What it takes to Be an Entrepreneur?

In today’s changing world, entrepreneurship has not only become a necessity but also a desire for many. More and more people take advantage of the means that technology places in our hands in order put new ideas in motion, sometimes with stunning success. No doubt, the success of a handful of young entrepreneurs motivates even more, especially young people to try to implement even the most exotic ideas. The future of entrepreneurship therefore seems to be bright. But what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and which are the right ingredients of success still remains an issue.

 

Almost every time a new idea becomes a visible success, there is a widespread questioning of how it could be that nobody had seen it before. Great ideas seem to solve really simple problems, problems on which all of us bump on every single day. The real problem therefore seems to be that the very identification of a simple problem seems really problematic in itself! And this is so simply because most of us tend to implicitly think that, the fact that we bum on a simple problem every single day is a natural thing to do… Enter the entrepreneurial spirit!

 

What it takes for somebody to see the obvious is a million-dollar question! For sure, it is a matter of talent, many would say, or a matter of training, or even a matter of keeping eyes and ears open. In reality however it has to do with how much one cares, with how much one is integrated with social reality, with how much one desires to offer, with how much one is in a state of uneasiness with the status quo and with how much one desires to see things done in a different way. It is therefore a matter of continuously asking why things should be the way they are. This is not however enough. Philosophers do that but not all philosophers become entrepreneurs. One has to have a vision too. One has to want to see things change and one has to be disappointed when they do not. It is therefore not enough for one to be a philosopher. Definitely he or she has to be able to see into how the future should look like and should at the same time feel internally pressed to see things change towards this direction. And still there is way to go. Seeing into what can be changed and wanting it to change it is still not enough. One has to do it too. One has to also get his or her hands dirty! And he or she has to be ruthless in pursuing his or her dream.

 

Success according to Odysseas Elytis, the Greek Nobel price holder poet, requires boldness, luck and talent. Successful entrepreneurship however requires even more. Once integration with the society, vision and will for action are in place, strangely enough boldness, luck and talent seem to be present too! Victor Hugo once said that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. One therefore has to be able to see it coming, to feel the impact that it will have, experience the state of uneasiness of doing nothing about it and finally to work for making it happen! This is what it takes to be an entrepreneur!