If you would like to know the answer to the question, what is an entrepreneur you will likely get a different answer from each person you ask. Each different answer could very well be right. The reason for the diverse number of answers stems from the fact that each individual that is an entrepreneur has different qualities and reasons for being an entrepreneur.
What an entrepreneur does in no way signifies what is an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is about individuality, so it’s not easy to define. In the business world an entrepreneur is the one that decides to take on the risk of beginning a new venture. This usually involves financial risk or capital that it is required to start a new market or idea.
An entrepreneur decides to chance their money on an idea that they hope will gain them back what they put out on the venture. They usually choose to create a new or relatively unknown entity to develop on. A business or market entrepreneur bases their venture on profits or earnings from their business niche. Another type of entrepreneur is the social entrepreneur which hopes that their venture will help environment or society in some manner.
Risk-taking is they backbone of many entrepreneurs. They are willing to risk their money and their time to bring about a venture that they realize could succeed beyond their wildest dreams or could fail miserably. They know each of these possibilities upfront which make it all the more a challenge they are willing to take.
Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you they realize it will be an uphill battle for most of their endeavors. If there were no challenge to it then there would be no need for anyone to risk or chance becoming an entrepreneur. The challenging spirit is one that does well when you consider the characteristics it takes to become an entrepreneur.
So what other characteristics make up the entrepreneurial spirit? This is like answering what is an entrepreneur. Anyone can decide to be an entrepreneur and actually make it work with perseverance and patience but it also takes creativity, spontaneity, and the determination not to let failure get them down.
One of the major factors and characteristics it takes to be an entrepreneur is independence. Most entrepreneurs have independence by the truckload. They love to find a venture and do it on their own. They do not have it in them to answer to anyone else and that is one of the biggest reasons many choose becoming an entrepreneur over the regular grind of the daily 9 to 5 type of job.
You may have to decide for yourself what the real answer is to what is an entrepreneur? Could it be you? Do you think about things in a different way than the conventional manner? Are you a problem solver that realizes the difference in the idea of the better mousetrap, or do you know the mousetrap is fine, there is just a different way to market it.
This may not be all there is to it. You may have all the great characteristics and the thinking power to be a world-class entrepreneur; but can you handle rejection? Being an entrepreneur involves a great deal of failure before you reach success and any great entrepreneur will tell you of all the failures they experienced to get to the successful pinnacle.
You will not find an easy answer to what is an entrepreneur, what they do or if you are going to succeed as one. It is not going to be an easy task to do or any easy footsteps to walk in when you decide to be an entrepreneur.
If you do feel that you can handle failure as well as success or that you have any outstanding characteristics that make up the qualities of an entrepreneur then you should do it. If you are willing to take the risk because you know it will make you money or change society for the better in some way you should just go for it and become the entrepreneur you know you can be.