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Who is a hero? A hero represents a person who lives up to his/her cherished values such
as honesty, integrity, courage and bravery. For
others, a hero is someone who is steadfast or
someone who sets a good example for others. To
many, being a hero means self-sacrifice, even of life
itself, for the sake of others. And many are regarded
as heroes just because they are celebrities, even though they receive adulation due to
their profession or notorious lifestyle which most of
us covet. Because of all these qualities we may call
the entrepreneur also a hero.
The word is originally from the French word entre, meaning "between", and prendre, meaning "to take", the French verb, entreprendre means "to undertake". It refers to a person who
undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes
some accountability for the inherent risks. Being
in business or being an entrepreneur is about
taking risks and confronting challenges.
Entrepreneurship is a multifaceted phenomenon. Definitions of
entrepreneurship focus on different aspects of the
phenomenon (Davidson, 2003) and originate from
different disciplines.
Thus, entrepreneurs are characterized by boundless energy, farsightedness and
bold determination to push into the unknown. They are alert, watching for new opportunities
to change the status quo, and often through
failure, develop a better than average sense of
timing, learning to balance patience and immediate
action. This brings us to the second stage of the
classic heroic journey.
There are two schools of thought about what makes an entrepreneur. The first is that
anyone can do it if he really want to, provided he puts
in the effort. The second—and this is the view
of psychologist Adrian Atkinson—is that you
have to be a certain type of person and, if you are
not that type, you are wasting your time.
Atkinson, who is Chief Executive of Human Factors International, a
business-psychology consultancy, is so convinced that
entrepreneurs are born and not made that he has set up a
research project, in conjunction with the Prince's Trust,
to identify which of the young people aged 14 to
18 advised by the trust should be
encouraged—and which should not. According to
him: "This theory that anyone can become an entrepreneur
is absolute nonsense. And what is terrible about
that message is that it is making people risk
their money and is, therefore, creating larger debts. It
is just awful. I often have people saying they
are going to sell everything and become an entrepreneur, and I say for goodness sake, don't
do it. Very few people are wealth creators and it
is really important that people realize where
their strength lies." |
