The Real Entrepreneur

Commonly, an entrepreneur is thought to be someone who engages in starting and running a business, but to me, starting and running a business simply equates to being self-employed – and 99% of self-employed people are not real entrepreneurs.

Also, most self-employed people are stuck. They are stuck in a cycle of trying to pay bills each month, or maybe they are making reasonable money but they are working too hard. They sometimes get stuck in their inability to grow their businesses, or they can’t get out of their comfort zone ruts that have become bad habits they don’t know how to break. For the most part, entrepreneurs are stuck working far too hard and not getting fairly rewarded for it.

The real entrepreneur on the other hand, lives a fulfilled, exciting life that is truly rewarding, both financially and spiritually. The real entrepreneur generates effortless wealth and has masses of free time to do truly meaningful things outside of his or her business.

I believe that most people start a business in order to live a better, more fulfilling quality of life. However, due to negative personal programming, unfavourable circumstances, lack of education or inspiration, or the understanding that all good things take time and constructive progressive effort, most people become despondent and completely lose sight of their original intention in wanting to become an entrepreneur in the first place.

The Entrepreneurial Journey

Life is a journey, not a destination. We often forget that to achieve worthwhile things in life, it takes time and constant, persistent improvement. Too many entrepreneurs are far too fixated on what they want to achieve, often believing they can achieve it much more quickly than is practical, and they don’t realise the importance of learning to love and cherish the journey with all its ups and downs. It is only through embracing the journey itself that you will ultimately achieve success.

Think of some of the most recognised entrepreneurs in the world - Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Raymond Ackerman (founder of Pick ‘n Pay), Fred Smith (founder of FedEx), Colonel Sanders (founder of KFC) or Richard Branson (founder of Virgin) - they all went through many years of hard work and numerous failures before even nearing what could be considered being successful. In fact, it took Richard Branson almost 14 years of solid hard work before he made any kind of significant fortune.

Life and the journey to a desired destination does not come to fruition overnight. In most cases, to achieve anything significant in life, you will have to dedicate a lot of time and learning, often through trial and error.

This is a wonderful realisation once you accept it – you learn to celebrate the little victories instead of being obsessed with the major goals. You learn to look forward to challenges and difficult experiences because you know they well serve you well in the future. You look for the good in everything, grow as a person and become better every day of your life.

It is only through adopting this attitude that success can be achieved...and the key ingredient is persistence.

Entrepreneurial Success

After many years of working in the field of human development and particularly with entrepreneurs, I have found that there is a formula for entrepreneurial success. Everything we do at The Real Entrepreneur is geared towards moving entrepreneurs into this success zone.

There are three aspects that I believe entrepreneurs should strive for, and no single aspect achieved is sufficient for overall success in the entrepreneurial journey. But if you achieve all three, you could consider yourself successful.

Effortless Wealth

The concept of effortless wealth does not in any way assume you make money without hard, persistent work. The understanding is, however, that a successful entrepreneur is someone who evolves their business into an entity that eventually makes money with minimal input or effort from their side. You can’t start a business on that basis, but you should mould it over time to function that way. The business should work for you, rather than you working for the business.

Far Greater Freedom

Freedom is a concept that most people, especially self-employed people, don’t even consider as an objective. And even if they do, they are not entirely sure what this freedom really is. Of course, it can be different things to different people, but one thing is for sure – we all want financial freedom and a fair amount of freedom with our time. I once heard success defined as being able to do whatever you want, with whomever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, however you want. I guess we could refer to that as freedom.

A Meaningful Life

It is so important for all entrepreneurs to live a life which has true meaning, and by that I mean a life that is filled with love, contribution and fulfilment; a life that leaves a legacy and touches the lives of others. Many of us would like our lives to have this kind of meaning, and we often hope that in time it will; when we are older perhaps…but our lives could end at any moment. We are not guaranteed the luxury of having time or getting older, so we have to mould our lives in a way that makes them meaningful now. And this is what a real entrepreneur does.

The Real Entrepreneur is designed to help entrepreneurs achieve all three of these inextricably linked aspects of success.