What makes an entrepreneur?
9 October, 2007 - General Business - 9 Comments
What makes an entrepreneur? Is it something we develop by ourselves? Is it something we discover from the people around us? Or, and I can’t believe I’m about to ask this, is it something we’re born with (there’s such a thing as an entrepreneurial gene, right? 
).
I saw two things today that prompted this post. The first was a BBC article, ‘Can leadership skills be learnt?‘, and the second was a forum thread at WebHostingTalk.com, ‘Are entrepreneurs born or made?‘.
I say there’s a combination between the people you interact with, and the way in which you interact. For example, I can trace my entrepreneur skills back 14 years to the age of six. At six, I became a member of the local Scouts and I started to learn leadership, friendship and other important skills.
I also happen to have been the soccer captain for many years for the team I played for, as well as captain of my junior class soccer team.
I was also the one in my group of friends who chose to organise things, such as a sleep over, a camp, or even just an afternoon of soccer. It was almost always me who called everybody to arrange a time and place, and if needed, called the place we were going to (the campsite, for example) to book our spot.
It’s those kinds of things that helped with my entrepreneurial habits, but the fact that I surrounded myself with the right people, for the most part people who were already entrepreneurs, plays a large part in my success. By frequenting online forums where entrepreneurs played, I learnt from them and I was able to apply that knowledge in my own business.
Thinking back through your life, can you identify anything that might have helped with your entrepreneurial habits? Maybe your parents owned their own businesses. Maybe you were captain of a sports team. Maybe a friend asked to buy your comic, and you negotiated with him until you got a good price. If you remember anything, let us know!
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Posted on 9 October, 2007 by Jamie Harrop
Filed Under General Business |
9 Comments»
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Jamie,
Great post. I’ve thought about this a lot recently…why am I discontent with the 9-5 workforce, the white picket fence, a wife, and 2.5 kids. Why do I want to do something different?
There’s tons of reasons, but I attribute it mostly to the drive of my father. When I was a kid I can distinctly remember nights where my parents would not eat dinner so my siblings and I could eat. My dad wouldn’t get home until 10 or 11 at night after leaving for work before the sun came up. I can remember wearing the “K-Mart Kickers” to school instead of the latest shoes from Nike, and new clothes to me meant wearing hand-me-downs from my cousins.
My dad, a couple of years older than I am right now, decided that this isn’t what he wanted out of life and slowly took over the business that he was working for. It took several years for him to be the sole owner, but when he did, life changed a lot. Things seemed to become easier and happier.
If he didn’t make the move that he did, I have no idea where my family would be right now…and I’d probably be content with a 9-5 desk job. Thanks dad!
Thanks for that fantastic comment, Rob. An awesome story you told there.
Off topic… Rob, I recognise your name from somewhere. Are you a WebHostingTalk member, or have I seen your name somewhere else? Please refresh my memory.
Actually, there’s no need to answer that. I just found your comments on Chow’s site. I knew I had heard your name somewhere.
Thats funny that you bring up the WebHostingTalk as I participated in that site SEVERAL years ago, so I was betting that it wasn’t from there.
As I’m attempting to ramp up my own entrepreneurial efforts, I’ve made a more concerted effort to play a more active part in the large community of entrepreneurs out there by participating in people’s blogs that I find interesting…yours being one of them.
My husband is the perfect entrepreneur that I know of. I think he learnt it from his activism, from his university days.
He used to tell me that you are not an entrepreneur until you find yourself in an unpleasant economic situation and you successfully turn it around profitably, from nothing to something significant, through what you have at hand then.
He practically sponsored himself through college and graduate school thru earnings from his entrepreneurial skills, amongst which was his writing skill.
He published, and was editor of so many campus journals, which he sold to earn profit to survive the financial hurdles of college. I call him ‘entrepreneur by necessity’, he wasn’t born with the skills.
That is why it was easy to mentor me in just one year to be a self-sustained blogger. This is an insight into his entrepreneurial views at an interview recently http://www.gardenersdaughter.blogspot.com/2007/10/blogging-plus-telenovela-equals.html
[...] Harrop has a thought-provoking post about what makes an entrepreneur. Jamie is a 19-year-old with a serious millionaire mindset. He credits his business skills to over a [...]
My parents have run their own business for as long as I can remember, and this motivated me to want to work for myself instead of making money for someone else.
Inspiration from parents is as good a way as any.
Just wanted to say thanks for stopping by, Thomas. I hope you’re subscribed to my feed. I always like a guy who isn’t afraid to comment on my posts.
[...] look around my site and subscribe to my RSS feed. Here are a few posts you might be interested in: What Makes an Entrepreneur?, Keep Your Customers Informed, and The Exitement of a Business [...]