From LinkedIn question by Ayoola Stephen Efunkoya: “Do we all have what it takes to be entrepreneurs?”
It doesn’t matter if everyone has what it takes to be entrepreneurial. Enough do. Let them create jobs for the rest.
Do YOU have what it takes? That’s all that matters to you. Sounds like you already have several qualities needed by entrepreneurs. Here are the basic qualities. How would you rate yourself?
Profit drive. Do you have a strong drive to make a profit from your entrepreneurial efforts, in addition to serving others and getting satisfaction and pleasure?
Market sense. Secondly, do you have a good sense of what you could sell that people would pay for–and pay enough so that you can make a profit and provide yourself with a good living?
Organizer. Third, are you good at organizing resources–ideas, capital, people, equipment, vendors–needed to build and manage an efficient and productive endeavor?
Visionary. Fourth, do you have a vision of how all this could unfold, and where you could take it? It’s okay to start out with a fuzzy vision–most of us do.
Risk taker. Fifth, are you willing to take a big risk, and go for it even when it’s all very uncertain?
Planner. Finally, can you pull all this together in a plan that you can follow and that others can understand?
If you can do these things, you can be an entrepreneur. You don’t have to be at 100% with all these; we all start out small and inadequate. But we go ahead anyway–because we WANT it.
Or maybe because we are forced into it, and have no option. Necessity is the mother of entrepreneurship!
One other thing. Not all entrepreneurs go into business. You can be entrepreneurial in a non-profit, in an educational or scientific or artistic organization, in an NGO. You can even be entrepreneurial working in a large corporation, if you pick your place carefully.
