Personal Entrepreneurial Development

Introduction

Entrepreneurship simply means a pursuit of new ventures regardless of the available resources. An entrepreneur is a person who undertakes the pursuit of an organization arising from availability of a new opportunity. This essay describes personal journey to acquire the necessary entrepreneurial skills and my entrepreneurial profile. Entrepreneurial skills are the characteristics of an individual to detect any new opportunities and stating up of an effective organization in pursuit of the opportunities. This paper also defines the necessary entrepreneurial skills. The main tasks of an entrepreneur are innovation, profit making, recognition of opportunities, change and creation of ventures. The development process of an entrepreneur is psychological process which must also involve psychological tests and assessments, as this paper describes. However, the roles of the entrepreneur are more economical than psychological. The essay also gives a detailed entrepreneurial and psychological journey I undergo and plan in order to become a competent entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial Profile

I always consider myself as having an entrepreneurial mind. I am not scared to take risks. I have always had the determination and always make sure that I try all my best and get what I want. There have been people around me, who think that I am too ambitious and that most of the times I first act and think later. However, this is not true. I always think something out before taking any action. I read a lot of books on the success stories of different people. These stories inspire me and give me a whopping anticipation of the future. Many people in my class and in other youth groups that I attend consider me born promoter (Baum 1990). I am always optimistic and consider any challenge as a stepping stone to success. I always consider my cup as only a quarter full. I am always ready and even eager to learn new ideas and consult on any new opportunities. I am always in the frontline to encourage my friends. When they think that the world has ended, I take those moments as strengthening. I advice them that terrible things that happened are there to welcome the best that are yet to come. I always consider life as a competition. Therefore, I do not like being average and always seek ways to be the best. I always share what I believe in with people. I do that with great enthusiasm. I make friends easily and maintain most of the friendships. I enjoy making many business contacts.

I have missed several deadlines, but I always find time to work on them. I believe that time is money. Therefore, I always struggle to keep time and organize my timetable. I consult other people and always try to solve problems, even when they are not meant for me. I have been involved in several debates and arguments and enjoy arguing on any side. Sometimes I may work too hard, but I always make sure that I have a certain limit. I do not push myself too hard, even when I am meant to. I believe in the power of moderation when it comes to undertaking of difficult tasks. I always take my own initiative to solve problems on my own. I am always involved in risk taking tasks and so I enjoy taking risks. Some people often insult me as having no definite stands on issues, but I do not care about that at all. I enjoy criticism. I believe that I was born with one mission in my life: to lead (Morris 2010).

Although I am not an accomplished public speaker or orator, I always try to organize my speech and follow many suggestions on giving speeches. I attend many gatherings with the aim of collecting ideas and making new contacts. I always feel happy about my work, even without appreciation or complements. I have some skills and abilities and always love learning new things. I can play all indoor games competitively, board games, puzzles and a few outdoor games. This goes a long way in sharpening my mind and competing with others to gauge the level of my abilities and skills (Dyer 1992). Sometimes I have negative attitude towards some people or issues, but struggle to change it and find some positivity in them. I always try to come up with new ideas in my club meetings and go a long way in supporting and implementing them. I have always wanted to become a competent entrepreneur. There are some actions that I must undertake to improve my competence in entrepreneurship and in readiness for the future.

Actions to Improve My Entrepreneurial Competences

The first step in improving my entrepreneurial competences is awareness. I must be aware of my abilities, skills and level of knowledge. This is crucial in improvement, since it will enable me to know which areas I am comfortable with and areas that I need to work on. First, I have to write down how competent I am in different levels, as outlined in the profile. The first action in improving my competencies is improving my energy and drive to undertake certain activities. The drive and energy will go long way in making me become more time conscious and meet deadlines. This will also help me by increasing enthusiasm to undertake certain activities. Working with greater vigor will produce satisfactory results. This will also assist me in taking up the initiative of undertaking the tasks that I would have otherwise procrastinated. I also must develop a desire to achieve. This means that I will be struggling each and every day to turn out to be a better person and utilize my brain to the maximum. The need to achieve will also eliminate the desire for power or other relationships that would have thwarted my dreams.

The second and crucial action to improve the entrepreneurial competences would be building up of self-confidence. Self-confidence will enable me to believe in myself and create self-awareness. Self-confidence also helps to have self-esteem (Goldberg 2006). This is a vital step in attaining the objectives that I will set in life. I should craft my future by setting achievable goals and making sure that I initiate proper methods with the aim of achieving these goals. This means that I will have enough confidence to face the future and eliminate the fear of unknown. It will also assist me to gain the confidence to explore new areas without fear of risks. The moderate risk-taker tends to be the biggest profit-maker in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not gambling, and so, it requires moderation in deciding the risks to take. Unreasonable risks would amount to greater losses. Entrepreneurship requires the calculated risks, and this would allow making of moderate profits, which will increase in the long run. I am also to be able to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity. This means that I can handle ventures that do not guarantee permanency. I also must develop independence and a sense of individuality. This means that I can be my own boss and manage myself without supervision.

The other crucial action in improving my entrepreneurship competences would be to change my attitude concerning different global issues. I would do this by conducting different researches on diverse issues globally, other than focusing on one area only. Diversification assists in having a holistic approach to different matters. It will also help me decide on what ventures I can involve myself into. Entrepreneurship demands the long-term involvement in one venture only (Nieuwenhuizen 2008). Diverse study would assist me in determining the most stable venture to undertake in the future. It will also improve my creativity, since I know which areas are already explored and ideas that are being introduced in different areas. The attitude change will also alter my behavior towards different issues. I have always been unable to save for the future. This process will facilitate the elimination of the greed and impatience, which are vital virtues in entrepreneurship. The diversification of knowledge will also help in changing attitude about failure. This will help me to view a failure and accept it as a setback, not as an obvious discouragement. The fear of failure is a leading discouragement for entrepreneurship. If I could overcome this fear, I would have partly succeeded in becoming a competent entrepreneur.

The other crucial action that can improve my entrepreneurial competence is struggling to achieve positive social balance. Success of any entrepreneur comes from social environment. This means that I always must try to go in line with social morals, such as integrity. Honesty, kindness and other social virtues will assist me in embracing the society around and become a reliable person. Every entrepreneur makes profits from sales to the general society. Therefore, I must try and be sociable and understanding to everybody. This will be to an extent that I can listen to their views, not to a point where other people will control me. I should also be determined, persistent and persevering. This means that I would know when to hold on or walk away from different undertakings (Neimeyer 1985). It will also help me to become flexible in order to hold different kinds of people and adapt to different circumstances. I should also learn to identify different talents of people and know how to motivate them to capitalize on those talents. I should also be opportunistic and always look for new opportunities at all times. After following these easy steps, I believe that my competence in entrepreneurship will be improving each day, and I will achieve my set goals.

Personal Development Plan Based on Sound Entrepreneurial Principles

To achieve entrepreneurial competence, I have to come up with a plan to develop my entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurship is more of a psychological process, even though it serves economic roles. The plan will be devised to cater for psychological growth to the right standards. For this plan to work, I must observe unusually high level of initiative. This will mean that I am to take my own lead and manage myself, despite the challenges involved. The plan will also require a high level of patience, as psychological development is a gradual process which involves both complex physical and cognitive processes. The process of setting up the development plan in itself is also a crucial entrepreneurial developmental strategy. This is because strategic planning and taking an initiative are some of the main entrepreneurial strategies. This implies, therefore, that by setting up an efficient development plan, one is also going a long way in achieving entrepreneurial competence (Kutzhanova 2007).

The first task in the developmental plan will be gathering of knowledge. Knowledge is the key principle to entrepreneurial perfection. As an entrepreneur, I am supposed to gather diverse knowledge on different issues. This will enable me to determine which opportunities are worthwhile. Gathering of knowledge will also engage my mind to improve my cognitive processes. I will be able to make informed decisions and know, at the same time, what is happening globally. The internet will be the main source of knowledge, since it has easy access and location of diverse data under one server. This task will not only involve reading widely, but also learning to be a professional. The material that I read is supposed to help me pursue my learning, and at the same time, to diversify my knowledge. I must also try to have an open mind and welcome any ideas from other people. I will also consult experts on different issues, which means that I am also supposed to know different people who have expertise in certain areas. In short, the task of gathering information will involve general openness to information and reading of the relevant material. The next task will be involvement in activities that will engage both my physical and mental processes. A particularly tidy example is involvement in sporting activities. These activities will be aimed at team building and improving my physical self (Rye 1997). The body requires physical exercises in order to live a healthy life. The involvement in sporting activities will also include regulation of a diet. The food that I take will determine the development of my body, both physically and mentally. It will also determine the level of manpower one can give. Health is crucial in a person’s life, as it will determine productivity of the person. A competent entrepreneur should be productive and active, able to work for long hours. Sporting activities are the best way to prepare for this. These activities will also increase my competitiveness and increase the desire to win. In sports one loses and wins every now and then. In business ventures the same happens. One can fail in some activities and succeed in the others. Involvement in sports will hence prepare me for these scenarios in the real business world and enable me to handle them without frustrations or excitements.

The other task will be involvement in different group activities and community welfare activities. This will involve joining of groups in school that deal with issues in the society. These groups include clubs and societies, such as debate and Red Cross, respectively. The groups will enable me to handle issues in the society. It will help me listen to the views of others, share my views with them and handle different social problems. A competent entrepreneur is the one who always works with other people and is in clear terms with them. Voluntary societies, such as Red Cross, will assist in readiness for any crisis in life (Kumar 2008). It will also program my mind on how to handle different crises in my life and their consequences. This task will also improve my self-confidence. The sharing of views with different people, such as in debates, will go a long way in improving my self-esteem and assertiveness. It will equip me with the power of persuasion and convincing of others. It will also help in solving and diagnosing different problems in my life.

The final task in the plan will be organization of my ideas, views and setting up of achievable goals. I will set ambitions and goals to achieve in the short-term and long-term goals. This will ensure that I have set a purpose for my life and a definite destination. I will also try to analyze different opportunities by providing detailed information on them. I will do this by trying to start up virtual businesses and managing them, for example, in the internet. This means that when I am ready to venture into any business activity, I will have the ability to analyze and make right decisions. After following this basic developmental plan, I believe that in the end I will have achieved perfection in being a competent entrepreneur (Smilor 1996).