15 Entrepreneurs Reveal What Entrepreneurship Means to Them

Being an entrepreneur is a source of pride. It also evidences an individual with a huge amount of discipline and focus to be able to build a business a lot of times from just an idea. It is the ambition of an entrepreneur that built the most profitable and successful companies. The only issue is that the word entrepreneurship can often vary from person to person.

#1 – Fixing a Problem

Entrepreneurship is encountering a problem and not being able to sleep until you fix it. It's driving down an interstate with your tank on empty, seeing a sign for the next gas station in 200 miles and thinking I can make it. It takes passion, willpower, and the ability to focus on something so much your friends and family will worry about you. It's a step away from a sickness, but if you can embrace the uncertainty, then it will take you places you never thought possible.

Thanks to Sean Higgins, ilos

#2 – Using Talent

Entrepreneurship means using your unique God given professional talents as your career. You are your career. It takes extreme resiliency to choose to be an entrepreneur! There are so many highs and lows. Accepting the challenge of an entrepreneur career in my opinion speaks highly of an individual's character. These are the people who usually do amazing things in the world. They are our motivators, our speakers, our goal enthusiasts and the inventors. The best trait of an entrepreneur is their information seeking abilities. They are always gathering and giving the most current information because it is a matter of growing and giving.

Thanks to Amie Walker, Daily Citrus

#3 – Effective Solutions

Entrepreneurship is about solving problems. This means defining a customer base and finding a way to make life easier for them. Far too often startup companies begin by coming up with a promising idea, only to discover later they aren't solving a compelling problem for their customers. It's best to work backwards by analyzing the challenges you face on a daily basis and developing solutions to these pain points. Entrepreneurship isn't about great ideas. It's about offering effective solutions to people's problems.

Thanks to Bill Battey, Mindyra

#4 – Having the Right Confidence

I believe entrepreneurship is having the confidence to keep working and doing the things that most people can't or don't want to do. Entrepreneurship is having a vision and not listening too people saying you can't do that but using that as a building block moving forward. Entrepreneurship is knowing you can do better working for yourself than for working for someone. One of the best part of being an entrepreneur is when you hire people and they believe in you and you can give them the opportunity to grow and flourish in their position

Thanks to Mike Argiro, 4Tfinancial

#5 – Having Conviction in Myself

Entrepreneurship to me is about harnessing and developing conviction in myself, my abilities and my decision-making. The biggest difference between working a job and being an entrepreneur is that you almost always find yourself having to make big and small decisions alone. While this can be intimidating at first, it becomes a habit overtime and you are forced to constantly be on your feet so you can quickly move your intelligence muscles and arrive at critical decisions without delay. I also believe that this habit quickly starts to positively influence your personal life as well and makes you a more decisive person who is not only a better leader but also a good friend and partner.

Thanks to Abhishek Lal, VedSutra

#6 – Freedom

Entrepreneurship means freedom. When I was made redundant I was 6 months pregnant and started to panic. Until I remembered I could be my own boss, make my own schedule and define my own destiny. Now I run a successful skin clinic and am able to fit working around
raising my daughter. I couldn't do that if I was working for someone else, so for me entrepreneurship means freedom and flexibility.

Thanks to Jennie Wallace, Beyond Skin Clinic

#7 – Implement Skills

The element that I enjoy most about being an entrepreneur relate to time freedom and the ability to implement skills in areas that matter to me. Being able to focus on areas that you are truly passionate about allows one to inspire others. As an entrepreneur who is lucky enough to be pursuing their why I find that I am often working in flow, completely losing track of time doing something that feels more like a hobby or a sport than a job.

Thanks to Tom Green, Golf DXB

#8 – Living Life on My Terms

For me entrepreneurship means living life under my terms. I get to build a business that has meaning, a vision of making a different in the world, it means I get to choose the rules I play by. I'll be the first to amid, I probably put in more hours than I ever did when I was in corporate, but it doesn't feel like ‘work'. When you become an entrepreneur, you decide your faith, your future. You can put in as many, or as little, hours as you wish- and you also live with the rewards or repercussions. I get to choose to go and volunteer at my kids school during lunch time and open-up my laptop in the evening to catch up. No one can't tell you ‘you can't do that' or ‘do it like that, we've always done it that way (when you clearly know there's a better way)'. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, but for those of us who ‘don't play by the rules', who have a fire in our belly of being in charge of our destiny, entrepreneurship is the way to go!

Thanks to Sara Gilbert, Business Strategist & Certified Coach

#9 – Independence

1) Work Independence – the freedom to choose which projects and clients to work on. 2) Time Independence – the ability to integrate work into our family schedule. We have always struggled with prioritizing family time. Now that we are both working with more time flexibility, and together as a couple – we have the opportunity to define family schedules with ease. 3) Personal Financial Growth – that means not trading our hours for dollars. We have learned that high-value work cannot always be equated to a hard and fast figure. What we do as creatives involves a lot of conceptualization. A great deal of experience and expertise go into each project. Entrepreneurship has enabled us to put more premium in our abilities by really asking for what our work's worth. Entrepreneurship has also forced us to be more mindful of our cash and investments. Knowing that there isn't an employer to back us up, this has instilled in us a sense of responsibility in terms of investing, saving, and just living within our means. 4) Finally, entrepreneurship means the freedom to be creative in life. It means defining our own path, crafting what we can offer to this world. When you are within the realm of employment – you serve a master that is not you. In entrepreneurship, you are the captain of the ship and the maker of your destiny.

Thanks to Romela Iane de Leon-Ortega, Get Some Cola

#10 – Following the ‘What If?'

In the past, when working different jobs, I always used to wonder ‘what if?' The question of ‘what if' starts as a whisper and can become an existential crisis. I realize that some people can follow their dreams by being an employee, perhaps the joy of teaching, while working for a school is enough to be satisfied. I wouldn't criticize anyone for that. For me though, starting a business concept is like embarking on a historic adventure. As an entrepreneur you might have the chance to actually change history instead of reading about it or being a passive observer.

Thanks to Jason Lavis, Out of the Box Innovations Ltd.

#11 – Personal Development Course

For me, entrepreneurship is the ultimate personal development course. It feels often like a video game with endless levels, obstacles, secrets and potential prizes. I never thought I would be a business owner, having spent the first decade of my career very successfully climbing the corporate ladder. However, now that I've been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug it feels like an entire lifestyle and mindset. It has impacted and transformed every aspect of my life, for the better. It is a daily test of my trust in myself and willingness to learn, be flexible, take responsibility and be in action.

Thanks to Ben Brooks, PILOT

#12 – Need to Create

I'm often asked by friends why I continue to work on my business when there is an easier way to make money. As an entrepreneur the need to create goes far beyond money, for me money is the reward for creating something amazing. But being an entrepreneur means I'm on a journey, entrepreneurship is a way of life.

Thanks to Tab Pierce, Caliber Security

#13 – Saying Yes

Entrepreneurship means always saying yes. It means figuring the intricacies of your business on your own, exhausting all efforts for your dream, and creating your outcome. Entrepreneurship is freedom for me, specifically, it is an avenue where I am not confined or limited. The parameters of my business, my financial freedom, and my ideas are infinite.

Thanks to Nicole Harris, One Last Frog

#14 – Taking a Risk

Entrepreneurship means taking a risk, finding your passion, and continuously help other people at all cost. I’m not an entrepreneur who tried to make a business. I became an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship found me! Entrepreneurship is about taking risks day by day not knowing what to face the next day. It’s about combining your craft and passion in one knowing that both of them will give you fulfillment in every result you’ll get from entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship means to help other people. Without the major objective of helping your employees to have a livelihood and your customers to have good products/service, you aren’t up for a good business. Part of having a good business is by taking care of the front-liners who take care of your customers. Without the heart for your people, having a good company isn’t possible. The very essence of having a company is to help customers have a “better product or service.” It is a firm determination to give your customers a better option with the use of your products/service. It is always about meeting customer’s needs and satisfaction. At the end of it all, entrepreneurship means still being happy and passionate with whatever you do. Without passion and happiness in entrepreneurship, your business is doomed to fall!

Thanks to Daisy Jing, Banish

 #15 – Seeing it Through

At first glance, entrepreneurship means hard work. Creating and maintaining a company can be one of the most demanding parts of your life, but to me, more than just late nights and tireless hours of work, entrepreneurship means – and requires – confidence. To bring an idea to life takes unwavering conviction. I have seen some of the brightest, hardest working people fail because they started to doubt themselves. Success won't happen without hard work, but stay confident through the tough times and see your idea through.

Thanks to Mike Glanz, HireAHelper