April 12th 2018 What makes YOU an Entrepreneur?
Yup Joe's and Joette's I capitalized the entire word YOU. Why, because this post is supposed to make you reevaluate your situation. Don't worry I will also receive some criticism. Before we dive into today's post let me tell you what inspired it. This post was inspired by random thoughts I had while walking home earlier today.
In the year 2018 it seems like everyone is an entrepreneur. Many of us are using this word to describe ourselves when we don't fulfill the qualifications. How do I personally know this? Because I have the word entrepreneur on my banners. Yet I don't think of myself as a true entrepreneur. Let's see if you share my opinion at the end of this post. So before I can give my take on myself, let me define entrepreneur (as I have done many times before). Entrepreneur is a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. A bland definition but let me talk about me and Books By Josh.
I have a Tax ID and I file my quarterly sales tax with the state. So by this definition I am an entrepreneur just because I have my own "business". That is by far the worst way to say that your an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not some club that an EIN is your membership fee. So let's dive deeper into me and my business. Right now in front of me is a letter from Dun & Bradstreet regarding a credit line inquiry of my business. So I'm legit but I still have a long way to go. Why because I still work a traditional job and can't fully support myself from my business alone. I'm doing what everyone says to do, I'm working on this after working my regular job. The only problem is it's not enough. I've been reading a book every two months which sounds good but your average CEO reads over 50 books a year. Are you starting to see a trend here? Right now I'm spending twenty hours a week creating content, which is bad. I'm not putting out any original video content so I'm not maximizing all of tools that are available to me. Sounds like I'm beating myself up and no I'm not. I know where I am and I can't call myself a true entrepreneur until I reach one certain milestone. What is this milestone? I can consider myself a true entrepreneur when my business can pay my salary and the salary of a full time employee.
As you have read above, even though I am running a business I don't consider myself an entrepreneur. I want you to take a step back and really look at you business. I'm talking about an unbiased look into your business. Are you constantly learning because entrepreneurs are constantly bettering themselves. This is through the use of books, seminars and courses. How much money are you reinvesting into your business? Entrepreneurs are constantly reinvesting profits back into their businesses rather than spending it on frivolous things. Next take a look at your YouTube history, what type of videos are you watching. Are you watching them for education or entertainment. Finally are you working as hard as you can? If you ever listened to Mark Cuban tell his story he is a big believer in sweat equity. He says that in the beginning of an entrepreneur's journey, capital is usually lacking. The only way to overcome this is by providing sweat equity. Which means working hard and not many of us are willing to do that.
I want you to honestly evaluate yourself. I know that many people say fake it until you make it but I don't fully agree with that. Have you ever noticed that every English teacher writes comments on your work. Stay with me here until the end. They are critiquing you and giving you feedback, most "entrepreneurs" don't have anyone to critique us. You need someone to hold you accountable and unless you have a mentor, business partner or spouse there is only one person who can do this. It's you. So are YOU an entrepreneur? What makes YOU an entrepreneur? Feel free to share in the comment section bellow.
Joe's and Joette's , that's basically it for this post. If you enjoyed this post thanks, if not oh well. Either way feel free to leave me a comment down below. If you want more content, you can subscribe to the Books By Josh Show on ITunes, Google Play Music and Stitcher. If you want more content then that you can check us out on YouTube. To get notified whenever we post make sure you follow us on Twitter or Facebook. If you wish to support the site, the best way is to tell your friends about us. If you want to show more love feel free to subscribe or support us. If that still isn't enough, feel free to become a patreon or buy a signed copy of my book from our store page. All of the links to everything can be found at the bottom of this post and like always...... I'll catch you guys in the next one, see-ya.