by Case Lane

Entrepreneurs can begin rich or poor, college-educated or not, and working for others or self-employed or unemployed. They encompass every background, every demographic, every twist in every type of story. 

But the question often comes about whether or not, there is a ‘type.’

Does entrepreneurship rest in the hands of the few who are called or self-proclaimed to pursue a life outside the usual status quo, and just be so differently focused?

What does it all mean if your idea of a good time is to create a business from scratch? 

The Entrepreneur Image

When aspiring entrepreneurs want to know how to manifest as an entrepreneur, the question can be answered on 3 levels – literal, functional and practical.

The Literal ‘Pop Culture’ Definition

Literal is the pop culture version of entrepreneurship.  The entrepreneur you see and celebrate is the larger-than-life billionaire who founded a business on his, usually his own, and transformed it into a global corporation.

Some of the familiar entrepreneurs were alive decades ago, but their businesses still exist today. Some of them look like they are still in high school. 

But all vary in personality type and style. And any one of them can define – how to be an entrepreneur?

Mark Zuckerberg wears the grey t-shirt and jeans to face the world.  Warren Buffett wears a suit.  Sir Richard Branson goes skydiving…Sara Blakely is an inventor…Howard Schultz a reinventor…JayZ an empresario…

Since none of the famous names behave in exactly the same way, the pop culture definition is not helpful in determining ‘how to be’ for an aspiring entrepreneur.

The Functional ‘Philosophical’ Definition

A good example of the functional definition of an entrepreneur is from UNCTAD – the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which says: an Entrepreneur is an individual who identifies opportunities in the marketplace, allocates resources, and creates value.

If you are a person who can identify a marketplace opportunity, allocate resources to it, and create value for people who want or need what you have to offer…you’re an entrepreneur.

However, upon closer inspection the definition does have gaps.  A typical entrepreneur must function beyond those three goals.  When identifying opportunities, you have to determine whether the opportunity is viable. 

To make your opportunity viable, you may need to use more resources than you have available.  You may have a great idea and be personally willing to work day and night on it, but you will not get very far if the long term cost of making it work is beyond your means to pay.  

When it comes to creating value, you have to deliver to the people who want or need the product or service you have to offer.  As an entrepreneur you have to be able to go beyond allocating resources to actually understand how and where to allocate.  If you have the greatest product in the world, but poor distribution or mediocre marketing, your business is unlikely to be successful.

If you’re a great marketer, but your product falls apart quickly, you will not have a consumer base for long. 

Although an entrepreneur must be able to see an opportunity, allocate resources and deliver value, it you do not fill the gaps between those words, your opportunity will be lost, your resources wasted and your value never realized.

The Practical ‘Work’ Definition

If the pop culture model, and a philosophical foundation are lacking in providing a complete picture of the entrepreneur, the definition may be grounded in practical attributes.

The entrepreneur is the one who does the work.

The explanation may sound roundabout, but that’s the only common thread existing among all entrepreneurs is a history of doing the work to get the business moving.

Once you have a business idea, you do the work to make it a reality. 

You allocate resources either you own or those you hire. You expend some resources to determine how to turn your idea in to a business.

If you have no idea how business works, your first task will going to be to do research to determine how to move forward.  You can study other people to see what they have done, or you can take courses or learn from books. 

Few famous entrepreneurs learned their current trade when they were young.  Some did, especially those who might have worked in a family business, or had a specific skill that they developed, but the rest learned on the job.

They learned by doing.

The practical application is to take your idea, spend a bit of time learning how to turn it into a business, and then to start. 

Incrementally building the business, developing a prototype for your project, and testing the market is the best way to limit your risk and prove your idea if viable. 

To be successful, you have to keep iterating – trying different approaches until one sticks.  You may find you have to go through hundreds of different ideas to get close to the one that will give you lifestyle freedom.  But that’s all part of how you can be an entrepreneur.

Summary: How to Be an Entrepreneur

To be an Entrepreneur:

• On a pop culture level, you can pick your favorite billionaire and model their behavior. Although it’s best to be original, there is also significant information written about how the most successful people made money.
• On a philosophical level, you can be the person who identifies opportunities, allocates resources and creates value.  You have to cover all the steps in-between also, but knowing your core mission puts you one step ahead.
• On a practical level, you just have to do the work.  An entrepreneur is the person who takes a business idea and turns it into a business by focusing night and day on making it happen.  This is the connection among all entrepreneurs – doing the work – until it’s done and then…starting again

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