Financial Freedom: Can We All Be Entrepreneurs?

Can we all be successful business owners, becoming employers rather than employees?

Is it wrong to be an employee?

The answer to both questions is NO. We cannot all be entrepreneurs in one go, leaving existing companies employee-less. It is not going to happen, for many reasons.

1. Having a dream does not mean quitting your job. If your job creates the environment for you to reach your utmost potential, to be who you were born to be, without any regrets about what might have been, then you are in the right place. You can rise to the top, become a major shareholder and eventually sit on the board. All they need is to locate their dream job and work their way to the top if they truly belong there. However, if you know that deep inside, you are not happy being here, if the company stops your pay, you are out of here (you are working for money, not for love), then you are in the wrong place.
2. Some folks who ought to set sail will never leave the harbor, frozen stiff by fear. Even though this set of people knows they don’t belong here, they are too afraid to venture out, preferring the security captivity offers to the uncertainty that comes with freedom. They are all too familiar with tales of woe from friends and acquaintances who ran away from jail, and ran back when life outside failed to deliver on the promise.
3. There are folks that know from day one, that they are not going to work for others for the rest of their working lives. After a while (maybe five years or so), they are going to pull up their anchors and sail away. While these folks wait for their exit parameters (what needs to happen before they leave) to crystallize,

There will always be employees. People who will actualize their full potential by working for others, people who are working for others for a season, while saving up for their dreams, and people who will never venture out because of fear.

The only problem is that there are too many employees. An army of job seekers is laying siege on the few available jobs on offer. Too many entrepreneurs are looking for jobs. Too many entrepreneurs are holding on to jobs. The net effect is that the jobs do not go around. Instead of creating jobs, they are preventing others from getting in or denying others of jobs they would have created if they were bold enough to believe in themselves.

The net effect is massive unemployment coupled with the collateral damage that comes with it is very ugly – poverty, crime, prostitution, drugs, xenophobia, etc (in the US, some recently laid-off folks turned the gun on their families and themselves while others went back to their former workplaces with guns, to bid a final farewell to their erstwhile colleagues). Too many people not minding their businesses, thinking that when they mind other people’s businesses, the business owners will be there for them when things go belly up. That world is rapidly receding into oblivion. The days of job security are over.

For most folk, entrepreneurship is the route to their dreams, be they singers, writers, actors, athletes, footballers, manufacturers, you name it. There must be a business behind it if you are to be successful in a sustainable manner. Understanding how to run a business is not optional.

So in the final analysis, the question is no longer – can we all be entrepreneurs?

It is down to – do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Your answer is the right answer because there is no one right answer. You are the only one that knows.

Entrepreneurs are both born and made. Some may be born with skills and aptitudes that predispose them towards becoming entrepreneurs. The majority of entrepreneurs are made. They learn, often from the school of hard knocks.

After all is said and done, do not hide under the excuse that we can’t all be entrepreneurs. Look deep into your soul. Who are you? What do you think you came to this planet to do? Suspend fear of failure for a moment, and explore your innermost self and desires. What is your dream?

By the time you can sincerely answer these questions, you will be able to say if entrepreneurship is for you.

Image: smurfitschoolblog.com