Prof. Jorge,
Below is my Factors Paper.
Regards,
Michael Ligayo
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FACTORS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
(A SELF-ASSESSMENT)
A lot of reading materials, both published and those on the Internet, states that being entrepreneur is truly a challenge. Some materials would even go further to say that it is not for the faint-hearted or mentally weak. It requires a specific set of skills and characteristics that a person should have in order to become successful. The objective of this paper is to assess and match my personal skills and characteristics against those required to become an entrepreneur. Which skills do I already possess? Which skills do I still need to develop? The discussion below enumerates and gives a short description of each skill and characteristic and an assessment against my own personal skills and characteristics.
Entrepreneurial Skills I Have
1. Passion and Commitment
This is probably the most important characteristic a person should have in order to become a successful entrepreneur. This will be the main driver of the entrepreneur to battle the challenges that he will be facing ahead. Without the passion and the commitment, the entrepreneur would not be able successfully win over all the problems that will be facing. Literally and figurative linked to this characteristic is a person's high energy. Truly, if a person is committed or passionate about something, it is most likely that his energy would follow.
I consider myself to be a highly passionate and committed person. This is shown on all the tasks and activities that I do both personal and with work. I put more than 100% percent of my time and effort. Of course, there will always be a consideration of what the task and endeavor is. But once I know I like it, then, the passion and commitment comes naturally.
2. Creative Thinking and Innovation
Second to passion and commitment, a person should be innovative and creative to become an entrepreneur. This is whether he is developing a new product or he is solving issues and problems of an existing business, a creative mind will always be a necessity. This is also particularly important especially when dealing with the usually limited resources that an entrepreneur has. The key word at the moment is "thinking outside the box".
Thinking outside the box is probably one of my strongest points. I have been trained over time to innovate and thinking of creative solutions to problems and issues. The limited resources that I work with in my job brought this about.
3. Curiosity and Eagerness to Learn
To become an entrepreneur, you need to learn a lot. While the business is on going, you need to learn a lot. This is one of the things that you cannot get away from. Learning will be your best friend for it will be one of the strongest tools for survival, growth and success.
Taking the MBA at my own initiative is probably my strongest evidence of being eager to learn. This is not only for getting the degree rather on the learning. My own professors would normally comment at how diligent I am at my work and that truly, I am one of those students who do not only go looking at getting the degree but at the amount of learning.
4. Forward-Looking and Being a Visionary
The Internet sources that I found only talks about a person being forward-looking and looks into the future to become an entrepreneur. But I take it once step further by adding the word "visionary". I think more than forward-looking or a simple orientation towards into the future; an entrepreneur should also be a visionary. I believe this is the combination of being forward-looking and being innovative. He must be ambitious.
I consider myself to be a visionary. I have a lot of ideas that are to some extent bigger than I am. I have a clear vision of what I want and what I would like to happen.
5. Self-Responsible and Time-Conscious
Being an entrepreneur, one handles his own time and resources. He is, to a certain extent, free to do whatever he wants at his own time and at his own resources. However, while there can be considered to be much freedom, there are also a lot of responsibility involved. One has to be responsible in spending his valuable time and resources. Furthermore, he has to be in handling himself and in the success of his business. This obviously will also translate to the success of the people who work for him.
From the time I was studying in Grade School, my mom has taught how to be responsible. She has given me lectures after lectures that I need to be responsible in my own actions and in the endeavors I start with. She taught me how to be responsible in my own studies and eventually, at work. This is probably the most important lesson that my mom has taught me.
6. Achievement-Oriented
Because an entrepreneur has to be ambitious, he has to be able to measure his success only by the achievements that he has made. He cannot count the effort and the time that he has spent in order to achieve his goals. What is important for him is whether or not he has achieved it or not.
Probably because of the culture of the companies I have worked, I have developed this characteristic of being achievement-oriented. Personally, a lot of times, the effort and the time would no longer matter. It would only be the final goal that would count it all.
7. Determined
With minimal amount of resources, entrepreneurs need to work long hours, everyday for an indefinite period of time. This requires him to be very determined to be able to endure the amount of tasks that he needs to complete. Further, being determined would help him fight the challenges that he will be faced with.
I consider myself to be a highly determined person. Whether the task is easy or extremely difficult, I always make sure that I finish them no matter what it takes – some even to the extent of sacrificing leisure time.
8. Versatile, Independent and Responsive to Change
An entrepreneur would most probably have a small amount of work force and would still be adjusting to the climate where he is. This means that, while the business is at entrepreneurial stage, there will be a lot of changes that needs to be addressed. The entrepreneur should possess dynamism and versatility and independence in order to survive these changes. For example, he can be the marketing guy one day and the financial the other. He would even be lucky enough if he can make the distinction between the two in a few hours. Thus, an entrepreneur has to show a significant amount of flexibility.
I consider versatility and dynamism to be one of my strongest points. Over the years that I have been working, I have shown that I can manage to take care of several responsibilities, put on different hats in one day and still survive with flying colors. I have survived through a lot of organizational changes and still managed to keep my pace.
9. Resourceful
Whether its financial or labor or even a simple finding a resolution to an existing problem, one has to exemplify a great amount of resourcefulness to become a successful entrepreneur. For example, if his new personnel committed a mistake with a customer, the entrepreneur should find a way to get back the pissed-off customer. Similarly, the entrepreneur should be able to find sources of funds in case he does not have enough. All these require him to possess high resourcefulness.
I think I am a resourceful person. This is evident on the activities that I do, both at work and in my personal life. I do everything and anything just to be able to get the resources I need, be it money, manpower or even time.
10. Self-Confident
They always say, "no guts, no glory". This might be considered a cliché but it always applies to an entrepreneur. Without self-belief and self-confidence, one would not even dare become an entrepreneur – plain and simple. I would leave it at this on my assessment of how self-confident I am. I think this is not something that to be assessed by me rather by the people around me.
11. Others Characteristics
There are a lot of other skills and characteristics that an entrepreneur should possess. While they cannot be considered to be less important, they are quite self-explanatory. Further, it is not only entrepreneurs who should possess these, but everyone else, though maybe an entrepreneur requires to have these at a higher degree. These characteristics are:
· Professionalism
· Efficient
· Persistent
· Competitive
· Learning from Failure
· Good Communicator
· Natural Leader
I consider myself to possess all of these characteristics. These did not come easy rather they have been molded through my years of experience, both personal and at work. The evidences are simply the feedback I receive every day from friends, co-workers and classmates.
Entrepreneurial Skills I Still Need To Develop
1. Risk-Taker and Optimism
Entrepreneurship involves change and change always involves risk. Once a person embarks on an entrepreneurial activity, whether in a new business or an existing one, he is engaging into some form of business change. He has to be able to take the risk and be positive that he will be able to come out of it successfully.
I think this is something that I still need develop. Usually, I get to a point that I get frustrated on things resulting to pessimism. This also translates to my fear of taking too much risk. I usually would like to stay on what is sure and takes a lot of precaution to ensure that I don't expose myself to too much risk.
2. Careful About Money
With minimal resources, it is quite obvious that an entrepreneur should be careful at handling his money. This is especially with the fact that almost all activities in business involve monetary requirements. I need to enhance this skill because I have a lot of tendency to do all out on one endeavor alone. I think I also need to start budgeting, thereby, involving a lot of planning in my financial resources.
3. Good Health
With all the activities required to an entrepreneur, it is not doubt that he has to have good health in order to do all the activities. Obviously, with my weight and family history on health, I need to gear towards healthy living. This is not only in my goal to becoming an entrepreneur but my overall being as well.
4. Internal Locus of Control
Entrepreneurs don't believe in luck. They always believe that the success of their business lies within themselves and that every thing is within their control. This is something that I still need to develop. I still believe that there are some people who were lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time and with the right resources to make it.
5. Networking
A lot of people might not agree but getting a lot of connections and networks is beneficial to an entrepreneur. For example, he can get new business ideas or customer (and of course, feedback), if he has wide a network. In addition, he might also be able to get better deals if he is able to get it from his connections.
This is one thing I am currently working on. While I have a lot of friends and acquaintances, there is a limitation in terms of the network since most of people I know belong to the same industry or sector. This limits my "network".
6. Diligent Record-Keeper
Enormous amount of data will have to be collected and processed by the entrepreneur. This all starts by the records that he has to keep – from simple invoices to projections. While I believe I am an organized person, I usually keep too much data. An example is the amount of email I keep. In fact, I never deleted an email. This makes it difficult to retrieve information because of the number of records that I have to dig through. To a certain extent, I consider myself to be on the other side of the spectrum, such that rather than keeping very few, I keep too much.
Conclusion
I came across this article / test from the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. Daniel Isenberg, a professor of Management Practice in Babson Global, created this. It is a very simple test composed of 20 questions and if you answered at least 17 questions with a "yes", you can considered to be highly potential entrepreneur. I would like to use this test to quantitatively identify my being potential in being an entrepreneur.
No.
|
Question
|
My Answer
|
1
|
I don't like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
|
No
|
2
|
I like challenging myself.
|
Yes
|
3
|
I like to win.
|
Yes
|
4
|
I like being my own boss.
|
Yes
|
5
|
I always look for new and better ways to do things.
|
Yes
|
6
|
I like to question conventional wisdom.
|
Yes
|
7
|
I like to get people together in order to get things done.
|
Yes
|
8
|
People get excited by my ideas.
|
Yes
|
9
|
I am rarely satisfied or complacent.
|
Yes
|
10
|
I can't sit still.
|
No
|
11
|
I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.
|
Yes
|
12
|
I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else's.
|
Yes
|
13
|
Whenever there is problem, I am ready to jump right in.
|
Yes
|
14
|
I think old dogs can learn – even intent – new tricks.
|
No
|
15
|
Members of my family run their own businesses.
|
Yes
|
16
|
I have friends who run their own businesses.
|
Yes
|
17
|
I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.
|
No
|
18
|
I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.
|
Yes
|
19
|
I am exhilarated by achieving results.
|
Yes
|
20
|
I could have written a better test than Isenberg.
|
Yes
|
I got a score of 16 in test. It looks like that while I am not yet really there to becoming an entrepreneur, I am already nearing that stage. This is also evident on the skills and characteristics discussed on the body of this paper. It is very important to note that I still need to develop certain skills and characteristics to actually reach that stage.
To finally close this, I will capture the closing statement from the article of Daniel Isenberg. "I want to get rich" is not on the list of questions. All else being equal (and all else is rarely equal in the real world), on the average, people who set up their own businesses don't make more money, although a few do succeed in grabbing the brass ring. But the "psychic benefits" — the challenge, autonomy, recognition, excitement, and creativity — make it all worthwhile. 4.0
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