The traits that make the ideal entrepreneur
The defining trait of an entrepreneur is their risktaking ability
‘Everyone can tell you the risk, an Entrepreneur can see the reward’.
This quote aptly summarises an entrepreneur of the modern times. India is witnessing the rise of an ‘entrepreneurial economy’, characterized by D.I.C.E – Design, Innovation and Creativity-led Entrepreneurship, a set of skills that may have once seemed radical, vague or impractical to managers has now grown increasingly popular at the workplace. In the day to come, skills such as these will enable companies to create and sustain a competitive advantage in the high-tech globally connected economy of the 21st century.
Entrepreneurship is self-directed value creation, of - Making, leading and managing a rapidly evolving business. The digital ecosystem is further driving entrepreneurship, enabling reach, scale and efficiency like never before. After all, it was not corporate managers but two entrepreneurial college students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, who decided to build a better search engine, and founded Google.
NINE TRAITS THAT ARE TYPICAL TO ENTREPRENEURS
Vision
An entrepreneur is a visionary. The first step to achieving something, is the ability to Dream, to visualise.
RiskTaking
A prudent and calculated risk taking appetite is vital. An Ideal entrepreneur prioritizes her/ his approach to life i.e. fear of failure does not dampen the road to success.
Trustfulness
An entrepreneur works with and through others. For a people’s person, it is crucial to trust the people she or he works with.
Creativity
Creativity, combined with the ability to ensure last mile execution is key to being a successful entrepreneur.
Ability to connect the dots
New age enterprises and startups are built around seeing solutions and patterns in apparently unconnected situations. An entrepreneur finds bottlenecks, unblocks them and converts them into opportunities.
Management
It starts with managing oneself. One must also manage the work of the organization. An entrepreneur can’t grow his company by doing everything himself. He builds a team that ably support and run with his vision.
Leadership
As with trustfulness, an entrepreneur must be capable of influencing and motivating those around her/ him. Adaptable
Being agile and adaptable to change, and to constantly evolve and grow with changing times.
Precision
When you fly people, you do not take chances. You do it with precision, and you do it every time with the same precision. If you are not a perfectionist, you do not become a commercial airline pilot. Entrepreneurship calls for such precision.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT WORKPLACES OF TODAY
Entrepreneurial vision, ownership, dedication, strong interpersonal & execution skills are the main ingredients to success at any workplace. Such employees are enterprising, key contributors to productivity, have a creative problem solving attitude and are Incubators of innovative ideas! It is therefore not surprising that employees with an Entrepreneurial outlook are highly valued across organisations.
BUILD YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL ‘MUSCLE’ AT WORK
Contrary to popular belief, one doesn’t necessarily have to quit their job to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying, developing, and translating a Vision to Actuality. To be a professional entrepreneur you need to nurture a powerful vision – the mantra of ‘visualize to actualize’. Once you develop a vision, you must chart out a differentiated strategic roadmap to translate that vision into reality.
Finally, your vision is limited only by your ambition. Think big. Ideal entrepreneurs commit to something imperfect and spend their lifetime perfecting it, surpassing new challenges and exploring limitless possibilities. The choice is yours to make; to embark on this highly rewarding journey.