Entrepreneurs can be defined as people who start a small company that create new products or new services and successfully grow that into an enterprise. Of course the term “Entrepreneur” is often associated with famous people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg etc. However, there are thousands of entrepreneurs that people do not even know their names. These people are successful but often lead quiet lives so people may not hear about them.
A common misconception about entrepreneur is “people who has an idea and starts a company”. However, there is a missing factor: “Success”. Having an idea is not enough because anybody can have an idea. Create a company is not enough because there are hundreds of people who start their own company but never consider themselves “Entrepreneur” as they are business person or company owner. So what really is an “Entrepreneur”?
Starting a company is always risky. By knowing the risks involved with starting a company, Entrepreneur is people who are willing to accept the risks, make plan to reduce their risks and accept the consequences when risks happen. So the first characteristic of an entrepreneur is “Risk taker”. The second characteristic is having a “New business idea”. There is a difference between an idea and a business idea. A business idea is an idea that has business value. A business value is something that people are willing to pay for it. In simple word, it means you can make money, a lot of money out of that idea. The word “New” also implies something unique. If your idea is to open a restaurant than it is not a new idea, it is only a business idea. You can make money with a restaurant but the idea is not unique. A new idea does not have to be brilliant but it has to meet a demand or an “Opportunity”. An Entrepreneur is someone who sees an opportunity and seizes it or someone who sees what is needed and finds a way to fill that need in a profitable manner.
Today the term “Entrepreneur” is often associated with technology. The foundation of entrepreneurship is the knowledge of technology and the new idea is often related to technology such as Information technology, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology (I am sure there are more.). The problem with people who has technology knowledge and new ideas is they do not know how to start a company. It is also important to point out that “Entrepreneur is an attitude, not a job” If having a job is important to you then you should not be an entrepreneur. Before starting a company with your new idea, you may want to determine whether you have the personality required to be a successful entrepreneur or not by honestly answer the following questions: “Do you really like challenge?”; “Do you have self-confidence in your ability to continue even you fail many times?”; “Is achievement of goals important to you?”; “Would you willing to take any risks that may impact you financially and psychologically?” and “Are you willing to learn new things and continue to learn from your failures?”. If you can answer "yes" honestly to these questions, then you have the “personality” of an entrepreneur.
Most textbooks describe an entrepreneur as someone who is ambitious, adventurous, energetic, optimistic, extroverted, knowledgeable, sociable, and self-confident. However, I would add “Persistence, visionary, and business savvy”. If you agree with me than we can continue with the next topic.
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Prof. Vu
Carnegie Mellon University
source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,2053
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