Entrepreneurship is a way of life that offers unlimited possibilities to those who truly believe in it and live by it. But at the same time, entrepreneurship is a way of life that can totally alter the course of your life if misunderstood. Entrepreneurship is not something you can fake your way through; you are either doing it right or not doing it right simple. There are no ways around it. To help you better make that choice, here are indicators of entrepreneurs who are headed for doom. As you go through the list, be sincere to yourself and tick each of the signs currently present in your entrepreneurial life.The purpose of this article is not to scare you or condemn you, but rather to alert you and help you retrace your steps back in the right direction before your entrepreneurial journey goes up in smoke!
1. Survival Driven
This is one of the most obvious signs of most entrepreneurs heading for doom. If your primary motivation for venturing into business is to acquire wealth rather than to create and add value then you have started off on the wrong foot. If the drive to amass wealth supersedes the drive to create innovative products/services that will add value to your target market, then is time for some serious soul searching.
The purpose of entrepreneurship is not the accumulation of money but the creation of value-adding products/services that will help make the world a better place for all. Wealth is a result of consistently providing solutions to the problems of humanity. If you doubt me, go ask Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the likes. These are people like you and I who simply followed their passion (purpose driven) rather than following money (survival driven) and yet made a great fortune.
2) Inadequate Knowledge (Low Business IQ):
In many cases the entrepreneur on the path to failure won’t see the need to develop his/her business IQ because of the quest for money. Such entrepreneurs have a simple definition for business, which is “business is all about how much you can make.” The correlation between how much you can make as a function of how much you know and how much you can do is usually ignored. Thus, they forget that business just like any other discipline requires certain competencies.
So what do we have at the end of the day? The answer is all too simple, an entrepreneur wondering aimlessly his/her way through the dynamic world of business. In the end, failure becomes inevitable because as an entrepreneur your ability to perform is perpetually limited by what you know. In other words, the entrepreneur is the force that drives the business.
So, to have more means you have to do more and to do more means you have to keep learning more! How do you learn more? By consistently focusing on personal development and self improvement through reading (books, blogs, magazines, etc.), if that’s not your cup of tea alternatively one can choose to attend seminars, business development trainings, executive mentorship or coaching programs, membership to a business club or network organisations can also have its advantages.
3) Lack of Focus (Jack of all Trade)
The great Albert Einstein notably stated;
“Genius is the ability to focus on one particular thing for a long time without losing concentration.”
Entrepreneurs headed for doom have problems focusing their energies at one goal. They go in whichever direction the wind blows. An entrepreneur must decide what it is they want to do and then take steps towards the fulfilment of set goals. As an entrepreneur you must fully understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Your strengths are those activities you naturally enjoy doing and would naturally do for free your entire life if need be. This may arguably be how every great entrepreneur in history made their success; doing what they love and loving what they do.
They are not jack of all trades and masters of none; rather, they are jack of few trades and masters of some. Why? Because entrepreneurship is not just about profits, but also about using your passion to make a positive contribution for the benefit must avoid as an entrepreneur you must not concentrate your energies on doing what everyone else is doing but rather and start doing that which you can do exceptionally well. Focus on your core areas of strength.
4) Fear of failure
Fear is perhaps one of greatest drawbacks in all aspects of life including entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is a risk taker. You must be willing to step out of your comfort zone. One can say entrepreneurship is about unleashing your passion, creativity and vigour to do something that you truly care about. It doesn’t matter whether what you have in mind to create is popular or generally acceptable. What is of the utmost importance is that it matters enough to you so much so that you are willing to do whatever it takes turn your dream into reality.
Do not allow fear of failure to hold you back!
5) Lack of Vision (Short-sightedness)
Where do you see yourself in the next five to ten years? If you don’t see a clear picture then you are probably headed down the road to failure. Failing to plan is in itself planning to fail. As an entrepreneur you need to have a vision. Your vision is the focal point upon which all your goals and objectives are set. As an entrepreneur you must think carefully about tomorrow. The logic is quite simple, why would you go into business and not think about tomorrow? The business must be a going concern and should continue to exist when you are gone. The quintessence of entrepreneurship is to perpetually be of service to mankind.
As an entrepreneur you are required to be future oriented. Not having this consciousness is the reason why most entrepreneurs fail in business. Since they are not thinking about the future, the need to keep improving their game will be less paramount and as a result; they end up being eaten up by those businesses that are consistently creating the future today.
6) Poor Money Management (Extravagance)
Being an entrepreneur means being able to do more with less. The entrepreneur on the path to failure is the one who is extravagant –the habit of being excessively flamboyant, wasteful or spending money irrationally. Thrift or frugality is a requirement for your entrepreneurial journey if you hope to become successful. How else do you intend to succeed if you cannot judiciously manage the resources in your disposal?
A good way to avoid being extravagant is to classify your expenses into two categories; urgent expenses and Important expenses. Your urgent expenses are your recurrent expenses, meaning they are periodic in nature. Your important expenses are your capital expenses; meaning they are not periodic in nature but are necessary for the continuity of the business.
They are more like expenses made today in order to secure the future. Also, as your business begins to grow, don’t become one of those who start showing off the success of their business by acquiring unnecessary symbols of wealth, for instance, owning more cars than novels. Place yourself on salary, this is very important. You must never take what is not yours, make it a priority to put aside and redeploy all excesses created by the business back into the business.
7) I can do well all by myself (Insecurity)
There is a limit to what an individual can achieve alone, thus the need for team work. The entrepreneur on the path to destruction is the one who will never empower others nor seek the help of others for fear that they might outshine him/her. Great things are seldom achieved alone.
As an entrepreneur, it’s very important you understand that you have no exclusive right to what is being done through you. Whatever it is you have in your mind to create is not entirely yours to dominate, you are only a vessel through which an idea, innovation or product/service is being launched.
So, you must get rid of any insecurity and every scarcity mentality you might have that someone is going to beat you to it. The more insecure you are and as a result keep refusing to solicit the help of those more better
than you in certain areas, the more you endanger the chance of that idea, innovation, product or service ever becoming a reality.
Adapted from: 7 Reasons Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail in Business naijapreneur
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