There are several schools of thought around what sort of entrepreneurial business or venture equates to personal success and fulfilment in life when you decide to go for it ‘alone’. Most people say ‘Follow your passion’, others recommend that you strategize and think of ‘your strategies and market’ effectively to become a successful entrepreneur.
Most entrepreneurial business fall into 3 categories:
- Creative (Create something that you love and need, which solves a wider problem, and you share it)
- Artistry (Have a vision, create it and share it)
Marketing and Strategy (Now this is the part that most people include into points one and two that often causes the confusion around your ‘why’, to what ‘end’ and what going it alone actually means)
We all know an entrepreneur or successful business that falls into one of these categories. Struggling artists turned sensational success. Graphic designers, event managers, service providers, fashion or brand designers: Some have succeeded in the long term, short term or not at all, and cease to exist.
For a long time, the narrative was: escape the shackles of a 9-5 job and follow your passion. Create something and then, just like that, seek success in your quest for passion filled, fulfilled life of perfect working days and financial stability, because everyone you can imagine will be queuing up once you ‘launch’ your product and, if you are ‘lucky’, it will happen to you.
Oftentimes the stories we tell ourselves can limit our ability to even start a new business and change our lives.
So here you can find a few important questions that I think are worth asking if you want to become an entrepreneur…
If creativity and artistry is your passion, why should it matter if it becomes financially viable? Isn’t the point your ability to create and then share that creativity or art?
What is an entrepreneur? This certainly isn’t a synonym for success. According to the dictionary, an entrepreneur can be described as:
A person who organises and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. An employer of productive labor; contractor.
Marketing and strategy requires a new set of skills that neither creativity nor artistry help build. You become a better artist and creative after practicing and honing your craft.
The ability to create effective strategies that help market your product and/or service that leads to revenue generation, financial success through effective management of profit and loss, overheads, expenses, clever asset investments, etc, until finally arriving at a profitable bottom line is less about the art or creativity, but more about your ability to do things other than create.
Are you creating a new business?
Has this helped you think about how you see your new venture and entrepreneurship life?