Successful entrepreneur
In the past, entrepreneurship was considered a mystery where technology people created innovation products, disrupted the market and became millionaire. Today it is a science that can be defined, taught, and practiced by students to create startup. Every startup begins with an innovation idea but the success of the startup depends on how well the idea is developed, built and nurtured into a profitable business. There is a defined entrepreneurship process that students should follow to avoid mistakes others have made. Of course, no one can guarantee success, if the first idea does not work; entrepreneurs should learn from their mistake and come up with another better idea. As long as they are willing to learn from mistakes and continue innovate, they may succeed.
Successful entrepreneurs are people who believe they can make a difference; they are passionate about their ideas; they are obsessed with their quest to start their own company as they think about it, dream about it, learn from it and live with it. That is why they succeed. They succeed because want to fulfill their dream of making their ideas into reality. They succeed because they are willing to change, to learn from mistakes and continue to come up with better idea and to them money only come as the by-product. There are “Want to be entrepreneurs” who like to own company but do not have the courage, resiliency or passion to create startup. They want to be the next “Bill Gates” or “Steve Jobs” because they only want to be rich but they are not willing to work hard to get there. If they fail once they just give up.
Last week, I invited Don James, a successful entrepreneur to lecture in my class and he advised my students: “If you only want to be rich, you better buy lottery ticket. You will not accomplish anything with startup if you do not have the courage to learn from mistakes. In startup, you will fail many times, probably ten or twenty times before you succeed. If you do not have the determination, you will not go far. You must set goal and do whatever to accomplish it and if you succeed, you may make money but there is no guarantee. To start, you always need a good idea that is unique. But idea alone is not enough; you must turn that into a product or services that can bring value to the customers. The next step is having customers but you do not have customers until you know that your idea can solve their problems so you must go out and talk to customers to understand their needs. If their needs do not meet your idea than ask yourself, can I come up with another idea that can solve their problems or stick with my idea? Do not hold on to the idea because it is yours but you must understand the reality. In my situation, I change my idea to get customers and that is why I am successful. Being entrepreneur means you must be flexible and ready to adjust to the market needs.”
Start-ups require a lot of work, especially at the beginning as entrepreneurs must try to identify opportunities and validate them with customers. Everyone can come up with good idea but good idea is not enough, it needs customers. Even having customers is not enough as there is more work to do. Entrepreneur must set the product price, fend off competitors, keep the customers and grow the company. No matter how good they are, many will make mistakes but as long as they learn from mistakes they will do well. In this competitive world, very few people succeed at their first attempts. In fact, it is likely that most would fail several times and many would give up. Only the most resilient, the most passionate will find way out of crises, overcome difficult times and willing to risk everything to make their startup succeed.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
