Everyone, including us, raves about the first-and-foremost quality of an entrepreneur… you know what it is… PASSION.
But alas, that may not be true. Lately, our idea of the true mark of an entrepreneur has evolved. It’s actually something else, something that’s behind any and all action that an entrepreneur might take – and it’s called "INITIATIVE."
Last night, a first-ever networking event took place here in SE Michigan. FINALLY, after months of dialogue at the site, people from our online community were able to get together and meet face to face. It was great to see. And how did this happen? One StartupNation community member, nicknamed "Steve," the pioneer behind a new line of gluten free cookies, made it happen.
HE TOOK THE INITIATIVE. And as a result, a whole series of possibilities has opened up. There’s talk of making it a monthly gathering under the Club Entrepreneur concept. Already, word is spreading to other areas of the country – members in California have taken up the rallying cry for in-person meetups as of late last night.
Initiative makes things happen. Initiative confronts risk with action. Initiative creates possibilities. Initiative, even the one-step-at-a-time kind, chips away at fear of the unknown and replaces it with data, evidence, and confidence.
StartupNation community member Steve has taken the initiative in the past year to: start his baked goods line part-time while his company was going through a down-sizing (offshoring, actually), find discounted manufacturing (baking) equipment on eBay, buy that equipment, call in to StartupNation’s nationally syndicated radio show to tell his story publicly, create a profile at StartupNation.com’s online community, provide constant peer support within that community, step off to a full-time commitment to his baking business, and most recently, organize this new networking initiative.
He has the mark of a true entrepreneur.
