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TENT III : Why do people become Entrepreneurs?

Hey Fam,

This is the 3rd article in this series.

If You are new to the series, Click here to read the first article.

 

In this article, we want to answer the question “Why people become Entrepreneurs?”.

 

Shall we begin?

 

In 2016, I took an Entrepreneurship course from the Chinese University of Hong Kong  via Coursera, one of the introductory parts of that course focused on “Why people become Entrepreneurs?”

You know why it is important to ask and answer this question?

It gives You contexts and stories You can relate with.

 

It helps You avoid what we call the “MOSES MYTH”. 

Do You know what the Moses Myth is?

Let me explain if You dont.

I am a practising Christian and in the Bible, there was a Moses; the one who liberated the Israelites from slavery in the hands of the Egyptians.

Moses was also the one that parted the world famous Red Sea with his rod.

He went ahead to perform other miracles in his life time too.

So over time, people have come to believe that for “things to happen” there must be a Moses; one extra ordinary human being that comes once in a generation to “liberate” his people.

Somebody like Steve Jobs, like Elon Musk, like Aliko Dangote, like Bill Gates. Extra-ordinary folks with extra-ordinary abilities.

The truth is You dont have to be a “Moses” or some a heaven sent “Messiah” to become an exceptional Entrepreneur.

Matter of fact, most of the Billion-dollar CEOs we have today were ORDINARY PEOPLE like You and I, some are even drop outs, they did not necessarily attend business Schools or get an MBA or a degree in Economics or Accounting or Business Administration but they are exceptional business leaders today.

 

Away from the “Moses Myth” and bible study,

 

Let us answer the question of the day.

 

Why do people become Entrepreneur?

There are 1001 reasons why people become Entrepreneurs.

Many roads lead to the Market but when we get there, we are all trans-acting.

The post is already getting lengthy and personally I dont like reading or writing TL:DR posts.

 

In my coursera course, we itemized 4 major reasons namely; 

  1.  People become entrepreneurs because they want to BECOME THEIR OWN BOSSES OR HAVE CONTROL OVER THEIR CAREERS.
  2. People become entrepreneurs because they WANT TO BE DIFFERENT AND “FREE”.
  3. People become entrepreneurs in other to SOLVE  PROBLEMS they consider as very important and of course,
  4. People become entrepreneurs in other to MAKE GOOD MONEY.

Those were the 4 reasons we identified in my coursera course. You can check it out here.

 

There are many other reasons why people venture into Entrepreneurship.

 

People become entrepreneurs by accident;

There is something we call SERENDIPITY; the accidental discovery of things.

Let’s assume You stumble on the solution to an important problem and You build business infrastructures around the solution are You not an Entrepreneur? Of course, You are.

 

Like I hinted in the last post, some people become Entrepreneurs because “LIFE HAPPENED”.

Let us assume You lose your job (I know You want to shout God forbid.. 😆 ) but loss of a job has made some people look inwards and develop solutions that made them Millionaires.

Let us even assume You dont even have a job yet talk less of losing it, You then decide to venture into Entrepreneurship and You go ahead to build very formidable businesses, are You not an Entrepreneur?..of course You are.

People become entrepreneurs for so many reasons;

Zuck built Facebook because his college girlfriend broke up with him  😛 ,

Linus Torvalds built the Linus OS because he couldnt get access to his schools computer room,

I can start a brewery business tomorrow if Guiness Nigeria stops manufacturing Orijin…LOL… 😉 ..BTW, I dont drink Beer, I only take Orijin and Orijin is not beer. :-p

 

What I am trying to say in essence is that..whichever way You came through to get to the market, once You are in the market what do you do?

Start Transacting!!!

 

In this next article, we will answer the question “Are Entrepreneurs Made or Born?”.

Drop your email in the form below so that I can personally send the article to your email.

 

And by the way, the feature image at the top of this post contains some other reasons why people become entrepreneurs.

Also, there is a book I have in my library titled “HOW THEY STARTED”, You can get it if You want to know how some of these famous brands we have around today started. Some of them were purely accidental… Check the book out here

I am thinking Aunty Linda could have fallen on a new business idea instead of falling otherwise… :mrgreen:

 

I will see You in the next one

 

Yours in the hustle!,

 

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