So, can any of us be an entrepreneur? Or we must have some genetic sequence that will allow us to initiate. And if we really have it, does that necessarily mean we will succeed?
We hear quite a bit about all sorts of character traits that characterize entrepreneurs and managers, do you think anyone can be an entrepreneur or do entrepreneurs really have to have some entrepreneurial personality to be successful? We know that there is a basic set of features that an entrepreneur should have. There is a great deal of research on this, including review articles and meta-analysis studies that examine a lot of research together. In the end we see that the same set of features is indeed a necessary but not sufficient condition.
For example, there are studies that have tried to link the level of intelligence to creativity, which is a necessary trait for the potential entrepreneur who needs to create a new idea. Studies have found an IQ range in which creative people are between 110 and 120. It is a high score but it is not considered exceptional and a person with an IQ in this range is not considered a genius. Learning and teaching yourself new things can contribute to improving your mind for business – for example an Online Class in a chosen subject.
If you are in this area, you have a high creativity potential and you are crossing the required threshold. Another example is the ability to deal with unclear situations. Are you a person who can deal with an unclear situation, with a vague future, or do you need everything to take place according to clear frameworks. Those who have been found to be able to deal with ambiguous situations are more likely to succeed in the entrepreneurial world. There are other features, for example, the ability to deal with risk situations. Like all of us, entrepreneurs do not like risks, but they can deal with risk situations more than the average person and more than those who only hate risk.
Whoever has this set of features and additional features crosses the threshold, but from here on out, to exercise creativity there are many circumstantial factors. Your motivation, existing education, different circumstances, are the ones that will allow you to create innovation or not. There are many things an entrepreneur needs to learn, like how to build a business model around the concept between the range of existing standard models or more complex models that can be learned. How to build a network of partnerships, how to build the right team and so on.
How will the dramatic global changes affect start-ups in the coming years?
Not only is the change dramatic, the pace of change is also dramatic. There are some pretty old studies, decades old, that talk about something called the “organizational life cycle” and argue that you can build a kind of bell curve that describes how an organization evolves in analogy to a living organism. As a baby grows, becomes a child and an adult, reaches the age of a few years and then begins a process of aging until it reaches death so organization can also be described. It starts as a start-up and grows and grows, reaches a peak and after the peak begins a process of erosion and decline until it dies. But while in organisms death is bound to reality, in organizations it is possible to find a way to revive it forever. An organization can do this if it constantly finds ways to reinvent itself. The path to organizational eternal life is through the concept of innovation. The most famous example is that of Apple, which in recent decades has been constantly recreating itself. She started with PCs, moved to iPod and iTunes and from there to iPhone. Each of these stages are companies in their own right. And every such circle of innovation allows the organization to stretch itself further and further into eternal life.
If in the past the cycle of the organization was spread over hundreds of years, for example a family enterprise that has been passed down from father to son for decades, in recent decades we see that this cycle is shrinking. In the leading companies in the crack in the index of the Top 500, a company has held an average of 40-50 years in the past. Today it has been there for 15-20 years.
Staying on top of industry changes
This is vital for new entrepreneurs who have ideas that they will implement going forwards. The world is constantly changing and evolving. It is said that the world of employment is changing dramatically and many people are going to lose their jobs. 5% of all jobs are already today fully replaceable by robots and a large order of 40% -50% can be replaced in some way by robots. What will happen in five, ten or twenty years? A great many people will lose their jobs. In a situation like this when we ask ourselves whether we should reinvent ourselves or wait for someone to come and save us, that person is basically the organization that is looking to replace us and hire a robot. Entrepreneurial education can allow us to establish something new on our own. Something innovative, interesting, with an applied business model that can generate revenue. Learn, study and grow, these are key elements.
And what happens when you move from academia to the real world?
One of the most important things for success is a strong networking network. Whether it’s for investment, getting advice, opening a door with a partner and so on. You must consider promoting yourself and look into producing connections to the industry on several levels for future growth. How do you see yourself progressing? Who do you want to meet? How can you start? These things are vital for growth. You are capable of doing so, so be sure to take what you can!
