Traditionally, entrepreneurship has being defined as “the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering product, process or service for sale or hire, and the people who do so are called entrepreneurs (Wikipedia). Entrepreneurs are not some super humans that fell from a planet of great men beyond the solar system, they are also not some special gods born to rise above all others in this geoid of a world. However, it is true that many are born with some traits that would stand them out as leading entrepreneurs if carefully harnessed and fully utilized. Many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs started at very young ages, growing on the job before finally setting out to beat the world at its game. According to a survey by Professional Services firm Ernst & Young “it did find that entrepreneurs typically share a number of behaviors and attitudes that set them apart from their peers in more established corporate environments. Across the board, they agreed that the three most important qualities of an entrepreneurial leader are vision, passion and drive. Traits like flexibility, relentless focus on quality and loyalty ranked much lower. This findings highlight that most successful entrepreneurs share a unique combination of seeing opportunity where others see risk, and they tend to be optimists and believe they can succeed despite the fact that everyone else is telling them they cannot” it is on these basis that we shall center this article. Many people whose behaviors prove beyond doubt that they are born to be entrepreneurs still wallow in the corporate world owing to the fact that they lack proper knowledge on this part, ignorance of a man’s gifting by himself is the gateway to doom.We would be discussing 10 traits that suggest someone is a born entrepreneur. If you possess, at least, seven of these traits in glaring proportions then you should give entrepreneurship a shot, that is if you haven’t done that already.
1…YOU ARE QUICK IN SPOTTING OPPORTUNITIES: As suggested in the survey on the introductory part of this article, “successful entrepreneurs share a unique combination [or trait] of seeing opportunities where others see risk”. It is not every human being that has the skill to do this, those who do and utilize it for gainful means always do well in business. Opportunity spotting is very important for business growth, ability to do so quickly is a double decker trophy for any entrepreneur.
2…YOU HAVE A PENCHANT FOR THE BUSINESS WORLD: It is said that Ben Bruce, the CEO of silverbird communications and one of the forerunners of the television industry in Nigeria, started his first business at age four when he founded a football team among his peers, likewise his Zimbabwean counterpart; StriveMesiyiwa who got into business by first serving as a candy retailer at school, so it was with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many leading entrepreneurs of the world. The natural love for business, and all its affiliates, is one of those traits that suggest that one was born for the job.
3…IT IS EASY FOR YOU TO LEAD OTHERS THAN TO FOLLOW:Do you know that entrepreneurs are natural leaders by calling? Well, now you do. For the world to be in balance, some people are born to lead others, some are trained to lead others. It is to the group of those born for leadership that entrepreneurs fall. Are you always a choice when others are called upon to choose a leader for the team? Do you often find it easy to get to the top on any chosen endeavor without haven to lobby your way? Do others find it easy to entrust their valuables to you for proper maintenance and management? Seek no further, you belong to this class, the class of born entrepreneurs
4…YOU ABHOR MEDIOCRITY AND VALUE FREEDOM: Mediocrity here is interpreted as average life. What drives many born entrepreneurs out of the four walls of a confined office is not necessarily poverty or lack of money, what drives them out is an ingrained hunger for excellence, for continuous growth and above all, freedom. Entrepreneurs value freedom. An entrepreneur is that someone who wants to lock his hairs into dreads and still wear a suit &tie to the office, he is that someone who wants to close from work at 12noon just because he feels he has no drive for the day and he wants to do so without answering to anyone. In short, an entrepreneur abhors set laws and wants to strive for excellence his own way.
5…YOU HAVE AN INSATIABLE HUNGER FOR NEW IDEAS: Ideas, Pastor Sam Adeyemi would say, rules the world. One of the wonders of the information age is how much ideas are birthed on a daily basis. A research has shown that one newspaper in the 21st century carries more information than what an average man in the 17th century could acquire in all his life time. Information is power, power gives room for ideas to grow, grown ideas give birth to progress. Born entrepreneurs have an insatiable hunger for new ideas, he works on many things at a time and carry out experiments on a lot more
6…YOU TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS MORE: History has shown that some of the greatest ideas, inventions, innovations and discoveries were born out of instincts, an instinct is what Napoleon Hill would refer to as “the higher intelligence” and many others would identify it as “the sixth sense”. The art of instinctive thinking unfortunately cannot be learnt, it is a natural occurring thing. People who mostly possess this trait have been found in the entrepreneurship world.
7…YOUR UNIT FOR MEASURING TIME IS WEALTH:The value of time to every human being cannot be overemphasized, the value of time to an entrepreneur is double that of an average human. Every second count to him; he is constantly on the run for new opportunities, he is constantly researching on new fields, he is constantly working on new ideas. Though he may often be found alone, yet his is never idle. It is to him that it was sang “time is money”. The SI unit for which an entrepreneur measures time is wealth, every hour must not be wasted on frivolities but harnessed for the greater good. Are you someone who places much preference on time?
8…YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT THE ART OF PERSUASION: “People are constantly trying to influence us, to tell us what to do, and just as often we tune them out, resisting their attempts at persuasion” so loudly declares Robert Greene in the concise art of seduction. However, there are some whose skills at convincing us are just so irresistible that, in the authors words, “we grow emotional, lose the ability to think straight, act in foolish ways that we would never do otherwise. If this goes on long enough, something in us gives way: [and] we surrender” ability to seduce and win the hearts of many with words or moves laced in poetic underlining is indispensable trait of any born entrepreneur.
9…YOU HAVE AN INERT DRIVE: You spend countless hours surfing the net for success stories, the buy the bestselling, autobiographies by the most successful business men in the world, you want to know how they started, you want to establish a link between their lives and yours, you want to do what they did to get what they have got; their stories inspire you and gives you a drive. Each time you find the task too daunting to carry out, something deep within you pushes you until you have it done with. You have an inert drive.
10…FOR YOU, SUCCESS SMELLS GOOD: Fulfillment of purpose, meeting set goals, the thrill of the chase, success after the long tussle, these are the things that makes life worth living. While wealth is also a desired end, for an entrepreneur it ranks lower on the scale of things. Robert Schuller would shout to us with a smile “success is never ending. Failure is never final”if the ooze from success pores smells nice to you then you are a born entrepreneur.
If you have spent more than 5minutes reading this short piece, you are probably a born entrepreneur.
