What Entrepreneurial People Do Differently
Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago to Business
These things in the article are the things we need to make the post-industrial economy work, to make it not a story of “jobs replaced by machines” but rather a story of amazing new tools for people to meet one another's wants and needs.
Entrepreneurial Traits from the Article:
1. They're brave enough to commit to their dreams.
2. They think of their customers more than themselves.
3. They never stop learning.
4. They never give up.
5. They love failing.
6. They find and fill a need of the world.
7. They take old ideas and make them way, way better.
8. Above all, they act.
Sometimes I think the lack of these traits is due to gov't policies that promise to take care of citizens' problems and that prevents people from rising to the occasion when problems come up. OTOH, sometimes I think that automation and IT are shaking things up faster than in human history. Before the industrial revolution, people could count on a life similar to their grandparents' and that their kids and grandkids would have similar lives. Maybe when the industrial revolution came, a human response was to crave communism, directive 10-289-- please, please just stop the change, make things “stable” and “normal”.
If this is true and it's true we're in the midst of an automation revolution, we must understand this urge and find alternatives to statist cravings. This list is a good place to start right along side that guy (I can't remember his name now) whose writings have been posted here on the “new” old idea of a good work ethic.
Entrepreneurial Traits from the Article:
1. They're brave enough to commit to their dreams.
2. They think of their customers more than themselves.
3. They never stop learning.
4. They never give up.
5. They love failing.
6. They find and fill a need of the world.
7. They take old ideas and make them way, way better.
8. Above all, they act.
Sometimes I think the lack of these traits is due to gov't policies that promise to take care of citizens' problems and that prevents people from rising to the occasion when problems come up. OTOH, sometimes I think that automation and IT are shaking things up faster than in human history. Before the industrial revolution, people could count on a life similar to their grandparents' and that their kids and grandkids would have similar lives. Maybe when the industrial revolution came, a human response was to crave communism, directive 10-289-- please, please just stop the change, make things “stable” and “normal”.
If this is true and it's true we're in the midst of an automation revolution, we must understand this urge and find alternatives to statist cravings. This list is a good place to start right along side that guy (I can't remember his name now) whose writings have been posted here on the “new” old idea of a good work ethic.
I think our biggest single force against these traits is our government education system. The person who helped shift my mindset and action the most in this regard--to be more entrepreneurial--is Seth Godin. Familiar with him or read any of his books? I'm curious, since we seem to be on a similar wavelength (ha ha, EE expression).
I completely agree that the education system is geared toward systematized jobs, jobs that are going away and will be mostly gone by the time those kids are looking for work. I see it in the public and private schools in my area having this problem and struggling to break free, but they're playing catchup.
Regarding balance, there's a book called the E-myth about how you start a business doing what you love, and if you're successful, you have an overwhelming about of work, hire people, and end up not doing much of what you love. You have to learn to love the business side of it. It is very hard when I see an engineering problem to think “who else besides me could work on this?”