Since I was in elementary, I have always dreamed of becoming a professional – whether I be lawyer, an architect, a writer, or even an astronaut. But I have never thought of entering into a business or becoming an entrepreneur. I guess I never realized that it was not in me to be fit to handle my own business and make money on my own... until recently when I have already reached my fifth year of working in a big corporation.
Being a corporate slave has its benefits – you get to enjoy regular compensation and benefits, you only work at a fixed time of 9 hours a day 5 days a week, and you get to learn the tricks of the trade from your bosses who have trained their years in business school and from their superiors as well. But that is the thing – you get stuck at some point. The life of an employee is but all flexible – it is all a cycle. So perhaps I am near my breaking point, and during this contemplative period of my life, I have realized some traits of an entrepreneur that I possess – and maybe I can use these to my advantage in going for what I really want and enjoy in life. Some of the traits I possess that are characteristic of an entrepreneur are:
1. I take what I do seriously – being exposed to a lot of uptight and serious bosses has made me take myself seriously and treat everything in work as if it is crucial in my career. It is one of the traits I have that perhaps my colleagues and friends admire about me because I don't get too distracted about other things when I am at work or I am doing something important. I just keep my focus and make sure that I get things done according to what is set and planned.
2. I always make sure I have a plan – taking off from my "serious" trait, it is essential for me to always have a plan at hand whether or not I am at work. I always feel the need to be systematic about things, so I don't get off-track.
3. I invest in myself – Using my interest in studying in business school as an example, I can say that I am really committed to enhancing my knowledge and skills as an individual. Whether or not I shall stay as part of the corporate world, I plan to utilize what I have learned from school, especially from experience, in helping myself towards a better life. Overall, I have always been committed to learning because I want to learn more things and use them to my advantage. This way, I would know which steps will take me further or otherwise.
4. I possess good organizational skills – I have always been called an obsessive-compulsive person because I want things done in an orderly manner, all the time especially at work. It is my way of getting things done because I understand things easily when they are put in a summary table, outline, or any kind of arrangement just as long as the convention is easy to understand and easy to execute. When it comes to handling people also, I make sure that I assign each and everyone and deploy them according to what is planned.
5. I am customer-oriented – In my current job, we are trained to coordinate closely with everyone involved in the project including our customers
I guess for me to be able to ultimately realize the entrepreneur in me, I still need to work on a few things. I need to do what I really enjoy. This is one of the things that I have been longing to do but am still afraid to take the risk because of the uncertainty whether I will earn the same amount of money from doing what I love or enjoy versus what I am actually earning in my current job despite my not-so-keen feelings towards it. I also need to be more gregarious and accommodating of other people around me. I sometimes get feedback that I get aloof and don't talk much – which appears to some people that I am not accessible and that I am difficult to talk to. And one more thing that I need to learn is to follow-up constantly. Sometimes I get to be too relaxed that I forget to follow through on some things therefore there are things that I leave quite delayed. These things may become barriers to my finding my career niche, therefore I have to learn to overcome them quickly.
I may have some traits of a common entrepreneur and need to learn more about the attitude of one, but I guess the real key to my realizing the entrepreneur in me is not really those traits and attitudes – but more of me being my own kind of entrepreneur using the innate skills, traits, and knowledge that I have together with my thirst for knowledge and commitment to learning. For me to succeed in a particular career path, I have to continue working with the right kind of attitude, have the determination, and be open to different things that I am exposed to.
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