How Do You Know if You’re an Entrepreneur?

How Do You Know if You’re an Entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is someone that cannot work for somebody else. They are unemployable.

They are unemployable not because they do shoddy work or because they lack drive or focus. The reason entrepreneurs are unemployable is that they have a specific vision of what the future looks like. And usually they are the only ones capable of steering themselves towards that vision!
Working for others, no matter how much you like or respect them, is steering somebody else’s ship towards someone else’s vision.  For an entrepreneur, that role isn’t sustainable.

Look Back

When I look back on the history of my own life I see patterns of an entrepreneurial history. For example, I had a baseball card stand in my driveway at age 9. I started a house painting business with my friends at 16. Then we split up and did our own thing in college, BUT each with our own separate house painting business. That’s amazing! I even started a t-shirt company right out of college.

When I look at my life down the line there are those glimpses of entrepreneurship. Outside of being  a grocery store clerk, I’ve never had  a normal job for an extended period of time. Seriously – my first and only “normal” gig out of college lasted for 2 weeks. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do the clock in, clock out.

Be Certain About Your Calling

That tension of what I was “supposed” to do didn’t leave just because I left the grind behind, though. Thankfully Ben Arment, my first business coach, pulled me aside when I was questioning whether or not I could be an entrepreneur and said, “Justin, it doesn’t matter if you land the most awesome job on the planet. Within two years you will want to quit and do your own thing and you’ll feel that way until you actually try it.” He was absolutely right.
I had all of the symptoms of being an entrepreneur. It was life-changing for me to realize it, so I want to give you all a means of self-diagnosing yourselves as entrepreneurs, too. A symptom-checklist, if you will.

You Might Be an Entrepreneur If:

• You’ve always struggled working for somebody else.
  • (Not because you’re rebellious, but because of your inner drive to create a something of your own.)
• You have always gravitated towards entrepreneurial activities.
• You are excited by risk. Drawn to it; not repelled by it.
• You want to get paid for results not effort.
• You like working at weird hours and from any location.
• You live in the future (and day to day tasks go unnoticed).
• You are not comfortable living out someone else’s vision for your life.

This list can be summed up by two questions: Who needs to make the decisions in your work-life? Why do you feel that way?

I use to let other people make decisions for me. Ironically, that wasn’t the right decision. Instead of just carrying on in that role, I listened to my inner vision. If you realize what you are doing isn’t the right fit, you cannot just stay put.

Final Thoughts

Remember: there is a difference between being an entrepreneur and being self-employed. Self-employed means you have to do all the work by yourself because you think you are the only one who can do it. Entrepreneurs see the value in finding others to take on tasks that those others shine in so that they can keep steering the boat. Entrepreneurs would rather work with somebody to achieve a common goal than do all of the tedious but necessary tasks themselves.

If you are an entrepreneur, you have a call to cash in on this. It’s time to start exploring where your passions and strengths lie. It’s time to focus your vision and flesh it out.