Entrepreneur – Is it just an ego trip? Can I be one?

What is an entrepreneur?

I would define an entrepreneur as someone who manages a business or enterprise and who takes, part or whole, personal financial liability for its success or failure. I believe that the personal financial risk is the key element to true entrepreneurship. If the business makes an amazing profit, you are a financial star and if the business fails, you may owe a large debt.

I have interviewed many entrepreneurs who have been very successful and many unsuccessful. From this experience, I have captured the key elements that are most important for ensuring financial success.

I have developed and refined this experience and apply it when I am coaching entrepreneurs in managing their businesses. Change is always present. Markets change, people change, their outlook and their personal circumstances change. Government policies change and societal values change. Whether you view change as ‘riding the storm’ or reacting to a challenge will depend on your personality. Whether you go for risky expansion or safe consolidation will depend on your personality. Whether you find people or situations more difficult to manage will depend on your personality. Here, I am highlighting a factor that is most often omitted when we review the important issues of entrepreneurship – you.

I shall show you how to recognise your strong personality traits and how they can feature in your business or enterprise. You will see how your individual traits are critical to your success. Like a team player knowing whether they are best as a defender, goalkeeper, midfielder or forward – knowing whether they are stronger on the right or left wing – is key to their performance. ‘Play to my strengths’ is a well-known cliché, but how can you know what are your strongest talents in the workplace?

Entrepreneur? Is it an ego trip and can I be one? The answer is yes everybody can be a very successful entrepreneur but how they do it must be compliant with their personality as I have outlined in the booklet below. For the Influencer type ego can be the motivator but not for the other three. I find being in your own business is a much more common choice in today’s fluid work environment and for many can add a new and exciting dimension to a career path which has become boring and monotonous

Extract from Entrepreneur: How to be your own Boss.