A while back, I was a panellist on Entrepreneurship at Global Alliance for Youth Leaders (GAYL) Nigeria’s Training of 100 Young leaders in the country. It was an amazing experience. It gave me the opportunity to sit back and ask myself as an entrepreneur such questions as “Why am I even doing what I’m doing?” and “What am I even doing?” So I decided to share a brief look at Entrepreneurship through my eyes.
According to Wikipedia, Entrepreneurship is generally considered as the process of starting a business, typically a start-up company offering an innovative product, process or service (Wikipedia). There’s as many as thousands of definitions for Entrepreneurship on the Internet alone… Every Entrepreneurship class I’ve ever attended has reminded me of the fact that, there are as many definitions as there are people who have an opinion on Entrepreneurship – that’s a lot of definitions – #smh.
Nevertheless, I have come to learn and understand one very simple aspect which has been the inspiration to the work that my team at Y’G and I do every day. To me, "Entrepreneurship is simply identifying challenges and providing 'sustainable' and 'profitable' solutions to these challenges."
By my own school of thought (sometimes weird, I know) True Entrepreneurship is Leadership – Leadership in our Organizations and companies... leadership in our community… leadership in the Beautiful World we are trying to create. Bearing this reminder in mind and closely to your Heart is the key to 21st century Entrepreneurship – The Entrepreneurship of Leadership, Change and Community Development.
Here’s what I believe, “Entrepreneurship is leading change in your circle of influence, it is finding innovative solutions and most importantly, it is taking ACTION to put in place a SYSTEM – whether profitable businesses, Social Ventures or Project Ideas in the Organizations where we work – that solves community challenges.
I highlight The Organizations where we work because the world of today has continuously made it seem like if you don’t start up your own business or social venture, you are not an active or accomplished person!!!! We’ve driven people into starting up ventures not because they have a passion for it, not because they’ve identified a challenge they want to solve, not because they have a brilliant idea… but simply because they want to look accomplished, serious or “COOL”.
I think it is important we remember that we can create change anywhere we find ourselves… that True Entrepreneurship is only achieved when we create sustainable solutions that create POSITIVE Impact!