Many of us want to become entrepreneurs. Starting a business to bring wealth and prosperity into one’s life is one of the most common dreams today. In this column we will explore what it actually requires to become an entrepreneur from those who have already paid their dues.
From the lemonade stand to the world’s largest corporations, the principles for the accumulation of wealth are essentially the same. Inversely, given the wide array of colorful personalities, differing character traits, varying skill sets, all compounded by an almost infinite number of circumstantial variables encountered along the way, no two entrepreneurs or their experiences are ever the same.
With that established, pinning down a specific set of traits for an entrepreneur that applies to all entrepreneurs is not easily done. It is hard to put them into a box, because they are so notably known for thinking outside of them. There are so many differences between the paths each successful entrepreneur takes that it is only when you start look at their experiences collectively that themes start to be emerge.
Aside from what would be categorized as entrepreneurial theory, most of the advice available for the entrepreneur focuses on the steps and processes for running the business, such as writing a business plan, raising capital, hiring employees, and marketing. The intention here will certainly be to steer clear of this traditional business fodder to instead capture the true essence of the entrepreneurial spirit.
An entrepreneur is not just someone who identifies a need and fills it. They are the ones who make things happen. Just writing a bulletproof business plan does not turn the entrepreneur into an overnight success. It’s not nearly as easy as opening the doors to your business and collecting the customer’s money. However, most people only focus on the final products of the successful entrepreneur, and not the journey. There is always a story with trials and tribulations and plenty of hard learned lessons along the way. Who better to tell those stories than the entrepreneurs themselves?
