Innovation

Global Entrepreneur Week – Why The World Needs Entrepreneurs

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November 8, 2023

Did you know Global Entrepreneur Week is the second week of November? Every year presents new challenges, which is why Global Entrepreneur Week (GEW) is a big deal for everyone in the business. Since the inaugural event in 2008, heads of state, celebrity entrepreneurs, business coaches and leaders have fronted 40,000 events for 10 million participants from nearly 200 countries.

Table of Contents

Why The World Needs Entrepreneurs

The world needs entrepreneurs to step up and use their skills to collaborate, tackle, experiment and confront the big challenges including:

Climate change
The future of employment and work
Food insecurity
Global health
Digital technology

Without entrepreneurs, there would be no improvement in living standards, better inclusion, employment opportunities, new products and economic growth. If you’re wondering if entrepreneurship is for you, now’s the time to find out. Join GEW 2023 events in a region near you or online.

In the words of Global Entrepreneur Network founder and president Johnathan Ortmans the GEW 2023 is all about how we “reboot, rethink and regenerate” to build back our global societies post-pandemic.

Serial Entrepreneur

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur today?

Let’s start off by recognizing that not everyone who has an idea that they turn into a successful business is an entrepreneur. They’ve definitely used some of the traits that are also shared by serial entrepreneurs including:

high tolerance for risk
comfortable with change and uncertainty
leadership
goal-oriented
hard-working

Unknown Risks

However, when comparing a small business owner to an entrepreneur, known risk versus unknown risk differentiates the two. While both have a high tolerance for risk, the entrepreneurs are comfortable facing unknown risks.

Small business owners are willing to take risks with their own products and services created from the ground up.

Entrepreneurs thrive on the unknown and are inspired by the high risk of taking on new innovations with a high chance of failure.

Ideas Find You

It’s good to generate ideas; however, it’s not a skill you need as an entrepreneur.

Ideas need to find you, and you’ll want to have a process that filters them so only the most promising are considered for your appraisal and commitment.

There are good ideas everywhere, but very few turn into commercial success. Less than 10% of all ideas make it and become commercially successful. Inc. says the success rate is just 6%.

However, serial entrepreneurs know when a good idea has a higher average chance of going to the top. It’s also why budding entrepreneurs need mentors and coaches and join events like the annual Global Entrepreneur Week, which attracts the best leaders of the time, including Sir Richard Branson.

Good At Selling and Comms

Entrepreneurs are great at selling what’s to come and do it competently to secure investment, talent and customers. A vital part of selling is communication. Entrepreneurs know how to communicate well at all levels using collaboration tools like Zoom Slack, both group and one-to-one conversations. Also have competently written skills for emails, texts and online messages.

For entrepreneurs, the selling starts with presenting the value of the proposition to all stakeholders types including:

Staff
Customers
Suppliers
Mentors
Lenders
Investors

Have you ever met an entrepreneur who hasn’t got the gift-of-the-gap?

Confidence

Experience builds confidence and with it comes strong communication skills. To get the experience, you’ll need to be in the right place at the right time. Take speech lessons, join speaking clubs, do further education that has a communications paper.

Practice

Also, put yourself forward to take the lead on professional or personal projects. You can practice your communication skills with different audiences, online tools and in person.

Use a family zoom call or your weekend sports team meeting to speak up. Never shy away from an opportunity to be heard or to get feedback.

Learning and Education

BusinessBlogs has a few articles on being an Entrepreneur, including:

Further education like a masters in business administration (MBA) is a good foundation but the learning doesn’t stop here. Your career as a serial entrepreneur will need commitment to continuous learning, training and getting input from mentors and coaches along the way.

Join groups like the Global Entrepreneur Network (GEN) and dedicate as much time as possible to the annual Global Entrepreneur Week resources.

The world needs more entrepreneurs keen to make a real difference by tackling the challenges we face now and in the future.

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