Inc42 Daily Brief
Stay Ahead With Daily News & Analysis on India’s Tech & Startup Economy
Do you fancy the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and carry the swag of being called a founder, entrepreneur, chief architect, thinker, strategist, etc? It’s actually a fancy way of saying you’re a doer even before you’ve done something worth noticing. Nope, I’m not going to define what “success” is , because it’s crazily different for absolutely everyone.
Instead, I want to stress upon being that one solid entrepreneur. You may be one, without even knowing it. Even if you’re on a 9-to-5, don’t yet run a company, chances are you’re an entrepreneur.
Here are a few of the things I’ve observed that can tell if you are a real entrepreneur…
You’re so full of ideas and a natural problem solver
The ideas never stop coming in. You always have another idea to make things work. No, it’s not a situation of having too many ideas swimming around inside your head and you don’t know where to begin? But you are gifted to see things before they happen. And, you find yourself solving problems that others wouldn’t even realise are problems yet.
Simplifying it further, you love playing and winning chess games and also thinking many moves ahead. Successful entrepreneurs are good strategic thinkers and can come up with a lot of “what ifs”. Just like a chess player.
You’re not a born entrepreneur but a natural opportunist, sincere one, not money first!
As an entrepreneur, you see partnership and marketing opportunities all over the place. You constantly find yourself seeing opportunities where others don’t. You critique other businesses and imagine how you would improve them. You find yourself messaging other bright people and businesses about potential collaborations.
You get pissed off with cliche’s
You have this natural urge to prove people wrong, and you can’t wait for the day to prove them wrong. So, you challenge the use of cliches and unwanted information that’s all over the place in the form of ‘gyan’. Phrases like “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” annoy you. Often, real entrepreneurs don’t like labels, they like sales instead.
You have a way of getting shit done “your way”
You trust your own inner wisdom over every “productivity and consulting expert” out there. You prefer to do things your own way. You don’t get too excited when someone tells you what to do, but you’re a good listener.
It’s sort of hard to ignore what your competition is doing, people often are nosy by nature. But, you’re fast to block out a fuck load of disturbances that might come in the way before you get it done. You often talk to yourself “Dammit, I knew I forgot something! Ok, time for plan B”.
You are a hard-headed moron, sometimes
Defensiveness is incredibly common in your conversations and you always expect and do the unexpected.
The road to entrepreneurial freedom is rarely paved, and generally speaking, your tires aren’t always ready for the rocky terrain, either. In short, always be who you are and leverage your strengths to connect with the people whose gifts complement yours. If you resonate with anything in this post, chances are you are an entrepreneur. Do something about it!
[Contributed by Varika Manasvi]
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.