What defines an Entrepreneur?

At a recent four day sports training course I became good friends with one of the attendees from San Diego, David was a very quiet guy in his early 30's. He was attending business school to earn an MBA and was contemplating a career change by moving into a technology startup. He made the comment "I could never be an entrepreneur, as I don't have any good ideas".

WRONG!

There is a huge misunderstanding that an entrepreneur is the one who has a clever idea and that idea makes them wealthy.

WRONG!

The defining characteristic of an entrepreneur is the ability to make an idea happen. 

In a world with billions of people there are actually very few unique ideas - look at the simultaneous discovery of the electric light, one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives. We all are taught that it was invented in 1879 by Thomas Edison, but he was neither the first nor the only person trying to invent a practical incandescent light bulb. These had existed for many years, and the challenge that Edison and others tackled was a filament that wouldn't burn out quickly.

Consider the Wright brothers - they were one of thousands of people trying to achieve manned flight. The unique aspect of the Wright brothers and Edison is that they were able to make their ideas happen and both built successful companies around their early achievements.

James Dyson neither invented the vacuum cleaner nor the cyclone - James was frustrated with his Hoover vacuum cleaner bag clogging, and had the brilliant idea of using cyclonic separation that he saw in action in a sawmill. Fives years later and more than 5,000 prototypes later he launched his revolutionary cyclone cleaner. He made it happen.

Even Bill Gates at Microsoft happily admits that he bought DOS (their first massive success) for $50,000 from Tim Patterson at Seattle Computer products. IBM wanted Microsoft to provide an operating system for their new PC - Microsoft didn't have one, but Bill Gates MADE IT HAPPEN.

An entrepreneur has the ability to EXECUTE and make an idea happen - bring the right people together and build an organization to make an idea happen. What is it that allows an entrepreneur to execute on an idea? I see a few core values, but they can all be summed up in one world COURAGE.

COURAGE to believe in yourself and your ideas

COURAGE to take a risk

COURAGE to potentially fail

I have met numerous people who profess that they would love to do a startup, but (pick your excuse):

• I have a big mortgage to service
• My wife/husband won't let me
• My debt is too high
• I'm just waiting until ....
• My kids are too young/old

An entrepreneur pushes all of this aside and makes it happen - and they are often scared - One time my wife and I were down to no money in the bank and no food in the house. My wife supported our family in the early days of our first startup and she was working seven days for some time. We've moved our kids across the world many times, and they are grateful for the life that they have led.

Back to David and the training course - it took me a while to get out of him that he was a Marine Corps pilot, and had recently returned from a combat tour. This is a guy to whom courage and risk taking is no stranger, but he admitted that he was scared by the idea of leaving the Marines after 10+ years, and striking out on his own.

Everyone has these fears, and the ability to push them aside and make something happen is what defines an entrepreneur! MAKE IT HAPPEN