When you speak to entrepreneurs you can be sure of one thing, these are people who believes in themselves. (Not discounting religion or faith at all.) An entrepreneur does not always know exactly how things will turn out but you can be sure they believe they will be successful at what ever they do. So why are really successful entrepreneurs good at so many things? Because they believe they can do something and then put their mind and energy into doing it.
An entrepreneur is very much like an athlete. A successful athlete wakes up early in the morning before most people hit the snooze button to go out for a run. There is no doubt in athletes’ minds that they are in control of their bodies and there is no one who can beat them. Training and schooling usually go together making the time needed to dedicate to practice even more of a challenge. For professional athletes, the distraction of new found wealth and fame can be challenging as well.
So the athletes focus on their sport always striving to be the best. By high school, most athletes have selected a sport or two and train religiously every day to improve their skills or reduce their time. This is a way of life which includes coaches and teams to help keep you on track. Starting from a young age there are camps and programs for every conceivable sport. You can excel in any event or team which considers your accomplishments to be worthy of inclusion.
The best athletes work hard to be the best they can be at one thing and many other activities may be neglected. Entrepreneurs work hard to be the best they can be but, they do not have a support system of a team to hold them in line. There are no teams for the free spirit of the entrepreneur. Mom and Dad did not take you out to the business library three times a week so that you could get on the entrepreneur team.
There are no organizations for a young mogul. No summer camp for our little entrepreneur but, there are many for an eight year old future prima ballerina. Those camps are so busy that I bet you know several professional ballerinas. So where does our young future mega wealthy entrepreneur get started since there is no coaching staff at the middle school?
The answer is that entrepreneurs become good at many things. Their desire to succeed does not only pertain to money. A true entrepreneur does not always know what field or business they will find themselves. True, many people start from a young age to follow a dream but, many find the dream and then try to build on it. Giving 110% until reality throws a boulder on them and says, “Try something else.”
So the future entrepreneur finds opportunities and interests that they find fascinating. Exploring the situation more thoroughly is never a small undertaking. Like the athlete, these are highly driven, highly talented, motivated individuals who want to succeed at everything they try. They just have not found what they will succeed at, due to the lack of structure which guides the athlete’s world.
Entrepreneurs go from hobby to hobby and sport to sport seeking greatness only to come up short more often then not. So off to school where they impress the staff as the hardest workers and most dedicated students, or they end up barely graduating because they just were not interested in anything enough to give a damn about the subject.
So now the entrepreneur has many talents and is quite a convincing salesperson. Endowed with charm and wit, they usually give others a sense of confidence in their ability. Everywhere you look there are opportunities for the entrepreneur. Success and failure are like the athlete getting to the playoffs but not making the finals, but there is no team for the entrepreneur to console or congratulate. Family aside, there is no team in entrepreneur. It can be lonely and hard to face defeat without knowing where to turn next.
This does not last long for an entrepreneur. No matter what happens this is just another failure that makes the entrepreneur more capable in the future. Either a victory or loss is simply another lesson to be learned and studied for the next endeavor. Like an athlete who wakes up after the big defeat, an entrepreneur is still an entrepreneur the next morning.
Champions however can be athletes or entrepreneurs. The athlete that becomes a champion may not have always been a champion but was always an athlete. The entrepreneur will either win or lose but will always be a champion for having tried something new. Giving their best every time and looking to find gold when no medals are being offered can be as difficult as training for a sport. Entrepreneurs believe in themselves seeing gold medals as the elusive brass ring to be sought after and won.