6 Learnings being an Entrepreneur It is essential to know how to empower others to join our vision.
By Tarun Lala
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Entrepreneurs are made, not born. Entrepreneurship requires all-encompassing skills and abilities that other occupations do not even touch upon. Engineers draft plans for a new project, then pass the designs to others who will make it a reality. But for an entrepreneur, it's different. Every aspect of a new venture lies in the hands of the entrepreneur. They need to know everything about the business and take the role as a visionary, project manager, salesperson and more.
Here are six attributes that I have learned in my journey of entrepreneurship -
Embrace Failure
Entrepreneurs will fail -- more times than we will care to count. We accept failure as a learning opportunity and forge ahead. Tragedies happen, disappointments are part of regular activities and the faster entrepreneurs can accept it and move past it, the better we will learn from our mistakes. Mistakes are the pathway to great ideas and innovation. Entrepreneurs are resilient. We keep going when the outlook is bleak. We sail a ship through the ups and downs of a business storm and have a vision and will continue until that vision becomes a reality.
Masters of Delegation
Ideas don't build a business, people do. We cannot run a successful company alone. It is essential to know how to empower others to join our vision. We have to give up some control and put our efforts into building other people's skills if we want to build a scalable company. We need to work on the essentials while passing on tasks that others can complete. Even Mark Zuckerberg had to learn effective management. No matter how cool his Facebook innovation was, it wouldn't have gone anywhere if he did not learn how to be an effective manager.
Invest in People
Entrepreneurs know the value of networking and mentorship. We invest our time and money in people. Building professional networks and surrounding ourselves with people of the same mindset will go a long way in helping make our goals a reality. Entrepreneurs also take the time to mentor other people. The time and effort that we spend on developing someone else's skills will eventually pay off in the long term. One of my startups was about networking. Meeting people at the right time and right place is 33% reason for success.
A Finishing Formula
Entrepreneurs are driven to finish what they start. We have a laser focus on the steps required to reach their goals, there are plenty of distractions along the way. We don't have someone behind our shoulder telling us what to do next.
Learning Doesn't End in School
Entrepreneurs are "jacks of all trades, but masters of none.' In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the idea of 10,000 hours of practice needed to attain mastery in a field. The time an entrepreneur spends running a company makes it hard for them to become an expert in a certain field. Learning NEEDS to happen every day! Even folks like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates spend the majority of their time learning! The ones
Follow Your Intuition
Entrepreneurs don't have all the answers. Half of the time, we don't have the time to figure out all the answers before making a big business decision. We rely on our "gut instinct' in these circumstances. One of the greatest and most famous entrepreneurs of our time, Steve Jobs, said that having a great instinct was one of the reasons for his success. A person may look good on paper, but knowing how to tell if that person will live up to the written hype will spell the difference between success and failure. It's important to note a person's potential to grow along with the business and that can only be for told with a strong intuition.
Last but not the Least, Understand the market you're in. Understand the emotions and mindset of your consumers. You will constantly improve. Keep learning, keep creating value, keep asking WHY and keep your head up high. With big goals and a higher purpose, you make your life significant!