If you are reading this, it is pretty safe to assume that you have an entrepreneurial itch.
Great! During the course of the next few months, I wish to share with you my thoughts on this subject, having been an entrepreneur myself. I was not born with a silver spoon.
I was not from a family of business people. Indeed, I was brought up in the midst of the belief that the best way to guarantee a stress free and happy life was by being educated and securing a well paying job. So, there are many reasons for why you shouldn't be an entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur is a special kind of beast who sees opportunities in everything, easily excited by ideas own or otherwise, takes a plunge and marches on to make a meal of it.
But, I believe there are many more reasons as to why you should be an entrepreneur. I plan to not just give you my thoughts on this and related subjects, but ask you what you think about it or if you have any particular question that I might be able to answer or point you in a direction where you can get an answer.
There may be plenty of experts in your world from a distant uncle who once ran a grocery store and thinks he knows all about running a business and being an entrepreneur or a dumb cousin you thought could not say a word of English at high school who went to study in the US and now heads a division of a multinational or the numerous self-proclaimed gurus on the subject or reams of materials you can find from the archives of the best universities in the world. I do not claim to be an expert on this subject at all! My opinions are just that.
Ok, who is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is a special kind of beast who sees opportunities in everything, easily excited by ideas own or otherwise, takes a plunge and marches on to make a meal of it. There are many kinds of entrepreneurs. But, none is accidentally an entrepreneur. It is a choice, a deliberate choice! You might be a final year engineering student with a passion for an idea. You might be an employee itching to be your own boss. You might be a senior executive with a fat salary and juicy perks wanting to challenge yourself. You might be an inheritor of a business but wish to move with the times. Whatever the reason, you are an entrepreneur if you strike out on your own to chase your dream to satisfy that entrepreneurial itch.
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Once tasted this poison you are forever hooked with this insatiable itch. It is never ending. Like an aging athlete, there is always one more! But, an entrepreneur's life is strewn with challenges, emotional, financial and personal wreckages. So, being an entrepreneur may sound glamorous, it is not really for the faint hearted. The nagging self doubts, mounting bills to pay and the ever critical family are just a small sample of the daily grind of being an entrepreneur. If you even wish to be an entrepreneur to be a millionaire and rich, be warned. You may, but at considerable cost though.
Money after all may not bring you happiness. You may think you may have all that and be healthy and happy. Ending up with a pile of cash, posh car, mansion and a relatively good bank balance is no substitute for being healthy and happy. So, you are alerted to some of the perils of being an entrepreneur.
But the journey to be an entrepreneur and being an entrepreneur is perhaps one of the most satisfying experiences of a human being. You will go through the process of starting up, building a team, raising capital and exiting.
Are you a wannabe or a gonnabe? I shall leave you with some reasons to be an entrepreneur. Freedom, Independence, Opportunity, Change , Control and Achievement. What is your reason? Keep that itch going!..until next time.
About the Author
Karunanidhi Muthu, Director of Investments - DCH Capital Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. The author can be reached at karuna@dchcapital.net