Entrepreneurship
begins with a business idea. And the success of an entrepreneur and his/her
enterprise
depends on how well the idea is
executed and built upon. Of course, success doesn't come instantly and
many times ideas are abandoned due
to challenges and initial failures. But there is a class of
entrepreneurs that emerges
triumphant against all odds.
So what is it that actually makes
ideas click and entrepreneurs successful? What are the various qualities
that successful entrepreneurs
possess? If you study the stories of successful entrepreneurs then you will
find certain common elements.
True, each entrepreneur is unique in his/her own way but there are some
characteristics that bind them
together.
To start with, you need to have a
really good idea. "You have got to have a business idea that is unique.
To say, 'I want to do that because
I have seen other people do it and it works', is not enough. You need
to have something that isn't
obvious, and you have got to have faith in it and stick with it," says
Sashi
Reddi, Founder & CEO, AppLabs.
Indeed, having faith in the idea
and being passionate about it is very important. Successful entrepreneurs
are extremely passionate about
their ideas; they are almost obsessed with their business goals and single-
mindedly pursue their visions.
Swami Vivekananda the great spiritual entrepreneur has described the way
to success very succinctly and it
has relevance across domains.
He says, "Take up one idea.
Make that one idea your life –
think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let
the brain, muscles, nerves, every
part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea
alone. This is the way to
success..." Every entrepreneurial success can be said to be a reflection
of this
insightful thought.
Philip Knight (of Nike) had his
great idea about shoes even during his school days when he was an
enthusiastic track & field
athlete. Later, while at Stanford he decided that he was going to be an
entrepreneur and sketched out a
plan to challenge a leading shoe company's monopoly in the market by
employing cheap Japanese labour to
manufacture shoes that were not just better but also cheaper.
He worked on this idea
passionately giving more than his 100% and the rest, as they say, is history.
That
he named his company after the
Greek Goddess of victory at a friend's suggestion was a sweet
coincidence. Of course, this
victory has come at the price of extraordinary efforts.
"Start-ups require a lot of
work and sacrifice –
especially at the beginning; –
so make sure that you have
a strong passion and motivation
for whatever you are doing because you will need that passion and drive
to keep you going through the
tough times," says Alberto Savoia, CTO and Senior VP of R&D, Agitar
Software.
Of course, not all are lucky to
strike gold at their first attempts. In fact, it is likely that most would fail
in
their initial endeavours. And
giving up may seem like a possible way out during crises, difficult times or
failures for many entrepreneurs.
Quite a few might also feel like changing to something different.
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