What are entrepreneurs & NOT?

What are some of the compelling characteristics of entrepreneurs? They are very hard workers; the typical entrepreneur works a minimum of 50 hours a week, and this grinding work schedule could easily last for 25 or 30 years. They are risk takers (until they revert to being protectors of the status quo, but that’s the subject of another article). They think nothing of pledging their homes or other worldly possessions as collateral for business loans in order to grow, expand, or bring new ideas to the marketplace. They believe in self-reliance. The last thing you’d ever hear an entrepreneur say is “it’s not my job.” Everything and anything are their jobs, and they are perfectly willing to jump with both feet into difficult tasks which many executives wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.

Entrepreneurs are confident; they believe in themselves. They think that, while some jobs are terribly difficult and daunting, any job can be completed on time and on budget with the right kind of hard work and planning. Entrepreneurs believe in win-win. They know that long-term business relationships can’t be forged on the basis of win/lose thinking. They want to make good deals for themselves and their companies, but they want the other parties involved to prosper as well.

Entrepreneurs know that the only way to truly build a successful company is to answer the WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) question on behalf of their customers. If the customers find value in a firm’s products or services, there’s built in value for the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs believe in fair rewards and incentives for productivity. If they can develop a procedure or technology that allows them to come to market with 25% net margin while their competitors are struck with a 5% net margin, that’s perfectly okay. Innovation, risk-taking, hard work, and productivity could and should be rewarded in the marketplace.

Entrepreneurs don’t want to be measured by the standards of others. Following college, an entrepreneur started his career at a bank. In spite of the fact he could do work at a rate two or three times greater than the other loan officers in his group, his maximum pay increase was six percent. In other words, even the most productive loan officer could only get a six percent raise while a perfectly mediocre loan officer was likely to get a three or four percent raise. This is the kind of stultifying environment that makes an entrepreneur cringe.

Entrepreneurs are swift and sure decision makers. They would rather make a quick decision and later be proven wrong than be indecisive and come to no conclusion at all. Their confidence allows them to believe that even incorrect decisions can have positive results over the long run. Entrepreneurs prefer predictability and planned activities to unpredictably and reacting to others. Generally speaking, entrepreneurs aren’t the types that respond well to impulsive, unscheduled events; the idea of “dropping everything and heading down to the beach for a long weekend” wouldn’t work well for most entrepreneurs. Questions would likely pop to mind: what’s the weather supposed to be like and what clothes do we need to take? How many people are going and how many vehicles will it require? What other things did I have on my schedule for this weekend, and can they be postponed without any ill effect? Preparation well in advance is a mantra for many entrepreneurs.

What are entrepreneurs NOT?
They are not bureaucratic. The idea of having many layers of management and decision-makers gives entrepreneurs the willies. They believe in flat, lean, efficient decision-making structures. Entrepreneurs are not tolerant of fools, idiots, big talkers, or time wasters. They are bottom line people who want to get decisions made quickly and efficiently; those who don’t support those efforts aren’t easily suffered.

They’re not impressed with credentials or grand resumes; they have their own, more practical methods for judging the quality and character of others. While some people may be deferential upon meeting a person wearing a $2,000 suit, a $20,000 watch, and driving a $150,000 automobile, the closely held business owner would look beyond the trappings of success in order to determine the person’s real, intrinsic value. Along the same lines, entrepreneurs aren’t keen on impressing other people with their possessions. Dr. Thomas J. Stanley has demonstrated that the typical entrepreneur, quite wealthy by most people’s standards, lives in a modest home, drives a modest car, spends money frugally, and saves and invests for the future. Successful entrepreneurs have little in common with Donald Trump and other jet set figures lionized by the popular media.

Entrepreneurs are the driving force behind the massive explosion of jobs, innovation, and opportunities (both here and abroad) over the last twenty years. They are can do seers of business niches which must be filled by someone with the vision and passion to do so.

Why is so little known, understood, and written about entrepreneurs? The simplest answer is that owners of private businesses are, in a word, private. If a reporter were to call an entrepreneur about his company and ask about sales, profits, and where they’re headed in the future, the business owner would likely reply with stony silence.

They’re often in “dirty” businesses. Entrepreneurs are generally not creating cures for diseases in sterile labs, they’re more likely to be in the moving and storage business, own a chain of tire stores, or be a franchisee which sells replacement cartridges for printers and copiers. Entrepreneurs operate under the radar screen of the mainstream media. The main reason so little is reported about them is that they’re simply not sexy or flashy.

Entrepreneurs are everyday, unsung heroes. Upon analysis, entrepreneurs have more opportunity, perhaps with the exceptions of ministers and doctors, than other types of people to touch the lives of others and inspire them in a positive way. Family members, employees, members of the surrounding community (many entrepreneurs are among the largest employers in their towns), vendors and suppliers, and customers are all touched, often in a meaningful way, by the daily work of entrepreneurs. When so many things are wrong in the world, and the daily news is overwhelmingly negative, the work of entrepreneurs and their captivating spirits are among the things that are very, very right in the world.

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