Entrepreneurship

编者语：世界正在经历巨大的来自社会、政治、经济以及创业方面的变化及挑战。财富的创造需要中小型企业的贡献，而企业则需要成功企业家的存在。就此，商业学教师Hermien Klopper向我们首先阐述了企业家是一个什么样的人，接下来她又告诉大家，其实任何具有如下列举的一系列个人品质而非性格特点的人，都能成为一名成功的企业家，成为一个Winner。

　　The world is experiencing dramatic social, political, economic and entrepreneurial changes and challenges. Any manager, businessman, or entrepreneur needs all the help he or she can get to survive in a highly competitive global market environment. That's only to survive! Starting a business is even more challenging and riskier and very costly should the venture fail.

　　Worldwide the tide is changing in favour of small businesses. No longer the stepchild of business, no more the junkyard of the unsuccessful, no more a mere stepping stone to something bigger, but a vibrant successful and increasingly more important and irreplaceable source of wealth creation in any country. Today, those scarce individuals who take that bold step to become entrepreneurs of small and medium businesses are seen as explorers of the frontiers of business. This precious human capital should be nurtured and provided with the best tools to encourage them to do what they do best: do business. They represent the seed of our future economic survival.

　　Wealth creation needs small and medium businesses, business needs entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs need support and training. However, adequate, efficient, and cost effective education for entrepreneurs is either non-existing or insufficiently provided in South Africa. The time has come for this to change.

　　WHAT AN ENTREPRENEUR IS

　　The word entrepreneur is derived from the French word entrepenare meaning to undertake. An entrepreneur is therefore a person who creates new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources, structures and procedures to capitalize on those opportunities.

　　It is therefore a person who has the ability to explore the environment, identify opportunities for improvement, mobilize resources and implement action to maximize those opportunities.

　　CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

　　Entrepreneurial success is closely linked to financial success. An entrepreneur is therefore regarded as being successful if his business is financially successful. Money isn’t everything, but it’s sure better than whatever is in second place. Among the second-place contenders, excluding things that money can buy, we must list a sense of social contribution, professional satisfaction, community status, and perhaps even a sense of power.

　　Much of the earlier research and indeed much of the current research on entrepreneurship involved attempts to find personality traits, which differentiated the population of existent entrepreneurs from the general population, at large. Presumably, such traits could then be used to predict entrepreneurial success.

　　Recent research has also proved however that being an entrepreneur isn’t something only a chosen few can do. Entrepreneurs do not have certain generic traits; they have specific skills they have been equipped with through the years. Anyone, regardless of age, sex, or colour can become an entrepreneur. For that reason one should rather talk about personal qualities of entrepreneurs instead of characteristics. These qualities are as follows:

　　1. Self-confidence and a positive self-image

　　Successful entrepreneurs tend to believe strongly in themselves and their abilities to achieve the goals they set. They approach things positively and their optimism is based on reality. They also believe that events in their lives are mainly self-determined, that they have a major influence on their personal destinies, and have little belief in fate. When entrepreneurs experience problems, they do not blame themselves or others, but rather analyse the situation and then take the necessary steps to survive and put things back on track. They stick positively to their decisions.

　　2. Self-motivation

　　The term motivation derives from the Latin word movere meaning to move or to take action. In the present context, motivation represents the psychological processes that cause goal-directed voluntary actions – achievement motivation. Entrepreneurs have a drive – an urge – to do things better. One of the most common misconceptions about entrepreneurs is that money is their main driving force. On the contrary it becomes more and more evident that achievement is the primary motivating force and that money is merely a symbol of that achievement.

　　3. Persistence

　　This word simply means not giving up easily. If there is one behavioural glitch entrepreneurs simply must possess, develop, and practice, it is persistence. Successful entrepreneurs are dogged in their persistence. They never, never, never give up.

　　4. Initiative and driving force

　　Together with persistence, entrepreneurs must have energy and drive. Long hours and hard work are the rule rather than the exception. Entrepreneurs don’t wait for things to happen - they make things happen. They take the initiative and they are willing to put in some effort to get things moving.

　　5. Goal-orientation

　　Entrepreneurs have an ability and commitment to set clear goals for themselves. These goals tend to be high and challenging, but at the same time they are realistic and attainable. Entrepreneurs are doers. They seem to have goals, a clear aim, and sense of direction. They know where they are headed.

　　6. Risk taking

　　Successful entrepreneurs are well aware of the high-risk high return principle. They therefore prefer to take moderate, calculated risks where the chances of winning are neither so small as to be a gamble, nor so large as to be a sure thing. Rather, risks are preferred which provide a reasonable and challenging chance of success, and a situation whose outcome is influenced as much by one’s ability and effort as by mere chance.

　　7. Ability to live with uncertainty

　　Entrepreneurs have long been viewed as having a special tolerance for ambiguous situations and for making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. They are able to live with modest-to-high levels of uncertainty concerning jobs and career decisions and security.

　　8. Responsibility

　　Successful entrepreneurs prefer to be in control of their resources, and to use those resources to achieve self-determined goals. This sense of personal causation as the determinant of success or failure is undoubtedly linked to the entrepreneur’s self-confidence and preference for moderate risk taking.

　　9. Ability to spot opportunities

　　It is a well-defined sense of searching for opportunities. Entrepreneurs look ahead and are less concerned with what and how things were done yesterday than with what and how things may be done tomorrow.

　　10. Creativity and innovativeness

　　This means that entrepreneurs are inventive and imaginative. They approach a task with a new, perhaps questionable, solution – they look beyond the obvious.

　　I want to conclude with a quote about winners.

WINNERS……..

Winners take chances

Like everyone else, they fear falling, but refuse to let fear control them

Winners don’t give up

When life gets rough, they hang in until the going gets better

Winners are flexible

They realize there is more than one way and are willing to try others

Winners know they are not perfect

They respect their weakness while making most of their strengths

Winners fall, but they don’t stay down

They stubbornly refuse to let a fall keep them from climbing

Winners don’t blame fate for their failures, nor luck for their success

Winners accept responsibility for their lives

Winners are positive thinkers who see the good in all things

From the ordinary they make the extraordinary

Winners believe in the path they have chosen, even when it’s hard

Even when others can’t see where they are going

Winners are patient

They know a goal is only as worthy as the effort required to achieve it

Winners are people like you and me

They make this world a better place to be