How I Made It - Part Two..

This is the second part of a mini summary of the book "How I Made It".. to read the first part click here

In the last post i have listed some of the characteristics that distinguish entrepreneurs.. and from there we shall continue..

Qualifications:

Although intelligence is one of their main characteristics... yet many of them have left school without any qualifications. Duncan Bannatyne has left school at the age of 15 without an O level.

According to Professor Gray,

Successful entrepreneurs tend to be brighter than other people
and they are usually practically good at people relationship skills."

According to the book, having a university degree does not necessarily extinguish an entrepreneurer although in some cases it is an added bonus such as "Matt Stevenson, who got a first class degree from Derby for designing an aquarium filter for specialist corals led him directly to a business making fish tanks."

Risk:

We always think that entrepreneurs are those who risk everything for the sake of their "new idea" and "new business." On contrary; usually entrepreneurs remain in their present job even if they have started their new business. They are "cautious" people rather than the stereotype: risk takers.

"Gerry Pack secretly kept his full time job with a holiday company for a full year before starting his hotel booking business. Maria Kempinska quited her day job as an agent assistant only when she felt her Jongleurs comedy club was going to be a success. Also, Chartered business psychologist Ros Taylor says

"You don't necessarily have to jump over the precipice without a parachute, instead you can plan your venture bit by bit and gradually wean yourself off the company you work for. You don't have to be completely daft."

Motivation:

If you were an entrepreneur, what will motivate you ? Money? well..

Money is not the only motivation to entrepreneurs; instead, the desire to prove to others your capabilities is one of the motivational factors such as Derek Beevor who "flies to work in a helicopter each day says he was determined to prove wrong a teacher who told him to leave school because there was no point in his staying to take his O levels."

According to Professor Gray, most entrepreneurs are driven by an "innate self-belief & self-confidence.. while a small group are driven by fear of failure."

Another motivator was "sibling rivalry". Stephanie Manuel wanted to prove to the rest that she can have a successful profession as much as her elder brothers had, whom have achieved great success in their professions.

The desire to make a difference is another motivational factor and to me. Personally, i believe it is as important as the rest of the factors. Lizzie Vann suffered from asthma and eczema when she was a kid decided to start a company that was specialized in baby food.

Attitude:

The book asks a questions which was "what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? It gives the answer as following:

1. passion & the belief in what you are doing. "if you do not believe 100% in what you are doing, you will never be able to persuade anyone else"

2. The ability to see every failure as an opportunity, not a disaster. Chris Gorman lost 500,000 pound setting up a record company; yet he said that he was relieved he lost it now than to loose 20 million pound later in life.

3.Persistence and refusal to give up.

4. Endless amount of Optimism. According to Ros Taylor,

"Positive thinkers are much more likely to be successful in everything they undertake because if you feel optimistic you are much more likely to be relaxed- which means you are less likely to be stressed and become ill and have
accidents. And so you are likely to live longer. There is a whole pattern of behaviour, which follows from being a lucky and optimistic thinker. They take the view that i can do this, i can solve this, i can make it happen. And so they do."

5. The ability to spot a potential opportunity. Mark Mills made his first million after wondering why no one advertised on the side of post boxes. He was the 50,000th person to have rung them with the idea, but he was the only one of the 50,000 who enrolled on a law degree specifically to see if there was a loophole in the law which would enable him to turn his vision into reality. There was.

6. Able to be good at problem solving.

7. Confidence to change direction when it becomes clear that your path isn't the right one.

So basically this is the first part of the book. Then comes a brief of each of those entrepreneurs. The first is Lizzie Vann: Founder of Organix Brands. Stay tuned for its summary.

A Lost Dot:

"So the message of this book is this: It is evident from the diversity of experience detailed here that there is no blueprinting to becoming a successful entrepreneur and no right or wrong way of going about it. What really matters is having the right attitude....." How I Made It, Rachel Bridge