Joel Comm - Self-Employed: 50 Signs That You Might Be An Entrepreneur

50 SIGNS THAT
YOU MIGHT BE

AN ENTREPRENEUR

Joel Comm & John Rampton

NEW YORK

NASHVILLEMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

Self-Employed

50 SIGNS THAT YOU MIGHT BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

2017 Joel Comm & John Rampton

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016912393

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For some people, the decision to start their own business is easy. Theyve always known that they were entrepreneurs. They started early, they succeeded quickly and they never looked back.

For other people, its much harder. They have good jobs that are reasonably satisfying and well-paid. They have families they need to support. Theyre content and yet they know that they should be doing something else. They have an idea for a product, and theyre sure it would be a huge hit.

And once its a hit, they know theyll be able to do all of the things that theyve always dreamed of doing: living on their own terms, building a giant business, settingand reachingtheir own goals.

All they have to do is find the courage to take that first step.

Its not easy. It takes a special person to be an entrepreneur. Thats why most people dont do it. As Joel Comm and John Rampton point out in this book, nearly two-thirds of people in their twenties say they want to run their own businesses. In practice, it will only happen for perhaps one in ten. Everyone else works for that ten percent.

So whenever anyone came before me in episodes of Shark Tank, as I assessed their product and its chances of success, I was also admiring them. Whether they walked away with a deal or not, they had won my respect. They didnt just have an idea. They also took the steps to make it happen. They planned the product, they did the research and they prepared the pitch. Thats effort and determination, and its vital.

But before doing any of that, they did something even more important.

They looked at themselves, and they decided that they were, indeed, an entrepreneur.

They were a business-builder. They were going to be the boss. They were going to set the direction, and they were going to make their vision happen.

Its courageous and its admirable and its often a leap of faith because the only people who know what it really takes to be an entrepreneur are the people who have done it.

Even early employees dont understand what it takes to create a business. They come in once the funding and the pitching and the brainstorming have already happened. They live with the growth of the company but they dont see the worry and the setbacks and the networking that are a necessary part of any entrepreneurs life.

Joel Comm and John Rampton are both successful entrepreneurs. Theyve both built businesses, seen them rise and fall, then rise again and sold them for millions. And theyve spent the last years helping other entrepreneurs make their dreams happen. Theyre business-builders and they network with other business-builders too.

In this book, they review fifty of the characteristics necessary to build a successful business. They look at where entrepreneurs come from and how they live. They examine who they are and how they work. They explain what they do, and as they describe the life and personality of an entrepreneur, they show all of us what it takes to turn an idea into a business, and a dream of entrepreneurship into a whole new life.

Its the closest thing we can get to understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur.

The decision to branch out on your own can be terrifying. It should be terrifying. Creating your own company will require patience, sacrifice, determination, a thick skin, the support of friends and family, and of course, funds. And thats before you even get round to discussing the idea.

Start here. Understand what it takes to become a business-builder, to be an entrepreneur and to employ yourself. Then get ready to make the most momentous decision of your life.

Kevin Harrington
Original Shark from TVs Shark Tank

Entrepreneurs are a unique group of people, and also a diverse group of people. Yet, we have found that entrepreneurs seem to think differently. They act differently. They achieve differently.

Theyre not content to collect a paycheck, however big. They wont be satisfied with steady promotions and increased responsibility. Its not enough for them to take charge of a project and see it through to a successful conclusion.

As long as theyre working for someone else, obeying instructions, seeking approval, reporting results, realizing someone elses vision instead of their own, they wont be happy.

They want it all.

They want to have the idea. They want to create the organization. They want to hire the key personnel, set the targets, oversee the design, determine the marketing strategy, and plan the growth. They want to be able to sit back when its all over, when the product is built and the customers are happy, and say: I did that.

Theyre not alone. Lots of people would like to say that. According to the results of a 2014 survey by the University of Phoenix School of Business, half of all working adults in the US either already own their own business or would like to own a business one day. That spirit seems to be strongest among the young, however there was a study done in 2014 by Easy Life Cover, which said the amount of new entrepreneurs for the last 10 years had been over 50 years of age, and 1 in 3 people in the 55-64 age range. Other surveys have put the number of budding entrepreneurs among twenty-somethings as high as 63 percent.

But it doesnt always happen. In fact, at any one time, only about one American in ten actually does own their own business and run it full-time. The rest of the working population continues to pull a paycheck and work for someone who is an entrepreneur.

The reasons for the gap between the desire to go your own way and acting on that wish are clear to anyone who has ever gone through the process of incorporating, investing, hiring, producing and marketing.

Being an entrepreneur is hard!

It takes courage and commitment and determination. It takes knowledge and talent and connections. It takes bold decisions and an ability to bounce back when those decisions turn out to be wrong. It can take a long, long time.

We all have great ideas. Weve all spotted what look like gaps in the market, thought of products that people would love and wished that someone would deliver a particular kind of servicebefore the light bulb goes out in our heads, and weve thought, Well, why dont I do it?