So who exactly is an Entrepreneur, what are the qualities of an Entrepreneur?… Well, Wikipedia says: “An Entrepreneur is a person who has ownership of a new business, venture or idea and takes significant responsibility for the risks inherent and the result”… umm… okay, but I prefer to say that an ideal entrepreneur is a person who guides a workforce to apply an idea (it doesn’t matter if it’s his or someone else’s and if it’s new or old) to satisfy those who need the benefits it produces, which translates into financial results or profits.
Therefore, the basic characteristics or qualities of an entrepreneur would be:
– He or she must have an Idea (again, regardless of who originally thought of it and whether it is new or old).
– He or she must have the motivation/drive to pursue or apply the idea.
– He or she must have access to labor or the ability to make labor accessible to him or her (marketing skills apply here).
– He or she must be a good leader.
But then, there are also other types of people who have some or many of the qualities mentioned above; but we don’t call them Entrepreneur. A good example of such an individual might be a scientist. Scientists have ideas, or in other words, they can create ideas. They are definitely enthusiastic or motivated to pursue their ideas and they are also certainly good leaders and certainly have access to at least a minimal manpower (No, most scientists don’t work in solitude as shown in movies like Robin Williams’ Flubber or Frankenstein, have at least 2-10 people working under them as junior scientists). But then, why don’t we also call a scientist an entrepreneur? Is he an exception to the above definition?…something to think about, huh?
And how about a dictator? He has ideas of his own or borrowed, he wants to apply them, he has access to manpower, he can guide them very well…in fact, they will do almost anything he wants. So does that mean that a dictator is a businessman or a businessman is a dictator?
