You need to be born an entrepreneur - Essay Example

Essay, Creative writing Topic: Agree with the ment: “You need to be born an entrepreneur.” William Shakespeare writes, “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em” (Act II Scene 5).An aspiring candidate for entrepreneurship should remove negative impressions from the mind about the statement “You need to be born an entrepreneur.” Being born in a well-to-do family with background of trade and commerce has some advantages. But the credit goes to the self-made individual who achieves success in the area of his choice. Money and capital are the important factors for an individual aspiring to become an entrepreneur. But that alone is not sufficient. A successful individual must have the innate capacity to take right decisions at the right time. What a budding entrepreneur does is important. But how he does, what he does is more important. He does it differently and has an essential dignity about his small and big dispositions. An entrepreneur is invariably creative. With this backgrounder information it is true that ‘You need to be born an entrepreneur. ‘The word ‘born’ here does not mean that one need to take birth in a rich family of an industrialist. A ‘born’ entrepreneur may fail but a self-made entrepreneur will not fail. Meaning, he has the grit, the determination to convert his failures into success. He is the man who will never admit defeat. If he fails, he will learn from that experience and will fare better in his subsequent assignments. With every fall, he bumps like a rubber ball and eventually achieves great heights. The element of risk is his eternal companion and most of his risk-taking decisions will fructify in his favor. He is aware of the risk factor attached to his every dream, and he is confident of challenging those obstacles. A born entrepreneur is a dreamer. He is the planner and the implementer. Since he has the capacity to think out of the box, he knows about the future projections about his existing plans. He is the supreme manager, yet he is well-versed in the science of ergonomics, and has the innate capacity to find proper men for the proper jobs. He knows the art of delegation of responsibilities to take the best out of his employees. The born entrepreneur knows that an enterprise is not a money business. It is people’s business. Each employee under him may be a better genius and is working under him not because you are more intelligent than him, but because you are placed in better circumstances and he is not. A born entrepreneur may be a specialist in a selected subject or he may be a versatile personality capable of extending into several fields, for he knows that the basics of success are the same and they are applicable to all types of situations. He is a man of sharp wit, has the good grasping ability, possesses a very strong intellect and will not compromise on ethical principles of business. He knows the value of goodwill in the balance sheet of the company. A born entrepreneur takes risk, but does not seek risk. The word entrepreneur baffles definition. The technical definition of the word is: He is someone who finances or creates initiatives in a business undertaking. But this definition is limited in scope. An individual who has successfully established a non-profit NGO and works with purely a philanthropic motive is also a born entrepreneur. As such it is desirable to identify some of the characteristics of a born entrepreneur: 1. Capacity to take risk. In this era of internet revolution and globalization, the business environment is volatile and the entrepreneur need to have the vision to interpret the changing scenario and modify the business plans accordingly. Lightening decisions will have to be taken as per the demand of the time. Risk taking is not taking rash actions. The business world is like the junction though which a thousand mad trains pass. But there should be a method even in the madness! 2. What is going on in your mind as for your product/s is important? But what is going on in the minds of the customers, who are the pillars of support for your product/s, is more important. A customer is your honorary ambassador to spread goodwill or ill will depending upon the merit of the products. An entrepreneur needs to be alert as for the developments that take place in the market. Donald Kuratko writes, “People are drawn to passion, so emphasizing the passion you have for your business as an effective method for getting people’s attention. By being self-confident and articulating the value of your business provides your clients, people will in turn share enthusiasm and grow more comfortable maintaining their business relationship. (p.37)A new product that has arrived in the market, may undo the years of goodwill of the earlier products. 3. An entrepreneur is a leader. He is an individual who rises to the occasion. Generally, it is believed that it is an inborn quality but that is only the part of the truth. The quality can be assiduously cultivated. Leadership is all about guiding, influencing, guiding and inspiring people. Once he takes the decision he is unafraid to take the plunge. Like a hesitant, undecided swimmer, he does not wait at the shore, for the waves to subside. He knows that in the ocean the waves are bound to there and one should not be afraid of the oncoming waves. 4. An entrepreneur may be an all-rounder but every individual has passion for a particular type of activity. That passion supersedes all other qualities. The qualities of drive and passion are great combination to achieve success. He may be academically qualified individual. But his real study is in the college of self-education where his mind is his Principal. His initiatives are his Professions. His hard work is his Tutor. He is ready to start and finish with unstoppable enthusiasm. 5. The true mettle of an entrepreneur comes to the fore in times of crisis. Such individuals are calm by temperament as such the worst situation does them no harm, and they emerge successful. He treats every crisis as an opportunity to march forward. Apart from going after an opportunity, he creates new opportunities. An entrepreneur is someone who develops new products, makes innovative changes in the existing product, creates cost-reduction procedures in production, plans to venture into an innovative market and does something successfully and scores the march over the competitors. He has the research and study oriented approach for setting up or expanding the existing business enterprise. Entrepreneur skill is all about identifying the business opportunities well in time and turn them to the advantage of the existing enterprise or for setting up a new enterprise. 6. An entrepreneur is a great team worker. He knows the art of mixing freely with his officers and staff and yet he maintains the essential dignity of the top position that he occupies in the organization. Efficiency and punctuality are the watchwords of a born entrepreneur as such he expects the same from others. Example of born entrepreneur Steven Paul Jobs (1955-2011) is one of the outstanding entrepreneurs from California US who is the founder of Apple Company whose market value is about $600 billion with the employee strength of 63,300. Every entrepreneur contributes something some original idea/s to humankind/business world. Though he dominated the market like a King, his main theme was ‘say no to focus groups and market research.’ He was a visionary, a brilliant and stirring personality, though mercurial in temperament. He disliked excessive emphasis on market research which he articulated that it is the hindrance for the ability to innovate. He created products and the market and people followed him. Asked about the research done when he introduced iPad, Steve Jobs quipped, “"None. It isnt the consumers job to know what they want. Its hard for [consumers] to tell you what they want when theyve never seen anything remotely like it."(2012) This is how the sixth sense of the genius works and he was a man whose power of intuition was awesome. In another context, Steve Jobs retorted, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?" (The Twelve greatest, 2012) Steve Jobs is the sterling example of the statement: “You need to be born an entrepreneur.” Work Cited Kuratko, Donald. Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, and Practice. Cengage Learning, 2008 Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene 5. The 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time - 1. Steve Jobs ; Web. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/news/companies/1203/ gallery.greatest- entrepreneurs.fortune/2.html; April 9, 2012. Accessed on May 16, 2014. Read More