Plato said: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.” And da Vinci once said: “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Then he goes on to say that “the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment.
So, what does it mean? How does it relate to the title of this blog “So You Want to Be an entrepreneur?” I found myself naturally lazy and avoid risk and comfort zone seeker. I prefer easy life and no pressure. After talking to some friends and relatives I am not alone. The most people avoid risk and prefer “easy money” or easy life if possible. But everybody works and take care their life.
One way of being entrepreneur seems nice such as having no boss, doing whatever you want and following your passion all sounds fun. The other side is not that fun at all. You will have to sacrifice your comfort and deal with unforeseen challenges and actually there are pressure and stress involved. This is the part you will have to deal with yourself. Give up or keep going.
Self-winning related to financial freedom does relate with spiritual being. N. Eldon. Tanner said “Remember also that nature never pays an unearned account and she never fails to pay one that has been earned. If you wish to achieve financial success, if you wish to be happy, if you wish to be healthy, if you would be morally clean, if you wish to find religious peace of mind, there is only one sure way, and that is the straight and narrow path—the way of honor, the way of industry, of moderation, simplicity, and virtue.”
Where we going to spend our energy and mind if we have to work hard to be entrepreneur? There are three areas requires us to gain a knowledge.
1 In-depth knowledge of the competitive structure of an industry and a network of contacts within that industry;
2 The skills to run the daily operations of a small, rapidly growing company; and
3 The ability to raise money.
You better know the industry very well and many people fail due to not knowing the sector and fail. Day to day operation is critical, here we develop the system and make sure the business run. These two areas are more important than the third one. Once you are good at this 2 the third will be easier to handle.
According to the Harvard Business Review searching and researching too long does not help anymore. The time is faster than before. Where the most entrepreneurs find their ideas? 71% of the entrepreneurs actually replicate or modify an idea encountered through previews employment. See? That is why many employees complain about the people who quit and started new business with an idea from the company. It is common that many people start their business from their former job. And they do copy and make it better. How about planning? Only 28% of the entrepreneurs wrote up a full-blown plan. There are no particular characteristics or ideal profile how to become an entrepreneur.
One thing for sure we know is you have to be persistent and constant seeker. Seriously talking, you have to win yourself and win your ego, laziness, procrastination or pride. You will have to be ready to know on the doors, try 100 times and experience 100s of failures. After your hard work the pay will come. Surviving the inevitable disappointments on the rough road to success requires passion for the chosen business.
It is about satisfying the people and their need and some say you can’t just satisfy your client but you have to WOW your customer. That takes invention and inspiration after certain amount of time and effort.
But never ever forget why are you doing this. The primary goal of being entrepreneur is freedom and happiness. That is very much related to your family and friend. You can’t sacrifice that and strive only towards success that measured by money alone. If you seek the financial freedom as your primary goal then the work is meaningless and harmful.
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