Do You Have What it Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?
by Michael E. Gordon, PhD


I have coached thousands of students of entrepreneurship over the years - from high-school students to PhDs to executives. And virtually all of them asked this question:

“Am I an entrepreneur?”

It might be a common question, but it is the wrong one to ask, because it leads to inaction. Entrepreneurship is not a “yes” or “no” phenomenon. It is not a question of either “Yes, I’m an entrepreneur” or, “No, I’m not an entrepreneur.”

Entrepreneurship is not genetic. It has nothing to do with your chromosomes or inherited traits. Entrepreneurs are not born; they make things happen because of their will to succeed and skills and knowledge. And you can learn and enhance the skills that make all entrepreneurs successful.

So start by asking yourself the right question:

“How can I learn what I need to know, and improve my entrepreneurial skills to maximize my chances of succeeding?”

That’s the right question because successful entrepreneurs learn to develop and strengthen their personal power skills. Don’t give up on yourself before realizing that you can develop these skills. Trust me, becoming a successful entrepreneur is within your grasp if you really want to make it happen.

Consider this list of what I call the Essential Entrepreneurial Power Skills. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you must learn to:

1. Assess the present situation. Hone your ability to observe, collect information, and understand the opportunities and threats that can impact you and your business-to-be. Factor in your own personal strengths, skills, experiences, challenges, and resource limitations. If you begin with the wrong assumptions, you will invariably get the wrong answers.

2. Go after bold visions. Having gone through a reasoned assessment, you are in a position to establish clear, measurable goals. Be bold! You can accomplish considerably more than you realize. And it takes about the same amount of effort to go for the gold.

3. Be unstoppable. Focus your attention on the timely execution of every milestone on the path to your goal. You and your team will face many obstacles along the way, but you will not let these stumbling blocks stop you. Just show up and get it done--period.

4. Negotiate firmly and “win-winly.” Every interaction between people can benefit from proficiency at win-win negotiation. You can accomplish what you want and still retain a productive relationship based on mutual understanding and accommodation. Here are the ground rules:

• Listen and understand, before seeking to be understood.

• Separate the people from the process.

• Focus on interests, not positions.

• Insist on objective criteria.

• Invent options for mutual gain.

5. Solve problems effectively. There is rarely a day in my business or personal life that a problem doesn’t crop up that needs to be solved. Problem solving is a skill that can be learned through study and practice. Start by identifying the problem meticulously, examine changes, test for causes, verify the solution. Your rate of success improves dramatically with your ability to solve problems.

6. Make good decisions. The ability to make good decisions is essential to success in business and personal life. Decision making can also be learned and enhanced. The process begins with clarifying the decision statement; then defining what the right decision must accomplish; developing and evaluating alternatives; examining future consequences; and finally, making a reasoned choice. This is a process you can learn and apply to systematically improve your decision-making ability, as well as become a better problem solver. You don’t have to wing it.

7. Brainstorm. Brainstorming harnesses the thinking, experiences, and imagination of a group to generate creative ideas and solve problems. The collective knowledge of a group is vastly greater than that of any one individual; and therein lies the power of the brainstorming process.

8. Mobilize resources. You can’t accomplish anything without understanding how to leverage resources, which, in the entrepreneurial vocabulary, are anything, absolutely anything, that moves your venture further and faster with the least risk possible. Categories of resources include: physical, financial, infrastructure, people, knowledge, and your own unbridled imagination.

9. Communicate. You’ve assessed the situation, put your bold vision in place, and established performance initiatives. Now what happens? Nothing - unless you communicate consistently and constantly to all stakeholders. Be clear with stakeholders about what you intend to accomplish and what you expect from them.

10. Act decisively. Entrepreneurship is a contact sport. It is not only about thinking, planning, coordinating, strategizing, and visioning--it is about doing. Figure out how to get the task done. Be unstoppable in its execution.

11. Behave with integrity. There are people for whom you would do anything, and others with whom you would not waste your time; the difference is the quality of the person’s character and behavior. Integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, reliability, knowledge, professionalism, maturity, punctuality, good negotiating and listening skills and, last but never least, humor, are the qualities of successful entrepreneurs. Stick to these, and never waver!

This story is adapted from the new book, Trump University Wealth Building 101: Your First 90 Days on the Path to Prosperity.

Michael E. Gordon, PhD, is the author of Trump University Entrepreneurship 101: How to Turn Your Idea into a Money Machine (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). Dr. Gordon teaches corporate entrepreneurship at universities around the world, and to date has started six successful companies. Currently Michael is President of www.AngelDeals.com, an Internet business that helps entrepreneurs find funding, and the Center for Competitive Success (www.CompetitiveSuccess.com), a management consultancy. He is an Adjunct Professor at Babson College, the Harvard University Extension School, and the International School of Management in Paris.