Business revolution is what unusual entrepreneurs start.

They don’t just Do business, they START a business revolution.

How?

By building a business that MATTERS!

I have always strongly believed that there’s more to entrepreneurship than just business as usual. I believe entrepreneurship is a test of your life seeking expression through an idea.

The idea is one that possesses you to do something about a problem, a need or an opportunity. It draws upon your passion, life experience, skills, and talents all channeled into creating a SIGNIFICANT company –a business that is different [unique] and making a difference [useful].

This is essentially our gospel here at naijapreneur. We are about changing the world and profiting from purpose. So anytime I come across a resource [book, person, website, tool, product, etc.] that will equip you more on this unusual entrepreneurial journey, I’m always very excited to share it with you.

Enjoy!

The Business Revolution Manifesto

On Saturday, I came across a powerful business revolution manifesto created by a fellow unusual entrepreneur; Jonathan Fields.

His clarion call was bold;

“Don’t just build a business, start a revolution!”

The underlying question that prompted the business revolution manifesto was equally bold;

“What if instead of fighting to build a traditional career, business or brand, you could tap the power of movements and revolutions to launch and build a fast-paced engine of growth and impact?”

The answer is what you’ll discover in this 66-page business revolution manifesto titled; The Art of Revolution™, a riveting, information-packed manifesto that reveals the 18-step Framework for building a business that MATTERS!

The business revolution manifesto covers the following 18-step framework for starting a business revolution;

1). Revolution Avatar: Who is your Revolution Serving?

2). Identify Shared Pain

3). Who is your Dictator?

4). Who is your Leader?

5). Create An Inciting Incident

6). Identify your “Away From” Rally Cry

7). Identify Unifying Beliefs

8). Define your “Toward” Vision

9). Building your Resonant Story

10). Craft your Manifesto

11). Define the Path

12). Deepen the Tribe Mentality

13). Assemble your Torchbearers

14). Identify Key Resources and Allies

15). Swarm the Launch

16). Mechanisms and Milestones [Measurement]

17). Design your Contagion

18). Ultimate Structural Goal: Tipping Point

Grab your Copy Now, It’s FREE!

To download your own copy of the business revolution manifesto, click here. In it, you’ll get the full 18-element framework, along with insights and case-studies to help you apply the framework to build a business that MATTERS!

PS.

One last thing, don’t be selfish with this. Freely you were given, freely you should share with others who need it. Thanks!

Can Everyone Become An Entrepreneur?

OR

Is Entrepreneurship for Everyone?

To effectively answer this question, we’ve got to go back to the very beginning; what is entrepreneurship? We need to understand the very meaning of the word –entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is derived from the French word ‘Entrepreneur’, dating as far back as 1723. It means an individual who undertakes, organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business with considerable initiative and risk.

In other words, entrepreneurship is simply the practice of being an entrepreneur – a person who takes the initiative and risk to start a new business venture.

Since this is so, then the next logical question should be this; is everyone capable of taking the initiative and risk to start a new business venture?

The keyword here is capable.

That is, do we all as humans possess the capabilities to become an entrepreneur?

The answer as you will soon find out is YES!

But don’t just take my word for it, let’s dig in deeper to unveil this mystery. To do that, we will be looking at the 3 major paths research has revealed people take to become an entrepreneur.

How To Become An Entrepreneur

According to Bill Aulet, the professor of entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship; there are primarily 3 ways of starting a new business venture.

Meaning, there are basically 3 ways of becoming an entrepreneur;

• You have a breakthrough technology

• You have an idea

• You have a passion

• You Have A Breakthrough Technology

This is perhaps the most celebrated form of becoming an entrepreneur. Names of great inventors such as; Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of facebook, Elon Musk of Tesla, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and of course the legendary Steve Jobs all come to mind.

These are extraordinary people whose inventions have moved the world forward. They have literally changed the way the world works through their breakthrough technologies. Entrepreneurs in this category are the exceptionally gifted minds.

When people think of the word entrepreneurship, they are the very first kinds who come to mind, naturally. Permit me to say this; they are the standard when it comes to entrepreneurship. Their breakthrough inventions are not response to existing market needs. Rather, they just create new needs and new markets that absolutely never existed.

Their ability to invent breakthrough technologies often leaves the rest of us to wonder if we could ever become an entrepreneur. The impact they make in the world as a result of their breakthrough technologies, make the rest of us seem like we are just playing.

We cannot help it but to wonder if we could ever accomplish such feats in our life time. I don’t know about you, but I certainly ask myself this. I mean, this people are simply out of this world, they literally invent the future!

• You Have an Idea

Closely following the people who become an entrepreneur by creating new business ventures from their breakthrough technologies are those with great business ideas.

They don’t invent any breakthrough technology, they simply think up breakthrough ideas that completely change the way a product or service or industry works. These breakthrough ideas are then translated into new business ventures.

As a matter of fact, their ideas are usually a radical improvement or alteration of an already existing business model. They literally turn the old on its head and come up with unusual ways of solving the same problem faster, better or cheaper than all the existing players in the market.

Their genius lies in thinking up new ways of combining different processes or approaches of solving a particular problem or creating a particular product or delivering a particular service.

Popular examples include; DELL, Fedex, eBay, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, CNN, SouthWest Airlines, Starbucks, Amazon, Spanx, etc.

These are the kind of ideas you call the million dollar idea. They are not your everyday ideas. They are not seen by the average Joes. They come only to those whose minds have been prepared for it!

• You Have a Passion

The last, but certainly not the least way of becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business venture is by having a passion.

Of all 3 ways of becoming an entrepreneur, this is perhaps the easiest entry level for everyone. Anyone willing to take the initiative and risk entrepreneurship requires will do just fine with this 3^rd option. This is the kind of entrepreneurship for the rest of us!

When compared to the other two options, it is far less intimidating to become an entrepreneur by starting a new business venture around your passion.

The first requires a great level of creative genius in a particular field.

The second requires a great level of insight and opportunity.

But starting a business around your passion doesn’t require any rare gift besides the ones you’ve already been given from birth. You don’t need to be a creative genius to have a passion. You don’t need insight and opportunity to have passion.

All you need to have passion is to be alive.

All living souls have passion. It is there whether you choose to admit it or not.

People who become an entrepreneur by starting a business around their passion are seemingly ordinary people who do what they do extra-ordinarily well.

The secret lies in their decision to do something significant with whatever they are passionate about. They simply take what they have been given from birth and consciously make up their minds to do something meaningful with it. They build businesses that matter!

It’s not so much about the invention, technology or idea, but fundamentally about their passion to solve a particular problem. Their secret is their passion to make a difference in a particular field, industry or society. They are driven by change and their passion is their only weapon for creating that change.

Think about successful entrepreneurs like; Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Tommy Hilfiger, Mohammad Yunus, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, Rupert Murdoch, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Brian Clark, etc.

They are not exceptionally gifted than the rest of us, they are just ordinary people who love what they do and do what they love extra-ordinarily well. They are simply using their God-given talents to create multi-million dollar businesses.

They are the entrepreneurs who want to make a difference using their passion to create unusual products/services for solving humanity’s problems. They don’t wait until they create a breakthrough technology, in fact, in most cases they can’t. Neither do they wait to strike a breakthrough business idea, in fact, in most cases, they don’t.

I belong to this category of entrepreneurs. For me, entrepreneurship is all about changing the world and profiting from purpose/passion. I created this site, naijapreneur to help as many out there who also belong to this category to discover entrepreneurship for the rest of us.

Conclusion

As you might have now realized, there isn’t anyone who can’t become an entrepreneur. The problem in most cases is trying to become a different kind of entrepreneur following a path you weren’t created to function.

Finding your own category of entrepreneurship is crucial to your entrepreneurial journey. You shouldn’t force your way into a category you don’t have what it takes to function, rather, flourish in your category.

Nevertheless, there’s no law that restricts you to any one of these 3 ways of becoming an entrepreneur. I wrote this unusual article to point out that there are other approaches to becoming an entrepreneur than you might be aware of.

What’s most important is that you know which one of them you started or is starting your entrepreneurial journey on. And make sure you enjoy the ride; after all, no one forced it on you!

For every new subscriber to naijapreneur, in the welcome email, I often encourage them to write me back telling me about what they are currently struggling with in their business.

In other words, what’s their business status quo?

Exactly 3 days after their subscription, they get another email from me asking them to tell me what they are currently struggling with in their business.

Why do I insist on you sharing your business struggles with me?

Because I know you wouldn’t be reading naijapreneur if there wasn’t something bothering you as an entrepreneur. That you are here is enough proof that you have a problem that you don’t want or lack a result that you desperately want.

I am glad many new subscribers respond to this and share their current business struggles with me. And to everyone who did, I replied with specific action steps to take to change the situation of things in their business.

For some, I ask a couple of questions to better understand their unique situation and for others; I point out likely causes for their struggle and then offer action steps to improve their situation.

This is fair enough, right?

But what happens next after replying these emails has never ceased to amaze me, —SILENCE!

You would think that for someone to have taken the time to reply and point out what their business struggles are, they would eagerly implement the recommended ideas. But alas, nothing happens!

At first, I used to be bothered about this, but as more and more people repeated this same thing, it finally dawned on me what the real issue was; CHANGE IS PERSONAL. Your Status in life is solely determined by YOU!

As much as I want to see changes in the businesses and lives of my readers, I cannot make these changes happen for them without their involvement.

As much as I want to change the status quo of their business, I cannot do so until they make up their minds and take the necessary steps to change their status quo.

Define Your Status

Generally, people when in problem, fall into one of 3 categories in life;

• Status quo – they know they have a problem, but want the problem to solve itself. Avoid them; you can’t convince them of anything.

• Away from – they want to fix something, cure something, alleviate something, get unstuck. They want a way out from their problem. Support them.

• Toward – they want to achieve something, gain something, be something. They see problems as the test they must pass to get ahead to the next level. Encourage them.

Which One Are You?

A man was walking through a forest when he saw a crippled fox. “I wonder how it manages to feed itself?” He thought.

At that moment, a tiger approached, carrying its prey in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left what remained for the fox.

“If God helps the fox, he will help me too,” The man thought. He went back home, shut himself up in his house and waited for the Heavens to bring him food.

Nothing happened.

He lay there in bed waiting for God to provide for him as he had for the fox, but instead just starved.

Just when he was becoming almost too weak to go out and work, an angel appeared.

“Why did you decide to imitate the crippled fox?” asked the angel. “God has given you gifts and abilities to contribute to the world and make a living, while looking after the crippled foxes of the world.  Get out of bed, pick up your tools and follow the way of the tiger!”

I only have one question for you today.  Which one are you, the fox or the tiger?

Who is the Status Quo Entrepreneur?

You will know them when you see one;

• They are the tigers who envy the fox

• They are the dreamers that never do

• They are the pessimists who never see good in anything or anyone

• They are the know-it-all with no results to show

• They are the fast talkers who never really listen

• They are the full-of-idea types with no clarity of what to do next

• They are the planners who are too scared to execute

• They are the busy-bodies who rarely pay attention

• They are the cheerleaders who never participate in the game

• They are the copycats who never take the time to find their own thing

The most obvious sign of the status quo entrepreneur is stagnancy –they are stuck in their inaction. Neither going forward no going backward, they are just exactly how and where you last saw them.

There’s very little you can do to help the status quo entrepreneur. The way out lies in his/her hand.

Action is the Antidote for the Status Quo Entrepreneur

You can complain all you want about the state of your life and the state of your business. You can consume all the motivational self affirmation materials in the world while hoping that positive thinking will bail you out.

Nothing much will change, until you decide to take action.

The most effective way to change anything is to do something about it.

All the information you have been gathering from reading naijapreneur BUT never putting them to use will not change your business.

You can keep on following the path of the status quo entrepreneur or you can become like the tiger and forge your own pathway in life and in business.

The choice, as always is YOURS!

Clearly understanding the characteristics of an entrepreneur is an important step in your entrepreneurial journey.

Why?

Because being an entrepreneur requires a lot from an individual that is often not properly thought through before many venture into entrepreneurship.

But until recently, entrepreneurs were not widely studied. There was a general lack of knowledge and information about what made them tick. One of the leading studies on the anatomy of an entrepreneur was published by the Kauffman Foundation of Entrepreneurship in 2009.

Although no one has found the perfect entrepreneurial profile, there are many characteristics that show up repeatedly. Based on these re-occurring traits, entrepreneurs can now take a readiness assessment survey to determine their entrepreneurial profile.

In this unusual article, we will be going through some of the wildly accepted characteristics of an entrepreneur that make up the anatomy of entrepreneurship.

Enjoy!

The Top 10 Characteristics of An Entrepreneur

The following are the top 10 characteristics of an entrepreneur that are widely accepted. If you’ve ever doubted yourself as an entrepreneur, the following can be re-assuring or dispelling.

• Good Health

A series of interviews were conducted with distinguished entrepreneurs. They were asked what characteristics they felt were essential to success as an entrepreneur. Good health was a characteristic mentioned by every entrepreneur interviewed. Entrepreneurs are physically resilient and in good health. They can work for extended periods of time, and while they are in the process of building their business, they refuse to get sick.

In small businesses, where there is no depth of management, the leader must be there. You may not be able to afford a support staff to cover all business functions, and therefore you will need to work long hours. We all know people who use part of their sick leave each year when they are not sick. Entrepreneurs are not found in this group. At the end of the eight-hour day, when everyone else leaves for home, the entrepreneur will often continue to work into the evening, developing new business ideas.

• Self-Control

Entrepreneurs do not function well in structured organizations and do not like someone having authority over them. Most believe they can do the job better than anyone else and will strive for maximum responsibility and accountability. They enjoy creating business strategies and thrive on the process of achieving their goals. Once they achieve a goal, they quickly replace it with a greater goal. They strive to exert whatever influence they can over future events.

In large, structured organizations, entrepreneurs are easy to recognize by the statements they make: “If they wanted that job done right, they should have given it to me.” One of the dominant characteristics of an entrepreneur is their belief that they are smarter than their peers and superiors. They have a compelling need to do their own thing in their own way. They need the freedom to choose and to act according to their own perception of what actions will result in success.

• Self-Confidence

Entrepreneurs are self-confident when they are in control of what they’re doing and working alone. They tackle problems immediately with confidence and are persistent in their pursuit of their objectives. Most are at their best in the face of adversity, since they thrive on their own self-confidence.

• Sense of Urgency

Entrepreneurs have a never-ending sense of urgency to develop their ideas. Inactivity makes them impatient, tense, and uneasy. They thrive on activity and are not likely to be found sitting on a bank fishing unless the fish are biting. When they are in the entrepreneurial mode, they are more likely to be found getting things done instead of fishing.

Entrepreneurs prefer individual sports, such as golf, skiing, or tennis, over team sports. They prefer games in which their own brawn and brain directly influence the outcome and pace of the game. They have drive and high energy levels, they are achievement-oriented, and they are tireless in the pursuit of their goals.

• Comprehensive Awareness

Successful entrepreneurs can comprehend complex situations that may include planning, making strategic decisions, and working on multiple business ideas simultaneously. They are farsighted and aware of important details, and they will continuously review all possibilities to achieve their business objectives. At the same time, they devote their energy to completing the tasks immediately before them.

Accounting reports illustrate this characteristic. Accountants spend hours balancing the accounts and closing them out. For them, the achievement is to have balanced books. The entrepreneur only wants to know the magnitude of the numbers and their significance for the operation of the business.

• Realism

Entrepreneurs accept things as they are and deal with them accordingly. They may or may not be idealistic, but they are seldom unrealistic. They will change their direction when they see that change will improve their prospects for achieving their goals. They want to know the status of a given situation at all times.

News interests them if it is timely, and factual, and provides them with information they need. They will verify any information they receive before they use it in making a decision. Entrepreneurs say what they mean and assume that everyone else does too. They tend to be too trusting and may not be sufficiently suspicious in their business dealings with other people.

• Conceptual Ability

Entrepreneurs possess the ability to identify relationships quickly in the midst of complex situations. They identify problems and begin working on their solution faster than other people. They are not troubled by ambiguity and uncertainty because they are used to solving problems. Entrepreneurs are natural leaders and are usually the first to identify a problem to be overcome. If it is pointed out to them that their solution to a problem will not work for some valid reason, they will quickly identify an alternative problem-solving approach.

• Status Requirements

Entrepreneurs find satisfaction in symbols of success that are external to themselves. They like the business they have built to be praised, but they are often embarrassed by praise directed at them personally. Their egos do not prevent them from seeking facts, data, and guidance. When they need help, they will not hesitate to admit it especially in areas that are outside of their expertise. During tough business periods, entrepreneurs will concentrate their resources and energies on essential business operations. They want to be where the action is and will not stay in the office for extended periods of time.

Symbols of achievement such as position have little relevance to them. Successful entrepreneurs find their satisfaction of status needs in the performance of their business, not in the appearance they present to their peers and to the public. They will postpone acquiring status items like a luxury car until they are certain that their business is stable.

• Interpersonal Relationships

Entrepreneurs are more concerned with people’s accomplishments than with their feelings. They generally avoid becoming personally involved and will not hesitate to sever relationships that could hinder the progress of their business. During the business-building period, when resources are scarce, they seldom devote time to dealing with satisfying people’s feelings beyond what is essential to achieving their goals.

Their lack of sensitivity to people’s feelings can cause turmoil and turnover in their organization. Entrepreneurs are impatient and drive themselves and everyone around them. They don’t have the tolerance or empathy necessary for team building unless it’s their team, and they will delegate very few key decisions.

As the business grows and assumes an organizational structure, entrepreneurs go through a classic management crisis. For many of them, their need for control makes it difficult for them to delegate authority in the way that a structured organization demands. Their strong direct approach induces them to seek information directly from its source, bypassing the structured chains of authority and responsibility.

Their moderate interpersonal skills, which were adequate during the start-up phases, will cause them problems as they try to adjust to the structured or corporate organization. Entrepreneurs with good interpersonal skills will be able to adjust and survive as their organization grows and becomes more structured. The rest won’t make it.

• Emotional Stability

Entrepreneurs have a considerable amount of self-control and can handle business pressures. They are comfortable in stress situations and are challenged rather than discouraged by setbacks or failures. Entrepreneurs are uncomfortable when things are going well. They’ll frequently find some new activity on which to vent their pent-up energy.

They are not content to leave well enough alone. Entrepreneurs tend to handle people problems with action plans without empathy. Their moderate interpersonal skills are often inadequate to provide for stable relationships. However, the divorce rate among entrepreneurs is about average.

Conclusion

The 10 qualities outlined above are not all that is needed to become and succeed as an entrepreneur. They only serve as the most distinguishing characteristics of an entrepreneur based on research. To see how well you are stacked up or not with these qualities, take this readiness assessment survey.

*Source: businesstown.com