The Art Of Entrepreneurship 1

Riddle! Riddle! What do these men and woman have in common? Simply put, we love them. Period. For those of you who are familiar with life in the United Kingdom, Sir Alan Sugar (on the left) has for the past 3 years gained a reputation for being the hard-talking, no non-sense multi-millionaire who seeks a fine, thorough-bred man or woman who has the wow factor to become his apprentice in his hugely popular reality programme The Apprentice, often aired in BBC One (UK's public service broadcaster's flagship channel). Is it the case of Sir Allan as he is popularly called on the programme imitating a similar programme by the 'don' Donald Trump? Anyway, who cares? We simply love him. Period.

And what about Richard Branson (on the right) or Sir Richard Branson should I say? He is the chairman of Virgin Group which is made of everything from manufacturing coca-cola right through to the mobile phone industry, this man is there. Although he does not do programmes like The Apprentice, he is reputed for his publicity stunts. If he is not travelling around the world in a hot virgin-clad balloon often getting ship-wrecked somewhere in the world, he is climbing the tallest building in New York to launch his airline's new route to a city in the US.

Touted as the golden girl of talk show in America and perhaps the whole world, Oprah Winfrey is no stranger to our television screens. In fact, I first saw Oprah Winfrey when I was in the secondary school at the age of 15 somewhere in Africa. And she has been on television ever since. Remember when she had a world exclusive interview with the 'king of pop', Michael Jackson. That is how long this lady has been around. But quiet apart from that, she is simply brilliant and there seems to be no limit to what she can do. The sky is the limit for this lady of colour. You do not get women of colour in Oprah's stature very often.

Now back to the question; what do these remarkable men and woman have in common? All three are very wealthy. In fact, we all adore them because they are wealthy. Many of us emulate these remarkable people because of what they have done to acquire their money. Perhaps, one theme that runs through what these men and woman do is what we refer to as Entrepreneurship. They have over the years developed the attitude or better still a spirit which can best be described as the Spirit of Entrepreneurship. They are Entrepreneurs.

So when Sir Allan Michael Sugar stars in his hit programme, what he is seeking for is someone who has that spirit or attitude to become the next Allan Sugar.

As an up and coming entrepreneur, I have always wondered what it took to become an entrepreneur or better still have the attitude of entrepreneurship. From the surface, it seems that entrepreneurship is an ART, something one needs to master in order to become an entrepreneur. I may be wrong but this is the impression I get any time I look at these men and woman or indeed read or watch how these guys rose to prominence either in documentaries or other media platforms. This is why I have titled this article The Art of Entrepreneurship.

What makes entrepreneurship as an art convincing lies in the definition of the word 'Art'. It has been defined as "the process of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the sense or humour" (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art). It has also come to mean any Skill or Mastery. Thus, it can be inferred from the definition that Art is "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments or experiences that can shared with others" (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art). So, from the definitions given, it is quiet clear that for one to become an entrepreneur, one will need to develop what we will call the necessary entrepreneurial skills to be able to make it. On other words, one will have to be deliberate about it; develop the skills for it and above all, develop an imaginative skill necessary to be able to create something that will be shared with others. Without launching out to the definitions or meanings of entrepreneurship or entrepreneur for that matter, there are some few pointers we need to consider...

The first pointer we need to consider is entrepreneurship is often associated with the creation of something; this could be a product or service. Could I then consider myself to possess one of the pointers of entrepreneurship since I am creating something; in this case a product by way of information? In other words, entrepreneurship involves some or a lot of creativity.

Secondly, whatever it is that we are creating, we do need a spot of imagination or maybe a lot of imagination something that will appeal to the people that we want to share our creation with. It certainly involves one harnessing raw materials of some kind in a definite way in order to get the desired results. Now let's measure all the pointers we have mentioned with the men and woman we have mentioned and see whether they all have the same feature; a feature that differentiate them from the lot.

They all have amassed the wealth they have primarily from creating a product(s) or service(s). Sir Richard Branson's empire creates everything from Virgin-Cola to operating a chain of Gyms all across Britain. Oprah Winfrey also creates services such as her Oprah Winfrey Show which showcase professionals from psychiatrists to movie stars who 'tell their stories' of how to got to where they are. These stories often provide a huge source of information and inspiration to up and coming men and women. Sir Allan Sugar owns AMSTRAD, a company that manufactures satellite dishes which is used by cable television companies across Europe and the world with BskyB, the British satellite television company as it's main supplier.

All three individuals create some product or service which the general public likes. And they are all deliberate about the product and services they are providing, often imaginative, having the views of those they want to share their experiences in mind when they create the products or service.

This is definitely an exciting topic which needs to be explored in greater detail. This is the primary objective of this blog. It is created to brainstorm on the whole entrepreneurial experience. It is also the place for new ideas for the next entrepreneurial venture in the 21st century. Be sure to join me in the next post.

Emmanuel Donkor

Entrepreneur (Copywriter)

Founder

Aspirations Media

The Art of Entrepreneurship

Hi There and welcome to the maiden article of the entrepreneur blog. This will be the authoritative blog for up and coming entrepreneurs. It will feature new ideas and information for those who will want to start their own business from scratch. It is very exciting to start this blog which will give a voice to those who first of all want to know whether they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, have good idea which will be transformed into the next big thing. Think of anything entrepreneurial and this is the place to be.

My name is Emmanuel and I live in the London in the United Kingdom. I created this blog because I have over the last year become interested in the whole process of entrepreneurship. Just like a lot of you, I have ask myself whether I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur. I am also an aspiring entrepreneur with a special interest in copywriting. Researching and listening to many entrepreneurs through seminars and the like, I have to come to conclude that entrepreneurship is almost like an art which needs to be mastered. I am convinced that many of us can become the next Sir Allan Sugar or Richard Branson. But it means we needs to change our current position; I mean the way we think and act. I am not saying doing these things will automatically move us into that place with all the pecks. It may well be the first step on the 'long' road to the 'town of entrepreneurs'. As it is often said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. At the-entrepreneur blog, we will provide the platform for like-minded people; I mean people with budding entrepreneurial minds to discuss the various ways and attitudes we need to develop, the resources and help available become entrepreneurs.

Being an entrepreneur is a very noble 'profession' I think. Indeed, in the United Kingdom, America and all across the world, entrepreneurs enjoyed the kind of life they have always dreamt of. In addition, national governments the world over acknowledge the importance of entrepreneurship in the development and health of their economy. Some countries even labell entrepreneurs as the "engine of growth" in their economy. And we do acknowledge them not only for their millions they have generated out of their entrepreneurial activities, but more importantly, the almost celebrity status they enjoy. To give you an idea, Sir Richard Branson, who is the founder and chairman of the Virgin group is recognised not just in his homeland UK but across the world for his genius, earning him a knghthood by the Queen in recognition of his contribution to the British Economy. Sir Allan Sugar is another of these entrepreneurs. So successful is he that he successfully hosted the TV reality programme The Apprentice in which he looks for the next entrepreneurs of the United Kngdom. From all indication, they are the people who hold a country together. They are indeed, the engine of growth in an economy.

But how did they begin? How many years did it take them to get to where they today? Is money the ultimate motivation for their entrepreneurial spirit? And can anybody at all become an entrepreneur? Or just like many of us, we were born to do the 'rat race' - the usual 9-5 stucked behind the desk for the rest of our adult life. Could some of us actually have what it takes to outperform the Richard Bransons of this world but have simply not realised it? Your guess is good as mine. This is the reason why this blog has been created.

One thing is certain, in the coming weeks and months, we will be tackling these issues and all things entrepreneurial. In particular, I will be going through the whole concept of entrepreneurship and the role it plays in our lives. I will among other things be tracing the origins of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur and all other subjects related to entrepreneurship. I am really excited about what is coming up in the coming days.

Be sure to stay tuned in to this blog. If you are ready, let get this started in a grand style. Welcome aboard !!!


Emmanuel Donkor
Entrepreneur (Copywriter)
Founder,
Aspirations Media

Welcome To The-entrepreneur

Hi There,

Welcome to the maiden post of this exciting blog. As the name suggests, this is the authoritative post for anything and everything entrepreneurial. We are going to have some exciting times in the coming months and years. On this blog, I will be revealing some of the latest ideas around.

So if you are thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, this is your definitive source for information, views and ideas. Of course, it will also serve as a platform for budding entrepreneurs to come together and share ideas on the way to making the world a better place to live in.

For the next post, I will be discussing the issue of what an entrepreneur is and what the features or characteristics if you like, of the entrepreneur should be. Be sure to join me.

Emmanuel Donkor
Entrepreneur (Copyrighting)
Founder, Aspirations Media.