entrepreneurship

Fellow entrepreneurs - do you really know what you want in your life?

Spending extra long-hours continuously to perfect your formula for successful business, as well as countless sleepless nights to worry about your business ventures.

You are not doing that for fun, don’t you? Well a few maybe, but not many do so.

You could say that you want to be financially free, give better education for the children, become a reputed public figure, travel around the world, etc.

Most would to that for several reasons that focused on one vision - a better standard of living.

But then, is that really what you want?

Being an entrepreneur myself, I personally want to be financially free, so that I don’t have to worry about money. But beyond that, I would like to take a small, anonymous, part of donating resources for the good causes.

THAT’s what I want being an entrepreneur.

Being a successful entrepreneur surely opens many doors - But, do you really want to achieve a better standard of living?

Is that it? Then, your motive is not enough in driving you becoming a successful entrepreneur. You have to aim not only for the sky, but also for the stars.

Consider this: Always wants more to achieve more for the sake of the life itself.

Ivan Widjaya
Want more to achieve more

The once famous Phil Collins’ song - still hold true today, even for entrepreneurship :) Call me outdated, but I like that song :P

You can’t hurry success - you just have to wait.

Success comes to those who are persistent, resilient, and great learner - although not always.

Good things don’t always happen to good people

Say, what?

Not always? Yes - not always. We have to do some reality check here.

Nobody can guarantee you success. HOWEVER, success will eventually come if you are willing to wait.

You see, success is not an end result - success is a process.

Getting a million dollar sales figure this year is a great milestone, but not necessarily a success - its a byproduct.

entrepreneur’s personal trait + persistence, resilience, lifelong learning + opportunities = success

Where’s luck in the equation? I am a true believer that there is no thing such as luck.

In my opinion, what people say of ‘luck’ is opportunities presented within your sight and you are ’smart and experienced enough’ to grab it and act on it right.

I conclude…

So, related to Phil Collin’s song - I just wanna say, “Whaddup? Can’t hurry success, you just have to wait, y’all!”

Sometimes people have to fail a ton of times before they get it right. That’s why success does not always happen to ‘good people’ - those who are persistent, resilient, and great learner.

But success do ALWAYS happen for those who are willing to do what ‘good people’ do… and waiting… and waiting… and waiting… patience is key.

My question to you, are you willing to wait?

Ivan Widjaya
Waiting success and grabbing opportunities in sight

I am a firm believer that entrepreneurs can be taught, whether he/she is born with it or not.

I am my first and foremost case - I am born not as an entrepreneur. My role models were not entrepreneur. However, later in life, a few books changes my career path and orientation.

I feel that people are lucky enough to learn entrepreneurship early in life.

Some people asked, ” when is the right time to teach a child about entrepreneurship?”

Some answered, “when a child is a teenager, maybe it’s the right time.”

Some other answered, “No child is too young to learn entrepreneurship.”

I’ll answer, “As a child understand the basic concept of money, then it’s time to teach entrepreneurship.”

As I always believe and intrigue, the Internet opens up many opportunities.

Robert Kiyosaki learn entrepreneurship at 9. Many entrepreneurs learn entrepreneurship at their early teen.

The Internet opens up many possibilities

Making money is more accessible by virtually anybody with an Internet access.

Internet has created many teenpreneurs, as well as teen millionaires.

I’ve recently visited a blog - Small Fish Big Money - about everything money making online - operated by a 16 y.o. It’s, in my opinion, one of my top blogs in the blogosphere.

I’ve also dealt with an 18 y.o. British gentleman owning an online marketing company, LetMeAdvise.com making thousands of dollar a month doing coaching.

And many more examples.

How young is too young

I mentioned above - I believe someone can be taught entrepreneurship as soon as he/she understand the basic concept of money. Meaning, he/she understand that money doesn’t grow on trees :)

People would voice a disagreement on this - “C’mon… they are too young to learn such stuff… let them enjoy their childhood like other kids - doing fun stuff and be merry.”

I’ll say, “entrepreneurship IS fun! If they could learn to have fun with entrepreneurship stuff, chances are, they will enjoy a great entrepreneurship career because it’s what they enjoy doing since their childhood.”

For you entrepreneurs that have children - teach yours early will eventually help themselves… and you later on.

Take a look at Richard Branson of the Virgin empire. He teach his children to value the money they have by not spoiling them with expensive and glamourous stuff. One example, his kids fly economy class, not business class.

The Creme de la creme

Starting out right, in life, will almost guarantee a great life years to come.

If a young person doesn’t get a chance to learn the right thing about money and entrepreneurship, someday someone will teach them about it - the wrong way.

Avoid this by equipping and supporting the young men not to ‘waste’ their youth, and they shall not be wasted :)

Ivan Widjaya
Never underestimate young age

Business owners are entrepreneurs.

Alas, some of them are not really the effective ones.

I’ve seen many entrepreneurs are just like office workers - they, in fact, just create another job for them, with better pay but with no sick leave or paid vacation.

A job? Yes - entrepreneurs often trap themselves in a routine. More opportunities mean more work and less time for personal endeavour.

Their motto: work hard, seize the great opportunities, and you shall be rewarded.

It sounds like a job to me.

Real entrepreneurs don’t WORK IN the business - They RUN the business.

They create a system. They hire people. They are good at managing people and get people to do what they want.

Their motto: Let other people do.

The keyword is system - real entrepreneurs can achieve more in a limited time because a system present in their business. For them, no system means no business.

Sure, you can be successful without a system. But a system liberates you.

For example, a graphic designer owning a small design business do a certain amount of projects per month. His business works because the he works.

On the other hand, a graphic designer employing a team of designer in a well-thought work system can do tens or hundreds times more projects per month, with (significantly) less work time for the owner, even often leading to a hands-off business model that allow the owner to less-involved in the business.

The bottom line: Real entrepreneurs has their assets preserved - freedom, time and control.

How to run a business like a real entrepreneur

Now, I suppose you want to be the real entrepreneur for the obvious reason - you want more time for you and your family. There are some insider tips :) on how to run a business like a real entrepreneur:

1. Delegate, delegate, delegate - the first three criteria for a business is not location, location, location, but delegate, delegate, delegate. You have to ace the art of delegating without losing control of your business.
2. Create a real company, not another job - Set a system and hire employees. Yes, funds are scarce, but as long as you can pay it, you have to do it - your another resource is often more important - time
3. Hire people that complement you - You are good at managing business, but a bad marketer - hiring one would be the smartest move you can do to grow your business.
4. Take a look at the big picture, and let others work on the details. Trust me, details can bury you alive!
5. Instead of plunge yourself inside your business, it’s better to start networking with other business owners. Opportunities present not while you tinkering inside your business, but while you talk to others discussing your business.

Good luck on your search for freedom.

Ivan Widjaya
Run a business the Noobpreneur way

No, it’s not about the coveted movie.

To me, Iron Man is the right description of entrepreneur that, days in and days out, thrive in entrepreneurship challenges.

What do you mean exactly? Entrepreneurs ought to be like iron mans? Yes, they ought. But, alas, not many are iron mans.

There are people that called themselves entrepreneurs, but what they did is start a business, face adversities, and they give up right away. They doing this are not entrepreneurs - they are quitters.

Sure, you have to know to call it a day. But after one or two trials? That doesn’t make you an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is hard work - lying on a beach with a laptop is nice, but it still a hard work.

You know what bothers me? When people say that entrepreneurs are lazy - they start a business, make it automatic, and run it like a beach bum with laptop. They also say that what entrepreneurs did was create jobs for themselves because they simply couldn’t enter the corporate world.

Starting a business - for whatever end results, sell it, make it automatic, or operate it yourself - is hard work. And while creating a job for him/herself is true, an entrepreneur often CHOOSE to do so.

The real work is the pre-natal period itself - constant planning, constant pressure, and constant challenge.

Then, during the start-up period - this is when an entrepreneur is made. Days of sleepless night. Days of worrying about the loss making period. Days of worrying that one in five business fails within the first year of operation. Days of pressures. Days of trying hard to motivate oneself and stay positive. Days of critics faced from others, even the closest ones.

What about failure? Failure is what make an entrepreneur. It’s something that make or break an entrepreneur. Some say that entrepreneurs are defined by the failures they have experienced.

No gut, no glory.

But I can’t help not to say that entrepreneurship is, by far, the most exciting career path I take.

Forget about the riches and glory - they are just residuals. The real excitement is being in constant challenge itself.

I often lose interest after years of owning a business. I just need those excitement. I strongly believe that every real entrepreneur out there love the excitement of starting-up. It’s the excitement that drive entrepreneurs.

Some suggestions on how to be an iron man in entrepreneurship

1. Knowing that entrepreneurship shall face failures. For entrepreneurs, to fail is to learn.
2. You have to be a persistent person - every time you fall, you have to get up again.
3. Learn to deal with critics and the negativities - don’t whine and pity yourself.
4. Stay awake and stay alert - never lose sight of your business. A small misconduct can destroy your business.
5. Bring it on - love the challenge, not running away from it.

Be the Iron Man and be a successful entrepreneur. Or else, just quit and get a job.

Ivan Widjaya
Entrepreneur is Iron Man

I respect what Pablo Picasso said, that he always do something he can’t do, so he can learn how to do it. That’s what also the essence of noobpreneurship (See what noobpreneur.com is all about.)

The best way to succeed as an entrepreneur

If you want to be able to ride a bicycle, you have to learn on the road, riding it! You can’t learn riding a bicycle by reading a text book, a manual, a periodical, or a journal. You can learn all about bicycle; But riding it, is a totally different issue. You fall with your bicycle on top of you - you get up, and try again. Better yet, install 2 supporting wheels so that you can get used to pedaling and balancing your bike - when the time comes, uninstall the supporting wheels, and off you go exploring the world!

Just like bicycling, entrepreneurship adopt the same learning pattern. You study hard at your college, learning the ins and outs of business and entrepreneurship. Or, you didn’t attend college, but you learn through seminars, and read lots of books about entrepreneurship. All is useful, but not paramount.

What is paramount in entrepreneurship? Learning by doing. Like the ol’ riding a bike stuff I mentioned above.

Here’s five facts of life you might want to experience in order to success as an entrepreneur:

1. You can’t ace your way through wealth and riches without actually doing it - start a business NOW.
2. You HAVE TO fail, to succeed - just like learning to ride a bike the first time.
3. You can have your own ’supporting wheels’ - mentors, advisers, trainers, and other experts in the area of entrepreneurship you like - to help you avoid failing too often. When the time comes, you can do it on your own (although usually mentors are in a lifetime relationship with entrepreneurs) - but, you get my point.
4. You HAVE to experience rejection - a great marketer never be one if he/she never experience constant rejections; Even great marketers are born because of rejections; Rejections make you stronger and smarter in facing prospects.
5. You don’t have anything on a silver platter, even if you want it - unless you are of Yahoo!’s Semel clan; You have to bust your @ss off to build a business and become one, successful, entrepreneur.

Learning by doing make you becoming a man.

Ivan Widjaya
Bustin’ my @ss off

Related posts other people has read:

What Entrepreneurs Should Want in Their Life

Resilient Entrepreneur - How to Become One

Business or Busy-ness?

Trying to Prove Something is the Best Motivator for Entrepreneur

Help! I’m a Narcissistic Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, I THOUGHT I work for nobody but me - wrong!

For many of us calling ourselves an ‘entrepreneur’, we often ‘work’ for other higher entities to run our business smoothly.

Franchisees work for their franchisor

As a franchisee, you work for your franchisor - You follow guidelines; You pay your franchisor a royalty; You market your store and your franchisor’s brand. Wait, wait, wait! How? why? Well, it IS, technically, their brand! You just lease the brand name… you pay for the lease in term of franchise fee, remember? You don’t own the brand. Period.

Viral marketers work for the company they affiliated with

Affiliate marketings, MLMs, and other related viral marketing activities promote the company that own the affiliate system. Yes, you can be wealthy through viral marketing, but you actually make the company you affiliated with even wealthier.

Search engine marketers and online business owner work for Google!

No matter how hard you try to deny, face it. You work for Google! You bust your gut days in and days out market your websites and blogs and use SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques and services available to get a better Google PageRank, because the higher the PR, the higher the traffic, which means, more $$$ to you - And, oh, remember AdSense? There! you work for Google.

Other business activities that actually need somebody else to make your business works

You have created better shaving blade, but you need shaving device to put our blade in. You own good products, but you make your living entirely as an eBay Seller. You grow crops, but you need a marketplace to sell them. So many examples, with one conclusion - most of us doesn’t really enjoy the perk of doing business and dictate the market - we NEED others to survive; We ‘work’ for them.

I don’t want to work for anybody! I want to work for myself!

Well, again, face it. The reality is, not many among us is a pure, hardcore, entrepreneur. Put those guys - including authority names such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett - and the likes out of the equation, then you can find you and me there - working hard to put our business afloat, and hopefully, on autopilot (on passive income) - with the help of other, greater, entities (a.k.a. marketplaces, other companies, etc.)

How to work for ourselves

I have some obvious pointers on how to work for the sake of ourselves, but hey! It’s half dream, half reality - just try shooting for the stars!

• Own the system - own the affiliate system, own the franchising system, create automated business system - just… create it, own it, and let others work hard for you!
• Create a widget or an invention that hacks society lifestyle pattern - create a breakthrough that change people live their life - like the Internet. Like the Apple iPod. Like the Microsoft Windows. Like LED. Like flexible display that can be rolled up as small as a pencil. Like nuclear weapon (If Einstein lived today, what would he do to the bombs?).
• Be a Venture Capitalist - Those businesses NEED you and your money badly.
• Be a good-doer, philantrophic businessman or social entrepreneur - A lot of you is needed in this ill world.

There’s there. Who do you work for today?

Ivan Widjaya
Work for social bookmarkers and directories :)

Related posts other people has read:

Work at Home Wonders

Work at Home - A More Feasible Business Solution Today

Being an Entrepreneur is a Work of Faith

How to Run a Business Like a Real Entrepreneur

The Benefits of Having Your Business on Autopilot