring new ideas and testing new grounds. An idea will always be just an idea if one does not have the courage and willingness to follow through with it. To be an entrepreneur is to come up and respond to a new concept, whether it is business or other things. Courage and willingness is the response of the entrepreneur to this concept. In the movie “The Social Network”, it was not the frat brothers who came up with the idea of “Facebook” that is remembered, it’s the person who made it happen(e )– Mark Zuckerberg. He had the courage to invest his time and effort to make it work, and he was willing to make it work.
An extrovert personality
This is an important factor because being extrovert helps one build a repertoire of connections – an important component of entrepreneurship because having the right connections is just as important as having the best idea. Furthermore, extroverts are often assertive and confident of themselves, qualities that can be really useful for aspiring and would be entrepreneurs.
A penchant for learning and understanding things
Wanting to learn about new things and wanting to understand how things work are very important traits because it allows the person generate new ideas of doing things. A hunger for these things makes it easier for a person to find solution to problems – a reason why entrepreneurs exists. New ventures and concepts are born out of the need to improve on something. If one does not understand how things work, then how can one see the problem, much less solve it?
Dedication and strong work ethic
Pursuing an idea often requires commitment and dedication. Success in achieving an idea is often determined by how much committed and dedicated a person is. A person’s work ethic often speaks a lot about dedication and commitment. Without the combination of these factors, a good idea is just wasted because the follow through and actions to the end goal will just be half-baked.
Qualities that I need to improve on in becoming an entrepreneur:
Creativity
Creativity is important in being an entrepreneur because it allows one to be open-minded in creating solutions to problems and turning it into workable concepts. Without creativity, solutions to problems we see exist will be harder to grasp. Creativity may come in different forms – creativity in creating solutions, in overcoming obstacles like financial costs, and even creativity in going around traditional beliefs and practices. Many social entrepreneurs for instance, use their creative minds to come up with solutions for financial costs in pursuing their dreams. A social entrepreneur I once met dreamt of creating classrooms for orphans. Limited funding did not stop him from pursuing this dream as he pursued his idea through the use of plastic bottles stuffed with sand. Creativity allows would be entrepreneurs to hurdle obstacles along the way for them to pursue their dreams.
Patience in doing things
An entrepreneur is patient because of the need to accept failures and criticism, to constantly refine ideas and solutions, and the determination to keep on trying even in the face of failure. Entrepreneurs are not overnight success stories – they are the product of continuous improvement of solutions created. Many entrepreneurs did no t succeed in their initial concept, but they had the patience to see through their ideas and after refining their “products”, end up with stories of success.
The X-factor to becoming a GOOD entrepreneur:
An entrepreneurial spirit it is nothing more than a desire and the passion to be an entrepreneur. It is the heart that is the deciding factor whether one will succeed or not in life and I firmly believe that it is the same in business. A person with a great idea for a product and with all the good qualities that one can possess is still bound to be mediocre at best if the heart and the desire is not willing. In sports, this is what we usually refer to as the champion’s heart. In the last NBA finals, the higher touted Lakers team was expected to run away with the championship trophy since it was a team led by the best active player Kobe Bryant. The team was beaten by the Dallas Mavericks – a team many considered as a team of under achievers. The Mavs were obviously the hungrier team between the two and no amount of talent can beat that. In business, we simply refer to this as “business sense” where business leaders who have a passion for something will always make it work. Examples are:
I took the test www.forbes.com/2005/11/15/entrepreneur-personality-quiz_cx_bn_1116quiz.html and found it to be pretty good. The 30 questions are geared toward measuring five broad aspects of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism; all of which are suppose to determine whether one is destined to succeed as an entrepreneur or not. I, of course, failed the test. I was told that “I do not have the traits BUT that if I work hard enough, I can still succeed as an entrepreneur”. I beg to disagree. I may not have the right qualities based on the 5 aspects above but so long as I have the heart and the desire – the entrepreneurial spirit, then I believe that success is not that far off for me.
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