how to start a business

Personally, I do not believe I am qualified to start my own company. The reading identifies three main aspects of entrepreneurship: creativity, corporate management, and risk-taking. I consider myself to be an ambitious person because I am always looking for better ways to improve procedures and products/services, as well as exploring new ideas to solve problems. However, I lack the confidence to run a company and am a risk-averse person.
I dislike working in an unpredictable environment, and I like to take a direction where I am positive of the outcome of my choice. I do not trust my gut instinct. However, uncertainty is at the core of starting a business because one is not always certain of the outcome of the many decisions taken. Unless I can foresee the outcome with certainty, I find it difficult to start and the thought of dealing with uncertainty make me uneasy. Also, I am not very good at making quick decisions under pressure because sometimes, I tend to overthink situations and as an entrepreneur, one will have to make quick decisions under pressure. I feel that I am not yet ready for that.

Managing a business is not an easy task and I feel that my skills are not good enough. For instance, I am not a good planner and most of the times, I fail to accomplish tasks because I did not pay attention to the details. The reading has clearly pointed out that poor planning is one of the main reasons of business failure. Also, I still need to work on my emotional stamina because I get cranky and frustrated after working for long hours yet it is known that entrepreneurs work for long hours with little rest.

From the reading, the very definition of an entrepreneur as “someone who identifies a business opportunity and assumes the risk of creating and running a business to take advantage of it” had the greatest impact on me. I learnt that to be an entrepreneur, I must identify a viable business opportunity and I have to be ready to take the risk to take advantage of it. Therefore, risk taking is a must when starting a business and some individuals are naturally born risk takers but I can also learn how to be a risk taker.