Opportunities are the defining characteristic of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is the creation of opportunities regardless of resources currently controlled.
Yes, you can create anything (within realms of scientific reality) no matter where you are at right now! Our core focus is to discover, define or ignite what it is you’re passionate about and build a sustainable economic model around that within the context of the lifestyle you choose.
Entrepreneurship is creating something from nothing. Entrepreneurship is more than finding a way to solve problems; it is creating new resources where there were none, independently of what resources are on hand. This applies to life, business, society, science – every area of the world.
Entrepreneurship is the key to developing oneself, humanity, technology, the environment – all needs and wants in the world. In essence, it is the fundamental process of human creation.
New energy, new fuel, new food supplies, new transport, new technology, new knowledge, new living standards, new jobs, new ‘money’, new health care, new allocation of resources.
Media misunderstands who entrepreneurs are and what entrepreneurship is which has not only led to negative and incorrect connotations, the misuse has also directly prevented the world from having awareness and understanding of a core fundamental skill that develops humanity.
Entrepreneurs have what Keynes coined in economics the ‘Animal Spirit’. It is the human energy with attributes of passion, determination, hard work, creativity and intuition combined with a set of personal values. Entrepreneurs facilitate and organise opportunities – people, opportunities and resources – to create their vision or goal.
To better understand entrepreneurs, let’s view what they are not. Entrepreneurs are not enterprise or business managers, not inventors, not engineers, designers, technicians or architects. Entrepreneurs are not marketers, not sales people. These are all management and design functions. Writing business plans is not an entrepreneur function, it’s a management function.
Business owners, inventors, sales people and indeed anyone can display or possess entrepreneurial attributes to a greater or lesser extent, however, entrepreneurs in the true form, career entrepreneurs, are consistently creating new opportunities which create new resources that managers subsequently maintain and manage.
What is important is that the human spirit resides in all people. Therefore, the capacity for entrepreneurial traits is contained within all humans. The greatest opportunity the world has at its fingertips is to enhance the capacity for entrepreneurial activity in every single person.
That is how to change the world. Enhancing the world’s entrepreneurial capacity steers a new path of positive human development and sustainability.
There is always debate whether entrepreneurs are born or made. It’s an irrelevant, diverting question. Every human being has human energy. We all have different personalities, different genetic coding, different experiences, perspectives, knowledge and preferences.
Entrepreneurial education is about enhancing entrepreneurial effectiveness, not changing someone’s personality. Anyone can develop themselves and relationships with other people. Any person can identify and create opportunities; and if you create opportunities of value you automatically create new resources. The scale and impact will naturally differ. People further their own self and are responsible for their own development and action – they do not become different people or suddenly have things done for them! People who claim it cannot be taught do not know what entrepreneurial education or its purpose is, which can be amusing to observe. There’s something about the notion of entrepreneurial education that triggers people’s emotions. If you have thoughts on what that is – please share with me!
Every person has performed an entrepreneurial task in their life. Babies create a new opportunity when they cry which brings new food, a new nappy or new entertainment. Teenagers create new opportunities to meet new people when they start attending parties, which in turn brings new friends, new knowledge, new transport and new clothes. Adults create new opportunities when they engage a personal trainer who helps them create new health, new fitness, new strength and new confidence. Learning creates new opportunities, sharing creates new opportunities, in fact, pretty much any movement of your human energy creates new opportunities – which in turn, if containing value, create new resources.
Where the entrepreneurial function comes in is facilitating and organising yourself and other people to seize the opportunity and ensure the new resource you need and want comes to fruition. Action is required for creation to occur.
The outcome of developing entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour throughout humanity, from children to seniors, are new resources. Currently, the world focuses on allocating and maintaining resources – a management function.
Focus needs to shift to the ignition point of creation. It sounds obvious. To create new or more or better – income, relationships, health, quality of life – you must focus on creation.
Just as we learned about energy and economics and the old-world focus of mechanical science and equilibrium economics in contrast to quantum-holographic and innovation economics – equally, allocating and maintaining resources is an old-world MBA focus and creating opportunities and resources is the new-world entrepreneurial focus.
The old-world has its place as management is certainly needed; the entrepreneurial function requires management of its creations. Rather, it’s acknowledging the new-world focus in science, economics and humanity as having a strong foundation for opportunity and resource creation – regardless of chaos or resources currently controlled.
Around 5% of the population are considered serial or high growth entrepreneurs. That’s a rather small niche! The management functions that are required as a result of entrepreneurial pursuits are enormous. A balance of entrepreneurial, managerial and technical functions are required. Right now, it’s out of kilter.
This applies to people too. Being only entrepreneurial would neglect maintenance, being only management or technically focused would see you slipping below the status quo and obsolete.
Michael Gerber in his book eMyth, beautifully explained the balance people need between entrepreneurial, managerial and technical thinking and tasks. Too much focus in any of the three areas hinders development and progress. Add eMyth to your book list for greater depth – our focus here is the ignition point, being the entrepreneurial function of the human spirit.
Without the entrepreneurial function, the management and technical focuses would not exist!
