Are You an Entrepreneur – Victor Kiam

Q. Describe Victor Kiam’s views on how to become a successful entrepreneur?

Victor Kiam’s essay “Are You an Entrepreneur” advises an upcoming entrepreneur to follow certain self-restricted discipline to become a successful one.   He says a successful entrepreneur has to strive hard initially to win the confidence of a customer. The entrepreneur should be ready to take risks and he ought to be willing to roll the dice with his money and stake his reputations in support of his idea or a project to execute it. He must make some sacrifices if necessary to achieve success.

The author says that his thirty five years of experience of entrepreneurship gave him a good idea of the entrepreneur’s profile.  He says that an entrepreneur should ask himself the following questions if he wished to be a successful entrepreneur.

 Do I have enough confidence in my venture?

• Am I willing to make sacrifices?
• Do I recognize opportunity?
• Am I decisive?
• Do I have enough self-confidence?
• Am I willing to lead by example?

With these questions, the author of the essay proceeds to tell us the characteristics traits of a successful entrepreneur.

A prospective entrepreneur must believe in himself. We cannot inspire others if we don’t believe in ourselves. Lack of confidence is not a disease but a symptom. Self-perceived negatives rob an individual’s healthy ego. The author asks us to prepare a list of our minuses and pluses. One has to overcome the identified minuses with required efforts and cautious self-amendments.  So, one has to decide himself and do his best to overcome his minuses.

A prospective entrepreneur has to work hard for sixteen hours a day and all seven days of a week. The product you sell in the market or the service you offer should be qualitative. If not all efforts of an entrepreneur will become waste. You cannot sell anything which you would not ready to buy it.

“No pain – no gain” should be the credo of an every entrepreneur. Nothing can be achieved without painful risks. Working hours like ‘nine-to-five’ does not exist. One has to forget the clock while doing his work. He has to sacrifice his personal comforts and weekend relaxations. One should not be a successful entrepreneur unless he is ready to sacrifice some of his personal comforts and luxuries.

Opportunities are rarely come to us and we should make use of them by through examination of all angles of its proposition. One should not neglect any of the slightest opportunity that comes in your way.

An upcoming entrepreneur has to be a decisive. He should not be logged down by the difficulties and unexpected turns which may challenge him. One has to take right decision at the given moment and act decisively.

Finally, an entrepreneur has to become an example for his employees and workers. He cannot ask an employee to do something which he himself is not willing to do. He has to work harder than his employees do. There will be rewards for an entrepreneur who is ready to sacrifice. They find satisfaction in creating something out of nothing. They will gain a positive sense of self-confidence and of course, there will be financial rewards too.

Entrepreneurship is not as easy as we talk off. A prospective entrepreneur should work hard and work with a vision. He has to be practical and be able to apply his mind to the situations and circumstances. He should have confidence in himself and he should show others that he leads others by his own example.

To sum up, entrepreneurship is not easy but one has to strive hard to achieve his goal. David may not be remembered if had slain a dwarf instead of Goliath.

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