Today we ask the following questions, what exactly is an entrepreneur?, and what does it take to be one? Basically, an entrepreneur is someone who actively seeks opportunities throughout their life, and upon discovering them acts in a way that creates prosperity. They are natural leaders who use their native wits and accrued training and experience to make great decisions. They are the people who take a small idea and grow it into something big, then share it with everyone who works with them.
Entrepreneurs can be individuals, or they can act as teams. A successful entrepreneur will often seek out others who share these gifts, and recruit them, often relying on the services of an executive search firm that maintains a stable of ready and willing professionals just waiting for the right opportunity to join a project, and be given the chance demonstrate their own entrepreneur skills. If one entrepreneur can be so instrumental in creating success, just imagine what an entire team of them can accomplish!
People who become great entrepreneurs can come from a variety of backgrounds, there is no single type of person who achieves the title, everybody comes to it via their own unique path. There are, however, characteristics that all entrepreneurs share to one degree or another, so let’s examine them in greater detail:
Self Aware
The ancient wisdom states that we must know ourselves before we can understand the world around us. Entrepreneurs know what their personal strengths are, as well as their shortcomings, and use this self-awareness to advantage by playing to those strengths while operating in such a fashion as to limit the deleterious effects their shortcomings may cause. Entrepreneurs in a leadership role will often seek out others with different strengths to augment their abilities and fill in the gaps their own shortcomings create.
Curious Nature
One of the most important traits of a successful entrepreneur is that they are curious by nature, driven to seek out new, useful ideas and discover opportunities that others may have overlooked. An entrepreneur never settles for the status quo, they constantly challenge common knowledge and explore new paths to success.
Tolerates Risk
Every beekeeper knows that they are going to get stung sometime, but the honey is well worth the risk. Entrepreneurs know that the launch of a new venture does not come with guaranteed success, far from it, and understand that great gains can only be found when risks are taken. Having accepted that fact, entrepreneurs can then use their savvy and expertise to minimize those risks and chart a course to success that takes them to their goal. They sail close to the rocks when they must, because they know that’s where the profits are, and use their skills to avoid a wreck. The results? Treasure found.
Adaptable
Fortunes change just like the seasons, nothing is permanent, and sometimes even the most rock-solid venture can fail because of altered circumstances. The entrepreneur knows this well, and is always ready to try something new when they see the situation changing, adapting rather than engaging in a futile battle to maintain things as they were. The entrepreneur must be flexible, always ready to brew that unexpected crop of bitter lemons into the sweet lemonade of success!
Experiments
You don’t know until you try, and the entrepreneur is always ready to experiment with new data and techniques, it’s one of the main keys to any success. The entrepreneur gets an idea, begins to study all the different ways it may prove useful, and then takes the time and makes the effort to test those theories out. In this way the successful entrepreneur can always stay ahead of any competition that isn’t willing to invest in experimentation, they are doomed to fall behind. Experimentation is always the forerunner of advancement.
Persistent
It’s a simple fact that things are going to go wrong now and then, the best laid plans of mice and men always do! Where some would see failure as an end, the entrepreneur will view it as a new path to opportunity, they will learn from their mistakes and use that knowledge to do do better the next round, transforming failures into even greater successes. Entrepreneurs are persistent, they never give up until they achieve their goals, no matter what fate might throw at them! Entrepreneurs laugh in the face of adversity, its just more fuel to propel them to their victory!
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has spotlighted Thailand as a nation that is making rapid gains in innovation and support for business startups, this article may be of interest to those adventurous entrepreneurs considering entering its thriving marketplace.
If you feel you have what it takes to be an up-and-coming entrepreneur there are many opportunities around the globe to make your mark, and remember, fortune always favours the bold!