Introduction
Daile Tucker, author of ‘Are You An Entrepreneur?,’ describes the entrepreneur as “a person who has decided to take control of his future and become self-employed—whether by creating his own unique business or working as a member of a "team," as in multi-level marketing.”[1] Similar to an elusive creature in the wild, entrepreneurs have been the fascination of the business world for decades. In an effort to ‘understand’ the entrepreneur, significant academic research has been “conducted to define the characteristics of an entrepreneur. Like an animal in the zoo they have been studied at length by economists, anthropologists, management academics, psychologists, sociologists, historians, finance experts and organizational scholars.”[2] While various disciplines all have differing definitions of entrepreneurs, many have tried to figure out what are the characteristics that define what it means to be an entrepreneur.
Tucker’s Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
Tucker describes thirteen characteristics & work ethics that are common to successful entrepreneurs. They are: Entrepreneurs are careful about money, are competitive by nature, believe in the old adage, "the early bird gets the worm," are risk-takers who trust their hunches and act on them, have a "head for business," are usually loners rather than joiners, are usually honorable people who do business based on a handshake or a promise, do set aside time for leisure activities and family, don't retire, are professionals, are people who have high energy, feel self-confident, set long-term goals, and view money and financial security as a measure of accomplishment and peace of mind, compete with themselves and believe that success or failure lies within their personal control or influence, never give up and never quit striving for success.[3]
Stephenson Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
James Stephenson has developed a list of 25 common characteristics ‘successful’ entrepreneurs. The list involves: Do what you enjoy, take what you do seriously, plan everything, manage money wisely, ask for the sale, remember it's all about the customer, become a shameless self-promoter (without becoming obnoxious), project a positive business image, get to know your customers, level the playing field with technology, build a top-notch business team, become known as an expert, create a competitive advantage, invest in yourself, be accessible, build a rock-solid reputation, sell benefits, get involved, grab attention, master the art of negotiations, design Your work-space for success, get and stay organized, take time off, limit the number of hats you wear, follow-up constantly.[4]
Conclusion
As practicing entrepreneurs, lecturers and authors of entrepreneurial books and material, Dr. Neil Flanagan and Peter Baskerville developed their own view on what makes an entrepreneur. More than developing a checklist for what it means to be an entrepreneur, and even though entrepreneurial skills can be identified, analyzed and taught, “we believe that the position of the entrepreneur in society is more aligned to a calling than that of a skill-set.”[5] They go on to say that what some may see as ‘a black sheep’ curse, the entrepreneur sees as a gift which is quite possibly an accident of birth.[6]
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