What Inspires and Motivates Entrepreneurs by Emad Rahim

What Inspires and Motivates ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATION

Entrepreneurs?

Emad Rahim

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ntrepreneurship plays a significant role in the development of jobs and economic growth. However, there has been a lot of discussion and debate on what motivates entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. How do you know if you or someone else is an entrepreneur? Deeply embedded in the practice of entrepreneurship is passion. Many start-up executives have noted that having passion is one of the key drivers for entrepreneurial success. Passion drives some entrepreneurs to assume high levels of risk taking that many may see as being unconventional and even crazy.

First, let us discuss what entrepreneurship is. Entrepreneurs are people that create small businesses and start-up companies.

Entrepreneurs tend to be characterized as being risk-takers, innovative thinkers, creative personalities and opportunistic. Successful entrepreneurs discover new solutions to problems, innovate on current products, take advantage of opportunities in the market and know how to sell their vision to investors and customers while also influencing their decisions – getting their buy-in and support.

The entrepreneur’s ability to innovate comes from thinking creatively about a business

I always tell my entrepreneurship students to think about the profits later. If you develop a sustainable solution to a real business problem, the clients and money will come.

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problem or solution - traits such as extroversion and a tendency for risk-taking spring to mind.

They see possibilities and opportunities when everyone else sees a problem.

My mentor, Dr Gene Landrum, founder of Chuck E. Cheese and best-selling author, believes that entrepreneurs tend to be radicals on a mission to sate a deep-seated passion; an obsessive Promethean (intuitive-thinker) willing to sacrifice all for the redemption of a dream. He goes on to say that entrepreneurs tend to leap before they look. That is scary for security-driven traditionalists who tend to see the entrepreneur as some kind of sociopath lost on a misguided venture.

My good friend Arel Moodie, Co-Founder of the Empact Summit and award winning entrepreneur (Black Enterprise Magazine), shared five crucial characteristics of what he believes makes entrepreneurs successful in leading thriving enterprises:

ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATION

`` Humility, or ability to accept a helping hand; `` Honesty, or ability to admit failure and grow from there; `` Decisiveness, or ability to make choices even if though they may involve some risk; `` Empathy, or ability to understand other perspectives; and `` Willingness, or knowing you’ll never be 100 per cent ready, but you’re willing to take the next step anyway.

After teaching entrepreneurship and mentoring business owners and student start-up teams for the past six years, I have found that they are essentially motivated by many of the same things. The need to deliver innovation and creativity is always a motivating factor in an entrepreneurial venture. While new start-up founders and business owners are motivated by revenue and investments, social entrepreneurs are more focused on solving environmental and social problems. But, I believe all entrepreneurs are drawn towards an in-depth understanding of problem-solving and decision-making activities that embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. Are you scratching your head right now wondering what the heck I am talking about? Well then let me break it down for you with clear examples.

`` In-depth understanding: Entrepreneurs are curious beings. They want to know how it works, how it is created, what is causing the problem, what the solution is, how will it make money, who the experts are, how many lives it will change and how they can turn this into a business? They want to be able to have a full understanding of what makes things tick. `` In-depth problem-solving: Entrepreneurs are opportunistic. They see opportunity and take advantage of it right away. They believe in the idea that every problem has a solution.

I always tell my entrepreneurship students to think about the profits later. If you develop a sustainable solution to a real business problem, the clients and money will come. `` In-depth decision-making: Entrepreneurs want to make or influence the decision.

If you spent a significant amount of time trying to understand how something works (in-depth understanding) and researching the cause of the problem and creating a solution (in-depth problem-solving), then you definitely want to be a part of the decision-making process.

While one or two of these bullets might describe a lot of people, I believe the entrepreneur resembles all three of the above. The entrepreneurial spirit has always been characterized by innovation, risktaking, creativity and adaptability, enabling entrepreneurs to succeed in an ever-changing and increasingly competitive marketplace.

When an entrepreneur wants to grow an idea or an established small business into a large venture, it will be their passion, motivation and determination for all three of these driving forces that will push them forward.

Biography ØØ Emad Rahim, D.M., PMP, University Dean of Business and Management is a PMI Certified Project Management Professional®. Dr Rahim has more than 10 years experience in business development, nonprofit administration, management consulting and project management. Connect with him on Twitter @DrEmadRahim.

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