Entrepreneurship is defined as the process by which individuals who want to be their own boss, pursue their own ideas and pursue financial freedom seek opportunities to provide value with a specific customer focus. Walt Disney described the true impetus of the entrepreneur when he said, "If you can dream it, you can do it."
Not conservative by any stretch of the imagination, entrepreneurs endeavor to undertake the mountainous task of creating sustainable value for their customers while undertaking an inclusive entrepreneurial spirit of all those affiliated with the business. Entrepreneurs disrupt the success of incumbent businesses that have reveled in the continuity of complacency. They are equipped with novel ideas and intensity fueled by proactive innovations and provoked, calculated risks often interpreted as gambles.
Economic stability is contingent upon the inventive minds of the entrepreneurial-minded who seek to curb conventional methods of normalcy with extraordinary ideas. Consequently, entrepreneurs cause an upsurge in competition, provide even more choices for consumers and create new job opportunities. Entrepreneurs add to the integrity of capitalism by introducing new technologies, new products, and new service processes into markets in which such innovations are nonexistent.
Entrepreneurs are known for pioneering unforgettable and revolutionary innovations that have changed the course of consumer behavior. Notable entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs with Apple and Bill Gates with Microsoft changed the technological landscape by which information is transmitted and interfaced. American industrialist and owner of Ford Motor Co., Henry Ford, devised the concept of work specializations to systematically reduce costs and increase economies of scale, or less costs, greater outputs.
McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc, sought to devise a unique philosophy for providing consistent iterations of quality while unifying preparation methods to ensure that every hamburger, bun, fries, and drink never deviated from its one-of-a-kind taste.
From a small discount store with the idea of selling more for less, Sam Walton took Wal-Mart from its humble beginnings to a prominent retail giant serving more than 260 million customers in 11,500 stores. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg developed the social media mammoth in his Harvard dormitory that rehabilitated communication among friends and family using a media platform to exchange lifestyle happenings and subjective thought.
Ted Turner created the information conduit CNN to offer Americans 24-hour access to national news. And, who can forget Google magnets, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who fashioned the world's largest search engine and made Google a verb societally inserted into the consumer vernacular.
Those mentioned, among countless others, have made suggestible imprints on American culture. Entrepreneurs have changed the way we communicate, the way we socialize, the way we measure quality and value, the way we travel, the way we search for pertinent information, and the list goes on. Their passion for creative opportunity guides their belief that mirrors an ambitious intent to positively change our lives.
A quote by Steve Jobs embodies this notion when he said "The computer is the most remarkable tool we've ever built but the most important thing is to get them in the hands of as many people as possible." However, for us to experience the artifacts of their ingenuity and forethought, all entrepreneurs were subject to setting aside secure and promising careers to pursue goals seemingly bigger than life itself. Because they are trying something new, failure would undoubtedly seem inevitable. Henry Ford once stated that "Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently," and Winston Churchill said, "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
As customers, we should appreciate entrepreneurs repeated failures and obstacles because the procedural execution of experimentation results in the success of a product or service that has found a useful place in our lives.
Enthusiasm amidst failure breeds an execution intelligence that births a desire to continue to transcend historic successes. Focusing on products and customers underscores successful entrepreneurs' ability to ultimately satisfy their customers and search information corridors to create timeless innovations.
As the lives of consumers continue to evolve, entrepreneurs will be on the cusp of creative transformation. The desire to impose new innovations on an invention-hungry society simply fuels the entrepreneurial drive. Rolling the proverbial dice demonstrates their willingness to take assumed risks in order to make our lives more enjoyable and entertaining indicative of inventing products in true entrepreneurial fashion.
Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, said it best when he stated, "An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down." And, what an ingenious plane it would be and we, as consumers, could only imagine the possibilities.