People want to be firemen, policewomen, and teachers.  They don’t ever say they want to be an entrepreneur.  Why is this?  My take is you either are or you aren’t. 

Entrepreneurs aren’t built or developed, they are born!

So the logical question to ask is – Is It In You?  OK – that’s Gatorade’s line.  How about – how do you know you are an entrepreneur?

Can you Deal with Failure

Do you have a thick skin?  If not, I’d suggest you rethink a career as an entrepreneur. 

Failure and entrepreneurism go hand-in-hand.  Look at any successful entrepreneur and they’ll point out as many failures as they do successes.  That’s what sets them apart from the rest of the working world.

If you don’t fail at your business, you will at least fail within your business on more than one occasion.  In fact, I’d argue that if you don’t fail, you aren’t trying hard enough.  You aren’t taking enough risks to grow your business into the successful enterprise you’ve dreamed of.

Dealing with failure is as simple as this ...  Everything you do is a success.  Why you ask? 

You have to view yourself as a success to be successful.  You have to learn from mistakes, which aren’t really mistakes in your world, and move on to the next idea.  If you get caught up in your own self-pity, you’ll definitely fail for real.

Are you Passionate

You have to be passionate about business to be a successful entrepreneur.  More importantly, you have to be passionate about your business. 

I guarantee that on more than one occasion, the gut decision you make early in the startup life cycle will not be made by crunching numbers.  It will be made because you are passionate about your idea and you are willing to fail to succeed.

The difference between an entrepreneur and an operator is passion.  It’s that simple!

Are you Ready to go “All In”

It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that if you can’t deal well with failure and you aren’t passionate about your business that you won’t risk it all.  Unfortunately, that is what it takes sometimes to be successful.

Let’s take the all too famous (or infamous) Donald Trump.  He risked everything in the early 90s and on the brink of financial ruin managed to salvage his fortune.  Based on anything I’ve read on him, he’d be the first to tell you that he’d do it again if he had to.

If you think you have what it takes.  No, if you know you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur then I say give it a chance.  What do you have to lose?  If you don’t, there are still plenty of ways to get a taste without being the founder and the ultimate risk taker.  You can always join a startup on the ground floor to see what you are missing and whether or not it is for you.