The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Do You Have It and Can It Be Developed? 0 11

Have you heard the story of Joy Mangano, the woman who invented the miracle mop and built a successful business empire? A single mother who once had significant debts and faced life’s challenges achieved great success and founded her own company. Her journey seems like a fairy tale, but it is reality; it is no coincidence that a film titled "Joy" starring Jennifer Lawrence was even made based on this story. Perhaps you should try your hand at business too? Doubting whether you have the abilities? Let’s figure it out.

Can Anyone Become an Entrepreneur?

Many attribute their failures to a lack of "entrepreneurial talent." This is self-deception. Persistence and the ability to learn from mistakes are much more important.

Recall how many times famous individuals faced defeat before achieving success:

• Henry Ford went bankrupt several times before his company became a leader in the automotive industry.

• Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lack of creativity, but that did not prevent him from creating a world-renowned entertainment empire.

And there are many such examples. These individuals did not despair after failures; they continued to move forward. Anyone can become a businessman if they truly want to and are ready for daily challenges. There are no innate talents—everything comes with experience.

Do not say that you are incapable of business if you have the desire to engage in it.

What Qualities Should an Entrepreneur Have?

An entrepreneur is someone who strives for change, is objective in their assessments, and always takes action. Reflection, creativity, and resilience to failures are also important.

The ability to analyze one’s actions, understand the reasons for successes and failures is a key skill. It is important to be able to generate new ideas, notice interesting solutions from others, and adapt them to one’s projects, constantly refining and improving existing concepts.

And most importantly, an entrepreneur must be resilient to failures. The ability to accept defeats gracefully, analyze mistakes, and move on is what distinguishes a successful businessman from someone who gives up at the first difficulties.

4 Stages of Competence Development for Building a Business

The competence development ladder is a model that describes the levels of skill and knowledge development in a specific area. It helps determine how ready a person is to perform tasks at different levels of complexity.

The competence development ladder looks like this:

• Unconscious incompetence: You don’t even know that you don’t know something.

• Conscious incompetence: You realize that you are lacking something.

• Unconscious competence: You can do something well but are not aware of it.

• Conscious competence: You know that you are well-versed in a particular issue.

Unhealthy overconfidence is characteristic of the first level, while imposter syndrome is typical of the third. It is important not to confuse the third level with the second. Modesty at the second and third levels can be a defensive reaction, but in business, it hinders.

To overcome these stages of development, one must:

• Lower expectations of oneself.

• Take on the position of a student and absorb new knowledge.

• Allow oneself the right to make mistakes.

How to Understand That You Can Organize Your Own Business?

You can only understand this by trying. It’s like learning to ride a bike: until you sit down and try, you won’t know if you can do it or not. You have everything you need, but success depends solely on you.

What matters is how many mistakes you make and how quickly you find the right solution. Education provides knowledge but does not guarantee success. Experience is more important than knowledge. However, an excessive focus on one’s own experience can limit you, causing you to ignore new opportunities. You need to find a balance.

When Should You Not Go into Business?

You should not start a business if you have random money. Large or small amounts of money do not guarantee success. It is better to spend the funds on improving your life or to save them.

Business requires much more time and effort than a job. Money will not start flowing in immediately. In business, you have to do not only what you want but also what is necessary. For example, an English teacher who decides to open their own school will have to deal with sales and marketing.

Without the necessary skills, character traits, and intelligence, and without a truly strong desire to start a business, one should not go into business.

It is also important to combat imposter syndrome—a feeling of insecurity and doubt in one’s abilities. People suffering from this compare themselves to others and believe they are not good enough for business. Remember, this syndrome can occur even in true professionals. If your lack of self-confidence prevents you from acting and conducting professional activities, you should consult a psychologist who can help you overcome your inner fears.