What comes to your mind when the word “entrepreneurship” is mentioned?
The common perception that most people have towards entrepreneurs is that these ‘Lucky Bastards’ are risk-takers who dresses in nice suits & drives a cool car. Do we have such ‘Lucky Bastards’ in the employment world as well? Of course there are! I’ve met lots of people like this who are working within MNCs as well. The only difference between an entrepreneur & an employee is there is no qualification process or interview to be an entrepreneur. It’s only a smart decision taken by an individual followed by massive actions!
I’ve been in the world of self-employment & business for 6 years now & today I would like to share the 4 qualities that all entrepreneurs or even aspiring entrepreneurs must have that I’ve learnt over the years:
1) Determination
While its easy to start a business, it’s extremely difficult to sustain it & overcome challenges all the time. Like it or not, there will be challenges & failures all the time! I’ve once attended a motivational talk and the speaker asked, “What will you do if you know that you wouldn’t fail?”
Honestly speaking, I find that complete BS!
Of course you will fail! In fact, the more actions you take, the more failures you make! The key is not to avoid failure but to embrace it, knowing that every failures will only make you stronger!
I believe that it’s Passion that gets you started. But it’s Determination that gets you going. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have gotta have the stamina and drive to finish what you start!
2) Humility
Over the years, I’ve learnt not to judge a book by its cover. You learn something from someone everywhere. I’ll rather know that I don’t know rather than acting as if I know it all. Criticisms are free feedbacks for you to move towards greater heights! Always be open minded to learning new things from people better than you.
Arrogance is a NO-NO! It’s the business killer!
3) Decisiveness
Nothing gets done unless smart decisions are made instantly. Developing a business is a repeated process of information gathering followed by decision-making. That’s why it’s important for an entrepreneur to upgrade his mind constantly by reading good books, attending good seminars & having conversations with smart intellectual people. You never know when you are required to make a major decision in only 3 seconds.
Most importantly, as an entrepreneur, always take responsibility for your decisions. Never blame, justify or give excuses! If it didn’t work, it didn’t work. Period!
One of my personal mantra that I remind myself all the time is this – whatever decisions that I’ve made is wrong. It’s up to me to decide how I can make it right!
4) Be a Strategist
An entrepreneur is required to be creative & able to evaluate every aspect of the business and the market it operates. My friend, a very successful local entrepreneur once shared with me this, every single day his mind is working as he analyses whether things are working as they should and how to improve the business systems. The best business owners have minds that think laterally and aren’t afraid to change radically the way they do things – based on good analysis, of course!
Entrepreneurship is not about fame & fortune. I’ve no doubt that some entrepreneurs focuses on that but generally, successful entrepreneurs don’t make headlines. They would rather be low-profile & deliver results! They dedicate their time to create clarity on their vision, headhunt talents for their core team, improve their business systems, think of ways to value add their employees & customers, and focus all their time towards a greater purpose!
Well… What I’ve shared above are all my personal opinions and my perspective towards the world of entrepreneurship. The bad news is… Most of these qualities are easier said than done. The good news is, all of them can be learned! If you have a strong ‘why’, you will find the ways to get all the ‘hows’!