Being an ‘Entrepreneur’
It’s taken me a long time to be comfortable with the term entrepreneur or being able to label myself with the title Entrepreneur. I always thought the term was only worthy for those who have achieved true success, those who reach the pinnacle of their industry or built enormous corporate empires. Then you can be called an ‘entrepreneur’ – a deserved title for those who have achieved.
There are two reasons I’ve become more comfortable with the term. The first is the realisation that the Sir Richard Bransons, and the Lord Sugars, that we’ve come to know and love, had to start somewhere. They didn’t just wake up one morning with business empires and already leaders of their industry. They had an idea, something we are all capable of producing.
The second reason I have become more comfortable with the term entrepreneur is the acknowledgement of the fact that it’s ok to fail, as long as you pick yourself back up and carry on. Something a good entrepreneur is capable of doing.
They weigh up their options and take action. The ‘great entrepreneurs’ took a series of steps which moved them forward. They had no guarantees that what they were doing would succeed. They made some errors, they learnt something and they recalculated. They carried on. Slowly but surely they turned their ideas into reality.
At the recent launch evening of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation (NEF), Alastair Lukies (CEO and Co-founder of Monitise) inspired those of us participating on the programme to take the path less trod.
I am now comfortable with term entrepreneur and believe it is a process and a path not a title you are awarded following success.
