I asked 17 of Atlanta’s most successful entrepreneurs what it means to be an entrepreneur…
I think – and write – about what it means to be an entrepreneur all the time. I also talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and I’m always interested in what they’re going through and how they view entrepreneurship. So I decided to do an experiment this past weekend and I reached out to 17 of my friends in Atlanta who happen to be very successful entrepreneurs to see how they would complete the sentence: “To be an entrepreneur is to…”
Oh, and help share these great quotes by tweeting your favorite. I even provided a handy link at the end of each to make it easier ;)
To be an entrepreneur is to…
Me – To me, to be an entrepreneur is to be confident jumping off a cliff and figuring out how to build a parachute on the way down. – Tweet this quote
Devon Wijesinghe – To be an entrepreneur is to bet on yourself…..when no one else will. – Tweet this quote
Allen Nance – To be an entrepreneur is to be a job creator. – Tweet this quote
David Cummings – To be an entrepreneur is to be blissfully ignorant as to the unknowns that lie ahead combined with a strong locus of control to will an idea to success. – Tweet this quote
Jon Birdsong – To be an entrepreneur is to have enough confidence in your vision, product, and company, coupled with enough humility to know when things — whether it’s a feature, go-to-market strategy, etc — aren’t working, in order to iterate and constantly improve. – Tweet this quote
Johnson Cook – To be an entrepreneur, you must understand that success in business is just one leg of a three-legged stool. The other two legs are SELF and FAMILY. You must have all three legs healthy, functional, and working in synch to reach success as an entrepreneur. Because you are an entrepreneur, you have the ultimate freedom to prioritize. Prioritize correctly and you will be unstoppable. – Johnson who doesn’t ever follow the rules if someone says only write one sentence – Tweet this quote
David Payne – To be an entrepreneur is to learn to manage through tremendous uncertainty with very few resources while testing your theories of disruption. – Tweet this quote
Sanjay Parekh – To be an entrepreneur is to love what you do every single day. – Tweet this quote
Raj Choudhury – To be an entrepreneur requires a vision of something greater than just yourself, a vision to inspire others around you and get the best out of everyone to realize this vision. – Tweet this quote
Danny Davis – To be an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to make tough decisions on a daily basis that have no clear right or wrong answer, then teach others around you to do the same so you can scale your business. – Tweet this quote
Kyle Porter – To be an entrepreneur means getting outside of your world and having empathy for the problems of others. It means making sacrifices today in order to accomplish something greater down the road. It’s fulfilling your own dreams but much more…it’s helping others achieve theirs. It means waking up every day and going for it, understanding that even if it doesn’t turn out how you hoped, you’ll always be better off for taking the shot. – Tweet this quote
Lance Weatherby – To be an entrepreneur you have to be passionate about everything that you do…You have to be most passionate about two other P words, people and product. The people that are part of your organization and the people who are your customers. Build a product that both of these groups are proud to call their own. – Tweet this quote
Rob Kischuk – To be an entrepreneur is to have a skin thick enough to endure repeated failure, but sensitive enough to notice and improve from each failure on the path to success. – Tweet this quote
Donovan Panone – To be an entrepreneur…means sacrificing short term personal gain to build something great and not thinking twice about it. – Tweet this quote
Ed Trimble – To be an entrepreneur you must trust your idea, trust yourself, and beat back doubt with a smile on your face. – Tweet this quote
Michael Tavani – To be an entrepreneur means you’re staying up late at night and waking up early in the morning working on itch you have to scratch. Something that you’re more passionate about than anyone else in the world. – Tweet this quote
Craig Hyde – To be an entrepreneur…is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled. – Tweet this quote
Raghu Kakarala – To be an entrepreneur you need to have a core belief that success is the inevitable result of focus and hard work. – Tweet this quote
Feel free to add your own answer in the comments!
@Johnson_Cook – great quote. I fully believe entrepreneurs should be true, well-rounded leaders. Not only leaders in business but in the other areas of life that lead to personal fulfillment. Being an ent. allows you to prioritize those areas that lead to fulfillment of yourself and others.
is to embrace the journey of self discovery that goes along with “the changing the engine while the plane is in the air” parts.
Entrepreneurship is about learning and adapting every single day. It’s choosing to live a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.
Love it JC!
to be an entrepreneur…means to have the guts to start it, whatever “it” is, and see it through to the bitter end, good, bad, or ugly. It means having a healthy respect for the learning that comes from failure, but NO FEAR of failure. And sometimes it means having the guts to say, “OK, we gave it a good run, but it’s over.”
These are all solid and I think each one could be the basis for a book.nnnTo me, to be a successful entrepreneur you must:nnn* understand what you’re NOT good at and surround yourself with people that complement you…nnn* remove people from your life that will not stand behind your “decision” to jump off the cliff…nnn* realize that life is a controlled crash, so you better learn how to fall more often and pick yourself up even quicker…every time.
Good stuff, VG. I’d say that for #2, you don’t have to remove them but just know, some people can’t understand and won’t support you, and that’s fine. Just have the confidence to do your thing, playa ;)
To be an entrepreneur is like being a parent – You love your child unconditionally, your life is almost constant chaos, and you’re a mess on the inside despite trying to project some semblance of calm and control – all while loving every minute of it and hoping your kid doesn’t turn out to be a junkie.
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