All over the world people dream of being an Entrepreneur - someone with their own business who does things their own way. Who wouldn't want to do away with bosses and overlords forever? Who wouldn't want to receive 100% financial returns on their efforts instead of an hourly pay? Who wouldn't want the freedom to choose when to work and what to work on?
Sadly many people are filled with illusions about what being an entrepreneur is as well as how to become one. So I'd like to cut the shit, dash the illusions, and get to the heart of the matter to help as many people as possible.
First off, lets be honest - an entrepreneur is simply someone with a business, that is to say someone who provides a product or service and has full control over what happens with the profits - even if they don't necessarily have full control over the product or the service they are selling. Chris Guillebeau famously stated that business needs but three things: Something to sell, a place to sell it, and a way to get paid. So lets define an entrepreneur as someone who has something to sell, a place to sell it, a way to get paid, and has control over what happens with the profits.
With this in mind we can start to see that the world is full of entrepreneurs - it isn't just digital nomads, followers of the 4-Hour Work-Week, or people drop shipping on the internet. Au contraire! The woman pushing a food cart around Jakarta selling noodles is an entrepreneur, the kids selling candy on the subways of New York are entrepreneurs, and the guy selling weed in the back alleys of Bombay is an entrepreneur.
This brings me to an important point - necessity truly is the mother of invention. There are more entrepreneurs living in or under the poverty line than above it, and more entrepreneurs operating outside the law than within in it. When human beings are faced with a do or die, sink or swim situation they usually rise above the challenge, discover the minimum viable laws of business, and find their niche. From there it's just a matter of building and honing skill, being able to adapt, and being willing to learn - either from experience and observation or by mentorship and education.
The best way to intrinsically understand anything is to have faced it's opposite without getting locked into a cycle of fear - appreciation of life comes from facing death, understanding love means having been used, etc. The next best way is to have simulated facing it's opposite, such as imagining a situation in detail, or having been told of someone else's direct experience. Being able to learn from someone else's mistakes is a skill that can propel you forward very quickly.
This is the part no one likes to talk about - becoming an entrepreneur usually results from facing the deep dark well of having and controlling nothing, becoming and entrepreneur usually comes from having to because it is the only way to get what you want - for some it's the only way to feed and house themselves and their children, for others it's the only way to avoid being under someone else's power and authority. Whatever the reason, a man or woman will usually only succeed in their transformation if it is the only option available. In this is power, self-reliance, and freedom - from this is possible the shift from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance. You simply have to know what you want and the best way to know exactly what you want is want what you absolutely need.
There is however another path to entrepreneurship - this is the path of pleasure. You see, not everyone grows up in a media saturated environment having sh*t pumped into their ears since birth, not everyone is raised in bubble of constant fear and instilled with a mindset of scarcity (I'm looking at you America...). Additionally, not everyone who comes from such abject circumstances continues to propagate them - some people evolve and so, for an increasing number of people there is no need to hit that rock-bottom point of finding out what they want by wanting what they absolutely need. Instead they live in the very human world of pleasure-seeking and enjoyment.
This is the natural state of humans - to do what we enjoy and enjoy what we do. In such a world and in such a mindset it is only natural that as a being attains mastery over a skill set, craft, or discipline they will simultaneously build a business or industry as well - in a pleasure-seeking world the only way to attain greater pleasure is to attain greater complexity, and the only way to attain greater complexity is to provide greater pleasures to greater amounts of people.
For those with illusions casting shadows of fear and scarcity in their lives I have but one sure-fire piece of advice. Risk everything, lose it all and become totally and abjectly f*cked. Once that happens you'll know what-is-what, you'll know exactly what you want, and you'll magically find a way to get it using the skills and knowledge you've built over your life-time. For those living for pleasure's sake just keep doing what you are doing.
Originally posted on: no-location.com