Why We Are All Entrepreneurs

What does it really mean to be an entrepreneur? 

Had you asked me this question a few months ago, I might have said that it was a term used to describe someone who owned their own business, or described someone who was innovative and not afraid to take risks.

Had you asked me whether I was an entrepreneur a few months ago, I would have laughed and confidently said, no way.

I now not only actively identify as an aspiring entrepreneur but also believe that we all have the capability to be one.

Since I'm pretty sure that not everyone  is innovative, a risk-taker or owns their own business, you're probably thinking how on earth can I believe that everyone is an entrepreneur. Right?

If you're thinking this already, I get it. The reason why I believe everyone is an entrepreneur is because of this post by Wade Morgan that I read recently. He described entrepreneurship in a light that I had never once considered it in and it had an immense impact on my perspective.

"Entrepreneurship - the pursuit of a goal without regard to current resources" - Howard Stevenson

After reading this definition, the penny dropped for me. I never thought 11 words could change a life, but immediately, they changed mine.

By this definition, an entrepreneur is not someone who is innovative, a risk-taker and owns their own business, but instead, is someone who is in pursuit of a goal without regard to current resources. 

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't almost all of us spend our lives pursuing goals without regard to our current resources?

Therefore, by definition, aren't almost all of us entrepreneurs?

Naturally, the next question is how do we best unleash our entrepreneurial potential. In order to do this, I'd like to consider a few influential people who have been on my mind recently.

Last week, I had the pleasure of listening to Patrise Cullors and Opal Tometi (#BlackLivesMatter Co-Founders) speak here at Notre Dame.

This movement started as a hashtag on Facebook but now has 90,000+ followers on Twitter, 30 chapters across the world and a global audience of millions.

Do you think that Patrise and Opal had the resources to influence the world's conversation on race when George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 for shooting Trayvon Martin? They most certainly did not, but they still relentlessly  pursued their goal of ending a 400-year struggle.

Although he was arrested 32 times during his life, Martin Luther King Jr. allowed nothing to stop him as he fearlessly pursued his goal of racial equality. What would America look like today had he not been so fearless and persistent?

Despite the fact Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and told that the MacBook would never be successful, he relentlessly pursued his vision, and that's why I'm currently sitting here writing this article on his very creation.

These four outstanding people all have something in common: they always ruthlessly pursued a goal without regard to current resources.

In short, they were more than just entrepreneurs, they were outstanding entrepreneurs.

The reason they were, and are still, so outstanding is because they always pursued their goals without regard to their current resources. Unfortunately, many of us don't always ruthlessly pursue the goals that we have. Instead, we fluctuate in our efforts, sometimes getting stuck on the enormity of the task ahead. We begin to focus on the fact that we don't currently have the resources that we need to succeed, and ultimately, we panic.

I certainly have fluctuated in my pursuit of certain goals, and I wrote about this, with regards to my post-graduation ambitions, in my first LinkedIn post. Soon enough, our fluctuations in the pursuit of our goals mean that we don't take the risks that we should, and we quickly lose belief. The second that we lose faith in ourselves, our self-efficacy plummets, and we lose the ability to achieve our goals. 

Those four entrepreneurs were always able to be outstanding because of how high and resilient their self-efficacy was. This is truly the key to excellence.

Self efficacy: a person's belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation

Why is self-efficacy so important?

Albert Bandura showed that those with a heightened sense of self-efficacy were not only better at setting challenging goals and committing to them, but also could quickly recover their self-efficacy following setbacks and disappointments.  Moreover, Professor Jeanne Ormrod illustrated that those with a higher level of self-efficacy have a tendency to learn and achieve more than those with low self-efficacy, even when actual ability levels are the same.  (Human learning, 2008).

These insights are critical because we are all going to experience setbacks at some point in time. Becoming an outstanding entrepreneur and experiencing success isn't dictated by who has the fewest setbacks, it's dictated by who can, setback after setback, still relentlessly continue to pursue their goals.

"In other words, don't expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say we have a problem, let's go and get it" - Colin Powell

Jobs, Dr. King, Patrise, and Opal all exhibit complete and utter belief in their ability to organize and execute, allowing them to pursue, and ultimately, reach their goals.

To be outstanding in any field, we need to stop doubting ourselves and start believing, all the time, that we can achieve. It is this undeniable self-belief that gives us a high self-efficacy, and therefore, allows us to relentlessly pursue our goals without regard to current resources.

Isn't it time you unleashed your inner entrepreneur?

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