Qualities of an Entrepreneur
NB: As a mental note to begin with, I am doing this not only as a paper to submit for homework but also to assess myself as I expect myself to be a better entrepreneur in the near future.
I have sought the internet looking for different characteristics of an entrepreneur and saw different listings. But what made me filter these search results was one title limiting qualities only to successful entrepreneurs.
Let me start off with qualities that I don't think I have:
1. Search for new ideas and innovation
I don't want to accept this yes but I think I have a challenge in creativity. I don't know if it's just because I have not practiced much of this or attending too many meetings at work gets my creativity level lower and lower. But I have seen people really think of things outside-the-box. What I realized is that you really have to think out-of-the-box because anything inside has already been thought of for business. It would not be blue ocean strategy anymore. This is why entrepreneurship has a different definition from franchising. I actually find it more difficult to engage in franchising even if it requires less innovation since you are just starting but already competing. It gives you fewer chances to succeed because there are already giants everywhere. Putting up another gas station would be cumbersome to penetrate since you don't know which market to penetrate. The "big three" are already there and they have managed oligopoly well. But joining low-cost gas stations would not really be a bright idea as they are really too many. Applying this quality will make you think of putting up a charging station for hybrid vehicles.
2. Openness to change
Again, I often fixate my mind and sticking too much to the plan which makes me overlooking at other opportunities. I may not have the skill yet to realize that a certain change shall give me more returns or I have too much fear of the unknown given that I am a project manager and that I do project management. Perhaps it's my own money that I manage and it gives me a special bias which enables me to make disheveled decisions. I invested on a dishwashing soap business before and it was getting about 5% increases in sales year over year. When management had decided to make the setup more of a multilevel marketing structure, I felt it won't be worth it so I decided to pull my investment out. The company crumbled due to this move but my point was not about resistance to change. As mentioned earlier I pulled out because I just felt like pulling it out. There was no thorough analysis or critical thinking. This is what I need to learn.
3. Acceptance to constructive criticism and rejection
In the latter part of my career in the corporate world, I had been open to constructive criticism. In fact, the only thing that I listen to during performance evaluation would be my areas for improvement. I placed this characteristic under the "don't haves" list since there is still uncertainty with my self-assessment.
On the other hand, here are the characteristics that I believe I have:
1. Inner drive to succeed
I experienced different kinds of downturns in which made me fear failure. As a result, I always push for succeeding. We also were challenged financially for some time which also made me promise to myself to focus on my goals all the time as everyday is always an objective all leading to the same goal.
2. Strong belief in themselves
Perhaps there was a lot of positivity in me and luck as well as I never believed that I would reach something where I am now. I had accepted sometime back in college that I will just be another average person who will just try to make it within the day and increasing debt day by day. This gave me a great amount of confidence feeling that I would be able to surpass any challenge related to achieving success.
3. Competitive by nature
I would say that this is the quality that I possessed the most. I compete even to the littlest things. From getting promoted to just simple bragging rights to a small group of people, I would still compete. Problem though is that I also compete with my friends but I could be happy for their successes at the same time.
4. Highly motivated and energetic
Whether it could be any sport, martial arts training, or self-help language studies, I always find enjoyment in whatever endeavor I have voluntarily planned to do. This is what they say in business – put up something that you really like so that you will never lose passion and excitement to continuously generate revenue.
I believe I have a heart of an entrepreneur. I loved the subject when I was in college, I experienced peaks and valleys first hand with my family, and I created my own concept in infusing entrepreneurship in my lifestyle. Being optimistic, I plan to be an executive of a multinational company and businessman at the same time. With this, I have both fixed and variable income. But how do I manage this? I feel like one day of oblivion can make me fail in both endeavors. Well, it's probably more of learning by experience in the coming years.
Source: http://www.woopidoo.com/articles/geimure/entrepreneur-article.htm 3.0
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