Are you born an entrepreneur or do you achieve it over time?

We all have different backgrounds, talents and professional skills.

Some characteristics may be more or less likely to become an entrepreneur, but no one is born knowing how to be.

I like to imagine that, inside ourselves, the entrepreneurial figure comes to light only after experiencing other aspects of our personalities.

For example, the dreamer, the creative, the daring, the critic, the planner, the adventurer...

It is as if each aspect represents a punctuation. In our trajectory, we add each of these points until we have enough to undertake. The point is that the amount and quantity of points don’t have a pattern that applies to all.

Some people have a good first idea, experiment, undertake, and reach a level that many see only after a long walk.

With me, It didn’t work in that way. 

I knew I wanted to be in the exact field, not the career of my father, who was a military man. I liked Electronics and Engineering.

I could even imagine myself in strategic roles and important positions. But imagining entrepreneurship, starting a business or a new business front was a long way off and wasn’t  in my plans.

It was so far away that at that time I even changed the focus of my life just a little bit and I started climbing mountains, hiking in the Alps and the Pyrenees. I became an instructor and made mountaineering a great hobby.

Everything went on like this until the boom of technology, networks and computers.

More important than having initiative is having a good vision.

Early on I realized that these new technologies wouldn’t be just for a moment.

I couldn’t imagine these innovations, with so much potential, stopping in time and not having constant changes. It would be a total waste.

It was what I needed. Link to something that would allow me to be evolving, doing new things every day. I just didn't want to be stagnant.

So I did everything to keep up with the rhythm that these innovations were bringing to society, the market and the lives of us all.

I studied hard, I worked in the field of technology in various areas, I got involved in pioneering initiatives, I took advantage of incentives, participated in numerous projects and programs.

In this process I met amazing people. And this for me is one of the most valuable points to realize if you want to undertake: networking.

Even so, with several ideas in mind, I still didn’t imagine being an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur is first and foremost someone with courage

Gradually it became increasingly clear that being a company employee wouldn’t live up to my expectations and wishes.

Within them, technology was used for one or some specific purposes. It was a very valuable but limited experience. I wanted to know the functionality of innovations all the time and for this I needed the freedom to test. It wouldn’t have that in the companies at the time. It would need the approval of several managers and directors until I had access to one.

As I pondered this, I realized that I already had enough points to risk.

I set up a garage company in the technology area.

Was it risky? Yes. Was it easy? No.

It is always a challenge to choose uncertain when on the other hand, large organizations offer solid and secure conditions, especially financial.

But as they say: to undertake is to walk in unfamiliar territory and one must take the first step.

At that time, technology was big news and many companies couldn’t operate anything, even the basics. Then there was market for those who had added experiences and knowledge in this area.

It was my first entrepreneurial initiative.

With it I discovered that when you undertake, you must always keep in mind that you first work hard. 

If the job is well done, the results appear. And it appeared to me almost six years later, when I joined the Sinfic Group.

Since then more than 20 years have passed.

Reflecting on all this now, I cannot identify a single reason that led me to undertake, either in that garage company or in the innovations we developed with the Sinfic Group and Quatenus. It just happened because it was necessary.

That's why I think entrepreneurship is not so much a matter of characteristics, because sometimes it all gets mixed up in the process. Only when we undertake we discover that we are highly creative, organized, brave, leaders, and vice versa.

For me, entrepreneurship has to do with this story of adding points. If you have a few, at the first setback you may get negative and give up. But if your experience has already brought you a lot of learning, it increases the chances that over time you will achieve consistent success.

And for you, how was the experience of entrepreneurship? What points did you need to add to make this first step? Share your opinion and experience here in the comments.

I'm Luís da Concei??o Nobre, president of Quatenus Tracking and Telemetry in Brazil, the fastest growing company in its segment in the country.

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