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Small Office/Home Office Expert Expert: Steven Strauss
Are you an entrepreneur?
Q: How do I know if I am really an entrepreneur and am right for self–employment? I'm smart, hard working and like my independence.
A: Once, when I was about six, I asked my dad what he did for a living. He told me he was an entrepreneur. "What's that?" I asked. "An entrepreneur is someone who takes a risk with money to make money." That's still the best description I have ever heard (OK, I might be a bit biased.)
Creating your own small business can be one of the greatest, most exhilarating, rewarding, and life–altering things you will ever do. Certainly the rewards are great. Living without a boss (being the boss!), making more money (hopefully), and being able to implement your own ideas are very gratifying. But to get these rewards, you must be willing to risk failure.
The first question to ask yourself then is whether you are a risk–taker. You could become a millionaire, or lose it all. If the thought of that thrills you, then you just passed the first test. Entrepreneurs also tend to have these traits in common:
- They are confident, maybe overly–confident
- They are self–motivated
- They like to think for themselves
- They are flexible and adapt fairly easily
Do you have what it takes? All of these traits are important, but I think the willingness to take a risk (not a blind risk, but a smart, calculated risk) is the key.
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