Is entrepreneurship right for you?

Entrepreneurship has become the rage in the last couple of years. Growing up, entrepreneurship was for old men who wanted to do something

else in life so they became entrepreneurs. Now, the tide has changed. Seventeen-year-old kids to college dropouts are entrepreneurs. The

dictionary defines it as, “spending a few years like most people won’t, doing what most people can’t.” 

This statement is the true face of entrepreneurship because the truth is the rigid way of doing it has changed. In the 90s, an entrepreneur set up a

good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar business. They employed people, spent most of their time working in the office. Times have changed, an

entrepreneur can be literally anything from a blogger to a Youtuber, even a Social Media Influencer.

That is because with time the form has evolved, even though the definition hasn’t. As I reflect on my life, the one thing I never would have

imagined becoming was an entrepreneur. My father is one, anyone I met would ask me if I ever wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and I

always shook my head.

To me I saw entrepreneurship as a waste of time and resources, it seemed too complicated. Simply, I wasn’t interested in the idea of doing it.

Entrepreneurship is hard, even as a ten-year-old kid I understood that. It involves risk and certainly. Most people like to be certain of things. I went

to boarding school so for me certainity makes me queasy, but it wasn’t always like this. 

Most people can’t be entrepreneurs, that is a fact and most people won’t. It is less to do with your capabilities and more to do with what you’re

willing to risk. I do believe that everyone should follow their passions where it leads them to. I do understand though, a lot of people don’t want

the risk and uncertainty that entrepreneurship brings. 

Do you have what it takes

In high school, I had dozens of dreams, but the one that was the strongest was being an author. I am still going after that dream. Most people go

through the same thing, they have dozens of dreams, some pursue them and others change course. A lot of people don’t say they want to be an

entrepreneur. The reason is that we’re taught to walk the wide road and not the narrow one.

Teachers teach us to be employees and not employers. That is the way the system is created unless you go to China, Nigeria, Korea or Japan.

Creativity is encouraged and they push their children to excel in every area. That is why Asians are great at business and why Nigerians are good at

the arts. However, most of us go through life thinking and believing that to be happy we have to be employed. I was talking to my niece yesterday

and she was talking about how she wants to create a natural hair product line. That moment I was immensely proud of her.

Anyone can be an entrepreneur. All you need is an idea and the belief that you can carry it out. That’s it, you don’t have to be a super genius, born

in a rich family, gone to college or have a degree. 

What makes a good entrepreneur?

Okay, you want to be an entrepreneur. Well, you need to slap a few traits on you to be a good one. You know those inspirational movies Hollywood

pushes out of the woodwork when you need a confidence boost. From the “Freedom Writers,” to “Race,” they all have common characteristics.

Besides making you cry like a baby with the scores and soundtracks, there’s one common denominator in them. Take a gander. 

They all are about struggle, a down and out person who wants to achieve a goal and everyone thinks they are a clown. In the end, they achieve the

ultimatum goal but go through hurdles. Scriptwriters and writers call this the hero’s journey. It starts with the hero having no clue what they want

to do, they have to go through a series of trials and tribulations before they understand their purpose. 

In reality, we all go through our own hero’s journey. For some, the trials are harder and for others, it is easier, but to be a great leader or someone

great, tribulations come with the job description. Shakespeare once wrote, “Some are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them and

some achieve greatness.” 

This is my favorite quote because it represents so much of our lives. Some people are born with resources that you might not have, some are put

in a position where they can build themselves up. And others have to do it the hard way and work their way up. We all achieve greatness in a

different way and that becomes part of your journey. However, you need five personality traits in order for you to be a great leader and an

entrepreneur. These can easily be learned. As the saying goes practice makes perfect. 

Adaptability

You have to be adaptable. There’s no way around that one. I used to hate change as much as anyone and then I got used to it. I can blame it on the

fact I went to eight schools before I went to college or I lived in four continents. Whatever the reason is I can adapt. What I have come to

understand is life changes, for some people, it is a small change and others it is on a larger scale. 

We all think we can’t adapt, but we forget that every day we have to change our way of thinking, approach something differently or get accustomed

to a lifestyle. For example, if you get ill, you have to change your regiment. If you start a new job and have to wake up three hours earlier then you

do it. If your boss wants to relocate you, you do it because you have no choice in the matter. Well, you do, but making the wrong choice means

getting fired or your health getting worse.

So, if we can do that, why do we think we can’t adapt. It’s already in our DNA. From the time we start school, we have to adapt, to learning a new

subject, becoming part of a team or learning a new skill.  

Curiosity

Yes, we all know the story of how curiosity killed the cat, but what is wrong with being curious. Yes, there are instances when it does nothing but

cause you harm. Unless you have a death wish and are the type of person who thinks you are in a mystery book or in a TV show then curiosity is

harmless. And it is important for becoming an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneurs are curious individuals, they want to learn anything from Physics to literature and that is what makes them diverse. The whole point

is to continue learning, to evolve as your business does and to grow the way that you must. Many entrepreneurs dropped out of college, think Bill

Gates and Steve Jobs. 

 Passionate

An entrepreneur who isn’t passionate tends to quit when things get hard. And believe me, entrepreneurship is hard most of the time. When you

are passionate about something, it thrills you, and you can do the impossible.

For example, I struggled waking up early, I’d drag my feet to class and sleep late. I would set up five alarms and I never used to hear them. Now, it

is different. Often, people give you secrets to waking up early, but they leave out an important factor. If you aren’t excited to wake up the next day,

you can put ten alarms and you still won’t hear it. 

There are days when it is hard when I lose motivation, but I pick myself up. Sometimes, we forget that you won’t like every aspect of what you are

doing. In entrepreneurship this is true, you’ll have to work more than you would at a normal job.

At least in the beginning, so that means, waking up early and working until you hit a breakthrough. They will days when you are not sure you can

keep going. When things don’t work the way you want it. That is how it goes, there’s no perfect job out there because life is beautifully imperfect.

But when you are an entrepreneur what separates you from everyone else is that you are willing to jump through hoops to get to where you want

to go.    

If you have no idea where to start from, I wrote a blog post about quick side-hustles you can start with at home. This will help you go in the right

direction. 

Resilient

No one wants to fail, and yet everyone in their life has failed at one point in time. There this great quote from Richard Branson, “Few first ventures

work out. It is how a beginning entrepreneur deals with failure that sets that person apart. In fact, failure is one of the secrets to success, since

some of the best ideas arise from the ashes of a shuttered business.” 

You have to rise from the ashes of disappointment and failure to get to the top. Because only then will you realize how failure has been building

you up all this time. There’s no successful person out there who hasn’t failed. We have heard the stories time and time again, but we still feel as

though we can’t do it. It’s normal when you don’t know the beginning of someone’s story, it’s hard for it to inspire you. 

Here’s one thing you should remember, as kids we failed all the time. We got up despite being mocked or ridiculed. That is because to kids, failure

is part of growing pangs and when we became teenagers, it shifts. Our perspective changed, we saw ourselves as failures and wanted to be like

everyone else. 

To be successful, you have to pull out the resiliency you had as a kid. Even if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, you still need this character

trait to be successful.

Visionary

Vision is what fuels entrepreneurs, without it many have no direction. When it comes to people being visionaries, the picture of a mad genius

comes to mind. But that is further from the truth, being a visionary, help you come up with an idea and understand the direction you have to take. 

Sometimes being a visionary is about understanding the bigger picture, think about Amazon or Shopify or even Apple. It started out as a small

business and now it has taken the world by storm. In the beginning, all you have is an idea and that might not feel like much but with time it adds

up.

I loved playing with Legos as a kid, I would take one piece and connect to the next. The fascinating thing about Legos was that it started out with

small plastic blocks and then you built on that. Eventually, from those pieces, you managed to create cities, buildings and even robots. In the

beginning, all it was were blocks. That is what being a visionary is. You start with a small idea that can appear trivial to most people, then you build

on that. 

Without visionaries, this world wouldn’t be what it is now. Inventions have been created on ideas, the world changed because people were willing

to build on their visions for the future. 

One more thing, here’s a post from Jonathan Fields that will help you decide whether entrepreneurship is right for you.

Do you think entrepreneurship is right for you? Comment below

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                                                                     Vanessa