The secret ingredient of an Entrepreneur

An irrational reason

What is to be an entrepreneur? Is it possible to have a school to teach entrepreneurship? There a lot of people who are creative, but creativity doesn’t make them entrepreneurs. There are a lot of people that are good making money, but adding zeros to a number doesn’t define them as entrepreneurs. Actually, a company lead by someone who only cares about the financial result doesn’t last long.

There are a lot of business owners and CEOs that are not entrepreneurs. They might be good leaders or good with spreadsheets, or they were at the right place at the right time, but they don’t have the secret ingredient.

You can recognize an entrepreneur when the first word to describe this person is CRAZY. Why someone wants to invent a new product, a new service, a new way to teach, a new way to photograph, a new something? The path of entrepreneurship is surrounded by uncertainty, obstacles, drawbacks, failure and trying again in a different way or trying something totally new.

I’m almost sure that you are born an entrepreneur. At the playground there is always that kid that start doing something different. This kid pick up some rocks and sticks start creating a path that the kid has to jump and then throw a rock and then touch a tree. It is silly! It is crazy and the other kids recognize that irrational reason to do it. They ask the kid if they can join the game.

That’s what makes an entrepreneur, their secret ingredient is to have an irrational reason to do something new. There are no words to describe it. You can’t put in your company mission, vision and values. When you ask why?, they will certainly reply: Why not?

A entrepreneur is fueled by new ideas, they keep alive that kid from the playground. They don’t need a lot of resources to build something extraordinary. You don’t need to coach them to keep them motivated. The new ideas and this irrational reason will make them keep moving forward to walk through new paths.

I read an article from @dancounsell : Are You Building an App or a Business? He tries to reason why you should take the long and hard path that is entrepreneurship. He ends (spoiler alert): “Make a choice to build something great, something you can look back on in 10 years from now and be truly proud of.” But a true entrepreneur doesn’t have a choice: The only choice is to build something awesome.

Unleash the entrepreneur in you, pick up your rocks and sticks and start building something amazing today. Why? Why not?