A fleeting thought of mine developed into something i pondered for at least several minutes tonight, and rather than fall asleep and have it disappear into the ether I thought it might be interesting to discuss it here!
I see a common trait amongst people that wish to run their own business and float an idea out into the world of enterprise. They nearly all have motivation and an underlying desire to succeed, in some cases unwisely, against all odds. I’m not questioning that for someone to succeed determination is a very important factor. But to put it one way, there seems to be little difference between having this ‘drive’ and putting faith in a religion then praying to achieve what you require. Like an act of faith, motivation alone seems to me to be unlikely to reap any real rewards.
And yet there are countless individuals out there who seem convinced, at times against reason, that they will make their business or idea a success. This is even without knowledge of their target market and the practicalities of what they are proposing. One only has to look at the popular TV show Dragon’s Den to see that people are prepared to peddle half-baked business plans to investors, and to the world at large if they do somehow obtain capital. The internet is terrible for encouraging this kind of ‘blue sky thinking’. There are countless ‘entrepreneurial social networking sites’ that exist. While I’m not a member of any such thing so cannot really judge them, I do believe just the name itself and ease of entry into these networks will portray an image that attracts those with motivation and little all else.
We live in a world that advertises to us scenarios of success that might match our own hopes and dreams, and unfortunately so many people seem too willing to believe in such things without ever considering the necessary steps to get there. This is why often I’m rather sceptical when people flaunt their apparent successes with their latest business venture. Often on closer inspection things are not always what they seem, and I think its the sort of people that keep up this kind of false bravado that are even likely to fall into commiting fraud if they are unable to take their losses. This may be an overly cynical way of thinking, but i think its at least wise to remember that it might not be so easy to tell a prince from a pauper and vice-versa. Some very rich people keep a low profile, and some people with a very high profile are in fact massively in debt.
I’m not a business student, I am at heart technically skilled rather than economically learned. However I do know that trying to keep a business floating on a cushion air isn’t going to last forever if indeed it even gets off the ground.
