The Hindu Business Line : Dimensions of entrepreneurial personality

An entrepreneur is an inventor, but the vice versa is not always true, says Michael E. Gerber in Awakening the Entrepreneur Within ( www.landmarkonthenet.com).

Inventors come up with new products; so too, the entrepreneur invents a new product in the form of a business. Any business that does not achieve uniqueness from the beginning is not an invention or an entrepreneurial business, says Gerber.

A reassuring statement is that everyone has the ability to be an entrepreneur. “All that’s required is a piece of paper and beginner’s mind. All that’s required is the interest to begin.”

He finds four dimensions in the entrepreneurial personality: viz. the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, and the leader. Who is the dreamer? Not the one who dreams about getting a new home, or moving to Hawaii, or becoming a millionaire. The dreamer lives at the centre of the entrepreneur’s heart “stands on the mountaintop of imagination, and creates dreams where there are none at all.” Listening to the dreamer’s thoughts is the thinker, the most important ally of the entrepreneur. “The thinker is the one who thinks ‘how’ in relation to the dreamer’s extreme ‘what.’ Giving excitement to the story is the job of the storyteller. “The storyteller digs into the dreamer’s vision and the thinker’s formulation of that vision, and looks for the creative arc at the heart of every story.” The fourth dimension is the leader who moves the dream forward.

“The leader knows the story, buys the story, lives the story, is committed to the story, and tells the story in concrete terms that are evidence of the fact that the story is more than just a story but rather a tangible reality that can be lived and experienced.”

The leader, as portrayed in the book, has the passion of the dreamer, the intellect of the thinker, and the joy of the storyteller. “The leader knows that all big things are the product of small things done very, very well.”

All great things, finds Gerber, are made real in the world through five essential skills of concentration, discrimination, organisation, innovation, and communication – the skills that the leader possesses.

An unmistakable wake-up call for entrepreneurship.

D. Murali

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