The following article by Kim Castle is worth while reading,whether we are an entrepreneur and needs some upliftment or want to launch ourselves from a boring career.
“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.” Ayn Rand
Does the word “entrepreneur” seem a little overworked these days? Some might think so. Some think entrepreneurs are just all about get-rich-quick schemes. Billionaire Ted Turner called it another name for unemployed.
“Entrepreneur” means a person willing to engage in business without an assurance of profits, someone willing to assume both the risk and the management of a business. It comes from a very old French word meaning simply to do or to undertake something.
All the people who came to America looking for a new life came to do, and they came without a safety net. They were farmers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, each with a dream and the passion to make it come true. They knew that no one else was going to make it happen for them. So they rolled up their sleeves and created farms from wilderness, cities where there was only forest, and the strongest, most vibrant economy on earth based on the idea that what they dreamed could be achieved if they worked hard enough.
Now that’s entrepreneurship!
That spirit is alive and well today, but it’s been overlaid by the “get rich quick” hype that has given entrepreneurship a bad name. You know the spiel: “Buy this program and you’ll be rich!” As if anything, ever, came without work.
Real entrepreneurs know it’s not that easy. Those who succeed and make the rest of us envious went in prepared to put in some sweat before reaping the rewards. If you put in nothing of yourself—nothing is what you’ll get back.
Entrepreneurs flourish anywhere there are people with ideas—and that’s all of us! Who hasn’t toyed with the thought of being free of that dead-end job, being our own boss, living the life we want? It takes courage to cast yourself loose from the day job—but there’s plenty of that still out there, too.
Today’s most celebrated entrepreneurs often are not the ones who bring a new widget to market, but those who find ways to make what they do best—what they love—pay off.
At the age of 13 Debra Jane Sivyer was already using the proceeds from her first job to buy ingredients for the cookies she would later parley into a chain of over 600 stores. Cookies are nothing new. It was her drive to turn her passion into her life work that built Mrs. Fields Cookies.
All of us are entrepreneurs down deep inside. We’re born that way. We are all creative in our own way, all fired by some deep passion that we think “Boy, if I could do that all day, it wouldn’t even feel like work.” Real entrepreneurs aren’t focused on getting rich, but on doing what they love, all day, every day.
Work that doesn’t feel like work is the wellspring of true happiness.
So what’s your passion? And what’s holding you back? Maybe it’s time to take your vision and start down that new road. Roll up your sleeves and get going!