So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur?

Do you often wonder if Entrepreneurship is the right career choice for you?  It's more than just having an idea and requires a lot of hard work.  Sometimes you have to evaluate your personality, skills, interests, and values to make sure you have what it takes to be a leader.  So here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Do I have a business plan?

2. Am I comfortable with taking risks?

3. Am I passionate and confident in my ideas?

4. Am I in good financial shape?

5. Do I have a solid team to work with?

I thought being an Entrepreneur would be somewhat easier than most careers, but clearly, there's way more to learn about leadership and starting a business.  What exactly are those things?  Here are three areas of knowledge that are critical for starting a successful business:

1. In-depth knowledge of the competitive structure of an industry and a network of contacts within that industry

2. The skills to run the daily operations of a small, rapidly growing company

3. The ability to raise money

When starting and running a business, you can't expect everything to run smoothly.  It's just not possible!  There will always be ups and downs in any career, so don't expect perfection.  As long as you have that passion to keep going and work hard, you will most likely have that success.  Sometimes it can be hard for people to keep that mentality though. So how do they keep going?  How do they do it?  

Most successful entrepreneurs serve God by serving others.  In other words, they put God first before anything.  Jan Newman states,

"In the Doctrine and Covenants Section 112, God says 'I require two things: a willing heart and mind.' Think of this a thousand years from now, no one is going to ask you what company you ran, how much money you made, and your greatest legacy will be your family and your service in the Kingdom of God.  Never forget that.  Always be a light to the world through your actions and your integrity.  One of the things that the world lacks today that you can fill is integrity and honesty and you will stick out like a sore thumb out there and people will see that and they'll like that.  They'll want you to be a part of what they're doing."

So with that said, can you see yourself as an entrepreneur?  Do you have what it takes to be a leader?  A successful entrepreneur has the power to do whatever they want, but the best thing they can achieve in life is being more Christ-like and serving others.