{"id":1046,"date":"2019-01-16T22:21:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T22:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"the-people-who-get-on-in-this-world-are-the-people-who-get-up-and-look-for-the-circumstances-they-want-and-if-they-cant-find-them-make-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/the-people-who-get-on-in-this-world-are-the-people-who-get-up-and-look-for-the-circumstances-they-want-and-if-they-cant-find-them-make-them\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can\u2019t find them, make them.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneurs are a strange breed and largely misunderstood.\u00a0 Some people believe that all small independent businesses are automatically entrepreneurial.\u00a0 Not true.\u00a0 Many small businesses just plod along, day after day, following whatever formula got them to where they are, and never straying into new or uncharted territory.\u00a0 The companion belief is that entrepreneurs don\u2019t exist in large, publicly-held corporations.\u00a0 Also not true.\u00a0 Witness Apple Computer that started from small, humble beginnings, grew to be a corporate behemoth, yet is still very entrepreneurial.\u00a0 Simon Sinek, one of our favorite authors and speakers, says that entrepreneurs are problem-solvers.\u00a0 While that\u2019s true, it\u2019s not entirely helpful if we\u2019re trying to distinguish what separates entrepreneurs from the rest of business people because all<\/u><\/em> of us in business are problem-solvers.\u00a0 As evidence, just try to think of a product or service that you\u2019d buy if it didn\u2019t satisfy a want, fill a need, or solve a problem.\u00a0 To learn more about what it takes to be an entrepreneur (and to learn if you\u2019ve got what it takes), please continue reading below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can\u2019t find them, make them<\/u><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>~ George Bernard Shaw<\/em><\/p>\n

At their best, entrepreneurs are emotionally connected to their business.\u00a0 An entrepreneur doesn\u2019t start the business on a whim or because he believes he can make a lot of money with it.\u00a0 He starts it for a higher purpose.\u00a0 She has a problem to solve, or maybe it\u2019s a problem for a friend or family member.\u00a0 Regardless, she sees this problem and wants to find a solution.\u00a0 But after a thorough search, he concludes that the product or service that would solve his problem simply doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 Undaunted, our intrepid entrepreneur decides to create the product or service she needs herself.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sort of defiant challenge to the marketplace whereby the entrepreneur is saying, \u201cOK fine.\u00a0 If no one else is willing to solve this problem for me, I\u2019ll figure out how to solve it myself.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s where the emotional connection is forged. \u00a0The entrepreneur is creating something, not for the fun of it and not for a big payday, but because there\u2019s a significant problem that needs to be solved.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many small companies that start out as entrepreneurial enterprises don\u2019t stay that way.\u00a0 Having found the solution to a problem that got them into business in the first place, they simply continue to churn out the same solution to the same problem, year after year, without looking for new problems to solve or finding new solutions to old problems.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what real entrepreneurs do.\u00a0 Real entrepreneurs realize that true entrepreneurship is a journey, not an event.\u00a0 It\u2019s endlessly looking for problems to solve that no one else is addressing, and it\u2019s constantly looking at solutions that are already in place and trying to figure out how to make them even better, more efficient, and more cost-effective.<\/p>\n

Simon Sinek tells us that there are three questions that every organization needs to answer about itself.<\/p>\n

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  1. What do we do here?<\/li>\n
  2. How do we do what we do here?<\/li>\n
  3. Why do we do what we do here?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Most organizations can comfortably answer the first two questions, but many struggle with the third.\u00a0 It\u2019s particularly difficult for a larger, older, well-established company to stay in touch with its roots.\u00a0 The founders knew \u201cwhy\u201d they brought the company into existence, but unless successive generations of leaders and managers have kept the company\u2019s \u201cwhy\u201d alive, it probably fades from the corporate memory.\u00a0 And when that happens, we\u2019re left with \u201cWe do what we do because that\u2019s what we\u2019ve always done.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not the sort of inspirational stuff that propels us out of bed in the morning and makes us look forward to another day of \u201cdoing what we\u2019ve always done.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Apple Computer is a good example of a company that has kept its \u201cwhy\u201d front and center throughout its entire existence.\u00a0 In the early days of the personal computer, they were these quirky little boxes that weren\u2019t of much use unless you knew how to work in DOS, which most people didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Even mighty IBM produced a PC but wrote it off as a toy that would never have any real commercial value.\u00a0 Then along came Steve Jobs who saw personal computers as a way to give the masses access to the same sort of computing power that until then had been reserved for the big mainframe computers of Corporate America.\u00a0 So Apple\u2019s \u201cwhy\u201d became \u201cto give power to the people.\u201d\u00a0 And Jobs achieved that by eliminating the complexities of DOS and substituting menu-driven, point-and-click technologies that transformed the personal computer into a user-friendly, intuitive device that almost anyone could use.<\/p>\n

    So what is an entrepreneur?<\/p>\n