Entrepreneurs
March 18, 2005
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What is an entrepreneur? How do you become
one? Is it worth the time, energy and aggravation? Recently, Rob Spahitz,
a reader of this column, posted to a discussion on the Career-Op mailing
list. In his message he said, “How about an article on what's required
to be a good entrepreneur?” An excellent idea, I thought, except
that my own experience doesn’t follow what most would consider an
entrepreneurial direction. I don’t have great designs on owning
a large company with lots of employees and millions of dollars in gross
earnings, but I do think there is a different side to the entrepreneur
story than what we typically see in the papers. Rob’s question started
me thinking more deeply about entrepreneurship, what it means to me and
what it might mean to you.
Different meanings for different people
Answers.com provides this definition of an entrepreneur, “A person
who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.”
A little further down their page, though, in the area related to synonyms,
they also say, “One that creates, founds, or originates.”
While the second entry relates more to my own thoughts on the subject,
I think that either definition describes nearly the sum total of all humankind
today. We are all entrepreneurs, whether we like it or not. Sure, we might
not meet some textbook definition, but we are all engaged in organizing,
operating and – certainly – assuming the risk for this business
venture we call life and career. Entrepreneurship doesn’t require
anyone but you, although it often includes many more people.
One or many
So what does it require to be an entrepreneur? Whether you are the sole
employee of your corporation, like myself, or the owner of a large business,
there are some basic needs you must understand.
First, you must have your life in order before you can ever hope to order
the life of a company. I have seen countless businesses, large and small
, crumble into nothingness due to the inability of the owners to manage
their own life. In learning about yourself, you are gaining the skills
you will need to lead others. When you learn to organize your schedule,
your work, your productivity, you can’t help but be able to teach
that to others. When you learn to control your finances, the finances
of a business are merely an extension of that experience.
Second, you need to see others as unique individuals who can help you
accomplish your goals (and hopefully, theirs as well), not numbers on
a ledger or bodies in a hive of cubes spinning out honey for you alone.
Does this mean you go easy on laggards or tolerate unethical behavior?
No. Treating an employee like a human being also means holding them responsible
for their actions Hiring and firing can be a stressful task for an entrepreneur,
but if you have your priorities straight, everyone will benefit.
Third, you need the ability to, as Kipling wrote, “…keep your
head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”
While this is important when you are working alone, it is an absolute
necessity when working with others. Instead of being carried away in the
flow of worry and fear, you need to be the one to stand in the middle
of the room and shout, “STOP!” Ideally, every employee has
this ability, but as a group we can often get carried away in the heat
of the moment. You do not have that luxury. The buck stops with you when
you run your own company.
Whether you want to build a company with 5 employees or 500, you need
to know about yourself first. You are employee #1 and managing yourself
can teach you much about how to manage others. As I said initially, in
the end, we are all entrepreneurs. We are all building something –
our life, our careers, our dreams. We are all managing the whirlwind around
us and we are all assuming all the risks. Clearly, once we get a hold
of our own lives we’ll be open to managing – and hopefully
creating a successful business – with others.
If you would like to discuss entrepreneurship, or any other career-related
topic, with me and other Career-Op readers, visit our web site at http://welchwrite.com/career/
. There you can post comments on each week’s column and find other
career-related information.
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