Always thought that entrepreneurship was not something you could identify with? Think again! There is actually an entrepreneur in each and every one of us.
Remember the new paradigm that modern management theorists encourage us to shift to? It’s about erasing the mindset that you are a languid employee, working for a boss, and replacing it with the idea of being your own company selling your unique services to another organization (your employer) – a transaction that is rewarded with a regular paycheck for as long as you agree to provide your product to this company. If you find a higher bidder for your good, you will probably leave the current one you supply, and start a relationship with the new one. That is, unless the current company has created an environment that provides you spiritual satisfaction: meaning, and a feeling of belonging, to a degree that exceeds the extra earnings you would get from a new contract. Within this new paradigm, it all boils down to a business-to-business perspective. And with that idea in mind, every working person can perceive him- or herself as an entrepreneur.
Besides, what constitutes an entrepreneur? That, too, is easy to sum up:
* The will to succeed in everything you do.
* The will to be better than others.
* The determination to go on long after all others have given up.
* The stubbornness to find out for yourself when everyone else tells you your plan won’t work.
* The desire to make a difference.
* The spirit to fight against everything that presses you down.
* The resilience to stand up once again after you fell yet another time.
* The courage to adapt to change, even if you have the normal, human aversion to it.
* The gift of a nave perspective on things, combined with a creative mind.
* The imperturbability of one who defies the odds of age, race, heritage, environment, culture, or other statistical evidence.
* The belief in one’s self.
* The will to disconnect from a herd-like mindset, and connect with an independent one.
* The energy of a marathon runner.
And the above-posted list is definitely not final. In fact it is only a meager, deficient attempt to typify the spirit of an entrepreneur. Now, some of us may have found our spirits broken or damaged through life?s tackles in previous years. Fortunately, a broken spirit can be restored. The power to do so is in you. All you have to do is sit back and contemplate:
1. Where and when you may have lost your sparkle and nave approach
2. Who or what burst your confidence-balloon?
3. How can you patch it up now that you discovered the roots of your lack of confidence.
The next thing you have to do is go at it. Your inner-source of wisdom will show you the way to release the anger, bitterness, despondency, and inhibition that prevent you from metamorphosing again from a chicken into an eagle.
A good approach under all circumstances, even if you cannot detect reasons for spirit fracturing in your past, is to start moving again: not only mentally, but physically as well. Just like thunder usually follows lightning, mental action usually follows physical activity. You just feel better about yourself if you keep yourself physically vigorous, and consequentially, your entrepreneurial spirit will return.
Does that mean that we are all born entrepreneurs? Well, if we can all learn to be entrepreneurs, we probably all already have it in us, right? In some of us it may just slumber more indomitably than in others. But we can all activate it somehow.
It also works positively for your entrepreneurial spirit to read magazines on starting business enterprises and their whereabouts. That’s where you learn that a good idea does not have to be an expensive one. And once the idea is there, the resources to shape it will be found. Remember, you are creative and you don’t let small impediments knock you down.
So, welcome to the entrepreneurs’ golden club. We missed you!
Joan Marques emigrated from Suriname, South America, to California, U.S., in 1998. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, a Master’s in Business Administration, and is currently a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. Look for her books “:Empower the Leader in You” and “The Global Village” in bookstores online or on her website: http://www.joanmarques.com
