As I promised I’ll talk a little bit about what drives an entrepreneur. How many times did you hear about “serial entrepreneurs” (that sometimes failed many times but keep on starting again) or about the fact that entrepreneurs have a special mindset? Nobody would rely deny that entrepreneurs usually have a way to look at opportunity and business in a different way. But what is it?
I consider myself an entrepreneur at heart but it’s not because I’m risk seeking or because I have faith in every possible opportunity I encounter. I truly believe that it’s almost a need. A need for creation, a need for innovation, a need for curiosity, understanding, improvement. It’s a need to challenge the Status Quo and come up with new ideas.
I have heard many times (from non entrepreneurs) that entrepreneurs don’t like authority and want to be their own boss. I for one do not believe in this argument, but I do believe that entrepreneurs require some freedom to create.
Some people are more artistic than other and enjoy more the art of creation in and all itself, and I believe that those people are more of the entrepreneur’s type than others.
I think that entrepreneurs start businesses not only because of the business opportunity but also because they need to work in an environment where they can create, change, and improve everyday. This is the key element of a startup, ideas are generated all the time, the product varies and adapt in an agile way, nothing is set in stone and everything becomes possible. The opportunity of a big exit with multimillion dollars awards is very tempting but on the day to day hassle of entrepreneurship it takes more than a big check at the end to make you hold for years in a very demanding startup environment.
That said, I do not want to generalize and also do not want to convey the idea the non-entrepreneurs are not creative or don’t have the mind set for innovation but I an convinced that a vast majority of entrepreneurs (successful or not) do share those common traits.
Internet of Things (IoT) talks 
Antony, when you say “I think that entrepreneurs start businesses not only because of the business opportunity but also because they need to work in an environment where they can create, change, and improve everyday.”, this actually captures the essence of why I love starting businesses. I love innovating, creating, being challenged, and to be pushed beyond the limits of my current skills.
Alexandre Boudreau
Alex, Thank you for the comment! I love to hear from fellow entrepreneur and feel the energy. This is a very new blog for me and I thought I needed to dump somewhere what I have seen in the last 2 years. I hope to start publishing on the fly “quick” studies of some startups I have seen in order to help other see what quick process to go through to evaluate an opportunity. It should be fun!
I’m looking forward to your next posts. I’ve been doing something similar. I started my blog at the end of September and have been posting articles on different business and leadership topics that inspire me. I leverage the knowledge I’ve gained in my past startups and my MBA, to share with others.
Regards,
Alex
Antony,
you might find some of my articles complimentary and in line with your perspective. http://alexandreboudreau.com/
Regards,
Alex
Interesting post, thank you.
I also believe that creativity and challenges are as important as business opportunity. As an example: when the design & development phases of a project are completed I often prefer to jump to the next project instead of exploiting the first one …
I found (for french readers) an article by Michel de Guilhermier who shares our passion for entrepreneurship and has explained in great length why he crossed the line:
http://micheldeguilhermier.typepad.com/mdegblog/2010/01/cest-quoi-etre-entrepreneur-.html