What makes an entrepreneur?

In a recent article, Yahoo Finance questions what makes an entrepreneur and why do we tend to associate entrepreneurship with equity ownership rather than understanding it as someone who has leadership qualities.

The article summarises that an entrepreneur has the following qualities:

1. An entrepreneur creates new initiatives, businesses or companies and is behind every venture, project and activity. They may not be the person that generates ideas but their role is to make sure that all ideas become reality.
2. An entrepreneur is a leader who inspires the team to follow their ideas. They also have the power to change the direction of a venture as well as accelerate, slow down or even stop it.
3. An entrepreneur is accountable and responsible for the future of ventures and needs to be fully motivated to direct the project to ensure it is carried out.

The points outline what should be expected from an entrepreneur, but it is easy to disregard how they are subject to the company’s financial ups and downs. Entrepreneurs do not need to have equity in the company to benefit from or be exposed to risk in the company.

According to Yahoo Finance, corporate entrepreneurs are allowed to benefit from their projects without having equity stakes even though traditional corporate culture tends to disregard the entrepreneurial approach. However, with the growing increase of new start-ups and innovations, “corporations have been forced to embrace the entrepreneurial approach towards running and operating their business. An entrepreneurial approach is not only more agile and dynamic, but also results in a more lean operation.”

By encouraging and motivating entrepreneurial spirit within a business, team members will gain a strong sense of ownership over their projects and in turn, their ventures will succeed. “Anyone can be an entrepreneur and behave like one – regardless of whether or not they happen to be an equity holder. Ultimately, it’s all about the attitude when running the show,” Yahoo Finance states.

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