The majority of economists have focused a lot of their time and effort in recent years on the study of entrepreneurship. For every firm to survive, entrepreneurship skills are essential. One has a crisis in a business venture without entrepreneurship abilities, and they are doomed to run a loss. Therefore, in order to be able to comprehend the strengths and shortcomings of successful entrepreneurs, it is essential to study their abilities and way of life.
The definition of the term "entrepreneur" continues to elicit controversy and a variety of explanations on a global scale. Gutterman (2014), however, asserts that an entrepreneur is a person with a wide range of qualities, including innovation, risk-taking, a focus on and business oriented, wealth creator, and ambitious in economic recovery ventures. Also, through considerable risks and initiative, an entrepreneur organizes and manages a business venture.
This essay is aimed at examining the characteristics of an entrepreneur that I possess based on the definition by Gutterman (2014). I will delve on theoretically discussing and demonstrating the skills (strengths) that I possess. Finally, I will identify entrepreneurs who have succeeded in the areas I have battled with.
Analysis of My Strengths
Considering the definition of an entrepreneur, a number of strengths that synch with my personality are worth discussing. These are blocks that are pivotal in building a successful entrepreneur in any business venture. These include; risk taker, proactive, internal locus of control, Flexibility and open-mindedness, and innovation.
Flexibility and Open-mindedness
Soto, C.J., Kronauer, A. and Liang (2015) suggested a Five Factor Model of Personality that explains key attributes of an individual in any progressive setting. This explores an individual's attitude amid new possibilities and different opinions at the face of contradictory evidence.The need to be flexible and open-minded is a key entrepreneur characteristic for one to succeed. The need is crucial in that it helps one in a number of ways to stay gripped in the era of global changes in economies. Flexibility helps an entrepreneur to be willing to change and develop a flexible approach in his belief amid views and contradictory evidence. This means that entrepreneurs are always faced with a number of options that calls for flexibility and open-mindedness. Open-mindedness enables one to adapt to changing situations, accept and adapt to new technology, and coping with stressful events. Therefore, this helps one to be able to adjust and make sound decisions based on the demands of the projects in context (Fins et al., 2014).In my life, I have always been faced with a number of options that demanded me to make a decision to progress. Through the skills and competencies of flexibility and problem solving, I managed to work as a financial director of Lunar New York Fair. In this position of financial director I was always faced with tasks that needed me to make decisions seasonally. These included changes in the global economy, financial constraints, emerging financial technologies, and new financial projects that were different from the ones we had. This situation thought me to be open-minded and flexible in order to explore a myriad opportunities which I did and I became successful.
Proactivity
Uy et al. (2015) gives a correlation between entrepreneurship and proactivity. This approach considers individuals as endowed with ability to create their own successful environment. In this regard, reactiveness is a key virtue for a successful interaction with a given environment which such individuals are good at. It's important that entrepreneurs possess a proactive personality for it helps them explore a number of opportunities as well as take charge of the venture. In this view, it's significant to know that proactive personality is synched to entrepreneurship abilities and career of an individual. Such individuals are self-driven and motivated to do more in any form environment with limitless possibilities (Mwiya, 2014).Working as General assistant at the Germac Technology Limited, I picked a number of projects that still stand today in this electronic company. The branch did not have a proper delivery, marketing, and distribution services to enhance its sales and profitability. In this regard, I gave an idea that helped to expand the company's sales thorough online marketing, establishment of avenues and branches across the globe, and shift accounting system. This made the company renowned in electronic globally and thus its efficiency and profitability rose high. This achievement was also attributed to my teamwork skills and competence that actively imparted to the company.
Possession of Internal Locus of Control
The proponents of Social Learning Theory (SLT) suggested that individuals have an internal locus that plays a core role in the life of an individual as an entrepreneur (Mwiya, 2014). Such individuals with internal locus control believe that their behavior is contingent with the events in their life. According to this Theory, the individuals are always seeking entrepreneurship roles in bid to exert their positions to produce results. The traits in having the positive relationships is aimed at developing and motivating entrepreneurship behavior in any person. Also, having internal locus of control means that the individual has to accept change, challenges, and risks that are beyond his control as an entrepreneur.This is analogous to my personality of hard work all through my life. I have always kept time and developed problem-solving skills. I applied this during my internship and when I was working as a secretary in Hong Kong Surrey University. This enabled me to take control of all my plans and that of the organization as a secretary. Also, my performance through dedication and hard work enabled me to get a placement to study BSc Business Management. This was a vivid indication of how I took control of my destiny. Therefore, I believe I can successfully work as an entrepreneur with these traits.
Weaknesses and Entrepreneurs Who Have Succeeded
In my weaknesses, there are a number of entrepreneurs who have registered unbeatable success in a peculiar. It's therefore worth discussing such attributes.
Innovativeness
Considering the theory of economic development, innovation is the mother of economic growth (Lewis, 2013). In this regard, entrepreneurship drives technical shift and innovation. This is given by the entrepreneurial model which asserts that its part of entrepreneur strategy when firms innovate regularly. Therefore, for firms to sustain a competitive advantage over their competitors, they have to employ innovation in their production. In contrast, these firms fail in their innovative strategies due to the relationship with their modern customers even when they have a purpose to innovate. As such, the firms are affected since they fail to meet their production and market threshold.Bill Gross, who is the founder of Idealab and is currently working as the CEO aimed at this company where he will build a business on areas with many opportunities based on innovations. His company began on a low technological profile in high school, and he sold kits and plans for solar-energy products. In college at the California Institute of Technology, he designed GNP loudspeakers. In 1991, he was ranked 3rd worldwide when he published an educational software called Knowledge Adventure (Sedita and Grandinetti, 2014). Also, the entrepreneurship journey of Steve Jobs, who was fired from Apple Company in 1985. Jobs returned in 1997 when the company nearly ran bankrupt and initiated a change in innovation that enabled changes in the products manufactured. The diversified products included iTunes, iPhones, and iPads, which registered a profit of $185 billion as per the theory of economic development (Heracleous and Klaering, 2017).
Risk Taking Propensity
Risk, uncertainty, and profit theories spell out that uncertainty needs to be distinguished from risks (Tisdell, 2015). Therefore, an individual has to stay alert in bid to discover opportunities that are essential for entrepreneurship development. It's imperative for all entrepreneurs to undertake risks; this is a vital virtue. In most cases, entrepreneurs suffer when they fail to realize the risks in their actions. This happens when they become overconfident, which is always a recipe for poor decision making.James Dyson is a key example of an entrepreneur who took a risk to rise and drown in billions of money today. As such, he developed Dyson Vacuum Cleaner that took a period of six years and more than 4 billion debts. However, as time went by, he became successful and paid off the debt, and his net worth is $1.6 billion (Guinan, 2014).
Conclusion
Considering the characteristics named, it's vital for all entrepreneurs to possess them in order to be successful in their venture. Also, despite these characteristics being pivotal for the development of every entrepreneur, it's also worth noting that they can hinder the entrepreneurial process. Basing on the personality I possess, it means that I am capable of being a good entrepreneur. However, following my weaknesses, then I am unfit for an entrepreneur position. The weaknesses, on the other hand, can be transformed into strengths for me to be an entrepreneur.
References
Fins, J.J., Kubu, C.S., Mayberg, H.S., Merkel, R., Nuttin, B. and Schlaepfer, T.E., 2017. Being open minded about neuromodulation trials: Finding success in our “failures”.
Gutterman, A.S., 2014. Definitions of entrepreneurship.
Guinan, J., 2014. Modern money and the escape from austerity. Renewal, 22(3/4), pp.6-21.
Heracleous, L. and Klaering, L.A., 2017. The circle of life: Rhetoric of identification in Steve Jobs' Stanford speech. Journal of Business Research, 79, pp.31-40.
Lewis, W.A., 2013. Theory of economic growth (Vol. 7). Routledge.
Mwiya, B.M.K., 2014. The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on the Relationships between Institutional and Individual Factors and Entrepreneurial Intention of University Graduates: Evidence from Zambia (Doctoral dissertation).
Soto, C.J., Kronauer, A. and Liang, J.K., 2015. Five‐Factor Model of Personality.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Sedita, S.R. and Grandinetti, R., 2014. Relationships at work in a networked business incubator: the case of H-Farm (No. 0190). Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche" Marco Fanno".
Tisdell, C.A., 2015. The theory of price uncertainty, production, and profit. Princeton University Press.
Uy, M.A., Chan, K.Y., Sam, Y.L., Ho, M.H.R. and Chernyshenko, O.S., 2015. Proactivity, adaptability and boundaryless career attitudes: The mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, pp.115-123.
