Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?

I provide the following from the viewpoint of a mentor, instead of an aspiring entrepreneur since I have already gotten the “t-shirt” with years of extreme dedication that lead to the achievement of some of my life goals.

As a successful entrepreneur, I appreciate the power that is afforded to every person that chooses to take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities in the great United States of America! It is the land of opportunity that will allow a dirt poor boy from Alabama the opportunity to work very hard, be very focused and willing to take risk to pursue his dreams of financial and schedule freedom.

Being an entrepreneur is the most empowering opportunity of our time. However, being a successful entrepreneur is reserved for the special people that are willing to do more than asked, push the limits of acceptability and bear the burden of changing the world. Most folks dream of being entrepreneurs because they see the successful lifestyles of those that have succeeded. However, most are unwilling to ever put forth the efforts required to breathe life into an innovative idea and allow it to mature to have a permanent mark on the history of mankind. It’s easy to admire the “over night” successes of entrepreneurs without appreciating the years of investment that were required to allow those success to come to fruition.

The market is filled with folks that aspire to be successful entrepreneurs, but the natural laws of success ensure that only the few that make the commitments, take the risks and have the luck make it. Interestingly, those that aspire to be entrepreneurs are not relegated to the unsuccessful, or poor, or uneducated, or any other classifications. As I grew in my journey, I was very surprised to learn how many corporate executives were envious of the entrepreneur and aspired to be one themselves. It's actually humourous to read some of the biographies of CEO's that include in their successes that thay too are entrepreneurs, yet they have never started a business from scratch, missed a paycheck, put their financial well-being at risk, or climbed the mountain of market obscurity.

As an entrepreneur, I have a personal desire to give back to the pool of aspiring entrepreneurs and ensure they have the full opportunity of success. I call this “entrepreneurial altruism” and it is a burden that every successful entrepreneur should accept as their gratitude for their own success. It is this reason I am always willing to take their calls, meet for discussions and be very candid in my feedback to so they can grow from the experience and increase their likelihood of success.

Fortunately, today there are many resources for folks to study about business and entrepreurship. I have been involved in a few, including supporting and mentoring with the Founder Institute, whose approach starts with finding those that are committed to being an entrepreneur and then providing them the information to increase the liklihood of success. It's an efficient approach in weeding out the weak and uncommitted to save precious oxygen for the those that are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful.