Eric talks about startup entrepreneurs that he has met. He says that they are general managers, working for large companies who are tasked with creating new ventures or product innovations. They are adept at organizational politics: they know how to form autonomous divisions with separate profit and loss statements and can shield controversial teams from corporate meddling. The biggest surprise is that they are visionaries and can see the future of their industries and are prepared to take risks to seek out new and innovative solutions.

The dictionary defines an entrepreneur is “a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit.” The internet defined entrepreneur as: a person who identifies a need and fills which require elements such as never giving up, fearless to failure, risk taker, makes things happen à entrepreneurs are visionaries.

When reading through this book I found that the most interesting part of it was the elements an entrepreneur consists of, and not just only the elements but also how to ignite them. Despite having all the knowledge and raw material why do entrepreneurs still need guidance.

Having a proper team structure, good personnel, a strong vision for the future and an appetite for risk taking, sounds like that’s all an entrepreneur requires, and yes, they are crucial elements. In this case though I learned that even if you are an excellent entrepreneur with all the right resources you can still fail if you are missing these essential factors: processing and converting. If an entrepreneur is missing the process for converting the raw materials of innovation into real-world breakthrough success it is highly possible to fail. If lacking those skills there is not that good a chance to succeed. Even if the entrepreneur has a excellent team it still requires the knowledge of what should it do and it also needs to know what process should it use.

This gets me thinking of what we have started at Proakatemia, Bodyfied. In my opinion we don’t lack the process of converting and this is based on the fact that we have results and solutions for the customer but that’s because we have made it fairly simple for the customer, fill in a form, that’s it. But we do lack credibility and the ability to get the customer to know and trust us. This is something that can be improved and this book gives good examples on how to improve. Ask for advice, use your weaknesses to your advantage as well as your insecurities, don’t be obsessed with cashflow and be resourceful with what you do have.

We are all entrepreneurs of ourselves. So in order be a good entrepreneur and be a part of a good team one must remember themselves as an individual as well and never forget to always ask for advice, there is nothing ashamed of asking advice.

By the way, the book taught me a new word and its meaning “intrapreneur”. 😊