Author’s program note. This is an article about bold, visionary, business
risk- takers called “entrepreneurs”. Such people, by their intelligence,
diligence, and shear bravado, overawe movie and sports stars in public awareness
and regard and dwarf any renown which may come with mere public office, even the
most high.
Entrepreneurs are the heroes of our age; never have they been more discussed,
emulated, venerated and even worshipped as they are right now. On campuses
around the nation and the world, the giants of entrepreneurial fame draw
standing room only crowds while mere authors, statesmen, and musicians take
second place, or worse.
Oh, yes, these are the heady days for entrepreneurs. It is no wonder you wish
to enroll yourself amongst their ranks. But are you really cut out to be an
entrepreneur? This article will make that clear, one way or the other.
To put you in the right frame of mind, I’ve selected the theme music for the
hit television series “Star Trek”, which celebrates those who boldly go where no
man has gone before. This music was composed by Alexander Courage for the series
which debued in 1966. It is highly suitable for those who don’t merely move into
the future… they create it. You can easily find it in any search engine. Get it
now… turn up the volume… and closely follow the points in this article which
will make it clear whether you will captain your own Starship Enterprise, or
not…
What is an entrepreneur? Let’s start with the definition.
Entrepreneur was originally a French word taken over lock, stock and barrel
by the English speaking world, much to the dismay of the Academie Francaise,
official guardian of the French language. Its definition is “One who undertakes
to start and conduct an enterprise or business, assuming full control and risk.”
Now let’s see if you are this person.
1) Entrepreneurs see the world not just as it is… but as it should be. From
this fundamental fact about entrepreneurs all other facts derive.
Scratch an entrepreneur and you’ll find a person who is not just tinkering
with human reality today… but has been tinkering with it right from the get-go,
even from the cradle. They never see just what is… in their mind’s eye they see
each and every situation as it can be… must be; they have only to do their
bit.
2) Entrepreneurs say with Harry S. Truman, who proved as president of these
United States to have the soul and inclinations of an entrepreneur, that “You
can’t have anything worth while without difficulties”. And, “Mistakes would be
made. No one who accomplished things could expect to avoid mistakes. Only those
who did nothing made no mistakes.”
Those without the blood and fiber of an entrepreneur live their lives in
chagrined remembrance for all the mistakes, errors, miscalculations and bonehead
decisions they have already made… and are sure, given the chance, they will make
again. This paralyzes them… for they are sure that when they decide, that
decision will be wrong. On this destructive basis no progress is ever possible.
Entrepreneurs are very different.
Each and every decision made opens the possibility for error. This is the
real world in which entrepreneurs live and flourish… accepting whatever
transpires as yet another valuable learning step, as they walk the road to
improving the human condition.
3) Entrepreneurs are “people-people”. They understand their work, all their
work, is for people, unlike those without the entrepreneurial wherewithal who,
in this withering phrase, “love humanity but hate people.”
An entrepreneur looks at a given situation and sees people unable to fulfill
their God- given potential because of a condition, an obstacle which can, given
the idea, the desire, the resources, and their own time and energy, be changed,
improved, or even eradicated, sent to the scrap heap of invidious, enfeebling
circumstances that the collectivity of entrepreneurs and their active, can-do
ways have removed as obstacles to the perfectibility of mankind.
In short, while others immerse themselves in fallibilities and dismay, the
entrepreneur activates Teddy Roosevelt’s celebrated recommendation to “do the
best you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
They know to the depths of their being that there is nothing so wrong that
cannot be righted by the sum and substance of their parts, their humanity, their
problem-solving capabilities… and that je ne sais quoi that distinguishes them
from the run of mankind which sees obstacles as finalities… not challenges which
they can meet… with grace, joy, and gratitude that they had the chance to
serve.
4) Entrepreneurs crash, burn, hurt… and get up to try it all over again.
In the international best-seller “Zorba the Greek” (published 1964), author
Mikis Theodarakis writes of a young English entrepreneur who gets entangled with
and wiped out by the bad advice and worse assistance of Zorba, who is at best a
con man. He follows Zorba’s catastrophic advice… and in a memorable scene
watches as the Rube Goldberg machine Zorba has created collapses, costing the
entrepreneur every cent he has… and more. For an instant, stunned by the
implosion of all his prospects, every dream and expectation, he is stupified,
angry, lost. Then he shows the true grit of even the grieving entrepreneur,
“Teach me to dance,” he asks Zorba, not at all the line we expected… but should
have. It is what a real entrepreneur would say… and dance the sirtaki.
This is how entrepreneurs face catastrophe… for as Thomas Alva Edison,
revered of American entrepreneurs, said, â??I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000
ways that don’t workâ?, commenting on what he learned from the exasperation of
years of “failure.” Sublime.
5) Entrepreneurs uplift, never cast down.
No one knows better than an entrepreneur how difficult the improvement of the
human condition can be; certainly those without the entrepreneurial disposition
and experience cannot.
Thus, on any opportunity, wherever they happen to be, entrepreneurs lift up,
encourage, and ease the way. Thus they administer in friendship and human
solidarity essential truths and elements which have benefited them and from
which hopeful others may benefit, too.
Entrepreneurs carry with them at all times, truths and insights derived from
their unique vantage points, practical advice and admonitions, steady advice,
always utilitarian, on what to do… and what not to. They never think, as those
without entrepreneurial proclivities do, that to give to others is to diminish
yourself. Their point of view is radically different — and always helpful.
And one more thing…
Entrepreneurs, however much they have managed to achieve alone, know that
their success is always predicated upon the dedicated assistance and endeavors
of the crucial people who constitute their team. It is their honor, their pride
and responsibility to recognize and thank these sinews of their success, and
they are glad to do so.
When was the last time you did as much for the good people who have helped
you? Isn’t it time you did, you who aspire to be an entrepreneur?
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