Are you destined to be an Entrepreneur or an Employee or an Intrapreneur?

The dilemma

A friend sent me an email recently stating that she is really thinking and praying hard about whether to start a business or not and which one. Not an easy decision of course, which reminded me of another friend who once told me that we are not all cut out to be entrepreneurs.

The career guidance

I once had an opportunity of chairing a panel for a career guidance seminar for ACCA students. The 1st speaker, a reputable motivational speaker, spurred the attendees to set up businesses as opposed to looking for employment. For those employed already, he maintained that they are all able to run business alongside employment and narrated some success stories. He actually said that a person’s salary should only make up 30% of their total income. The 2nd speaker was an MD of a bank who started out by putting a disclaimer to the fact that not all are cut out for business. He narrated his failed attempts at business, but he however climbed the corporate ladder to the top. He encouraged the students to map out their way up the career ladder by pursuing further studies and building their skills.

The entrepreneur test

The question still remains, how does one know whether they are cut out to be an entrepreneur? Would you rather not know early before wasting precious saving into a business that would fail before taking off? I went online to see if there were tests one would take to self-evaluate. I came across some interesting entrepreneurial trait tests, the first one was, Are you entrepreneurial? Which I find rather simplistic. Another site was all about Finding the right business for your personality , “One of the keys to a successful business is finding the right business for your personality. Adapted from Rhonda Abrams’ book, What Business Should I Start? the E-Type Test will show you which of nine E-Type personality traits and working styles you identify with. Answer all the questions and your E-Type will be displayed in a pie chart. More information will be displayed as you mouse over the results" the site states.

Entrepreneur vs Employee

An article on Ashton college website advises that the "difference between being an entrepreneur or an employee may seem subtle at first, but as you will learn there are some major differences that can lead you to choose one over the other based on your own personality and goals. An aspect which differentiates entrepreneurship and employment is the amount of risk incurred. An employee has a relatively low amount of risk. In most situations, the employee is only responsible for his/her work responsibilities during the designated business hours. This form of employment is ideal for an individual who wants a higher degree of stability and predictability within for their career."

Do You Think Like An Employee Or An Entrepreneur?

I decided to read more and found an article in the American Express which indicated that how you think about your business is just as important as how you act in your business and goes ahead to list 10 reasons why as per the extract below.

According to the American express, these are 10 ways to tell whether you think like an employee or an entrepreneur
1. An employee thinks about the work as the business
2. An entrepreneur knows the business supports the work
3. An employee supports a solid structure as foundational to the business
4. An entrepreneur sees a fluid process as core to the business
5. An employee is a doer first
6. An entrepreneur is a planner first
7. An employee sees “business controls and necessities” as other people’s work
8. An entrepreneur uses “business controls and necessities,” to track and manage the work
9. An employee focuses on what is his or her responsibility
10. An entrepreneur focuses on interconnected responsibilities

Intrapreneur – the hybrid?

Apparently there is what seems like a middle ground –this is called being an #Intrapreneur.

According to Richard Branson, Intrapreneur is an employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services and systems, who does not have to follow the company's usual routines or protocols.

David Williams in an article The 4 essential traits of intrapreneurs, states that those highly valuable executives and team members who will perhaps never become a company founder, but who have learned to apply the essential principles of entrepreneurship to the roles they fill within a company. We refer to these employees as “intrapreneurs” because they’re not entering into their own, work venture, but they are working within your company, thus the “intra” part

Are these tests a surefire way of knowing if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur or not? are you an intrapreneur?


I first published this article on LinkedIn you can see other readers comments on this link https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140811140827-70681999-are-you-destined-to-be-an-entrepreneur-or-an-employee?trk=mp-reader-card



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