Entrepreneurs as Social Creatures
Introduction
Many experts describe entrepreneurship as a social activity because it entails the organizing, the hiring and the inspiring of a group of people in order to succeed. In other words, the success of an entrepreneurship venture entirely depends up constant interaction with other people in the business environment. Most successful entrepreneurs today succeed because they have mastered the skill of developing relationships and interacting with other people. Since entrepreneurship is a social activity, therefore, successful entrepreneurs are also expected to have goop people skills. Besides entrepreneurship being embedded in society, its success can inhibited or facilitated by a person’s position in the social context. This paper explores the social characteristics of Bill Gates as an entrepreneur. But first, the social characteristics of a successful entrepreneur will be explored.
Entrepreneurs as Social Creatures or Beings
According to Bianchi (1993), people who venture into entrepreneurship share a certain number of characteristics. For instance, people who get fired from the jobs may become motivated to venture into business after a series of disappointments. College graduates may also be motivated to start businesses, especially when they are unable to secure employment upon graduation. Additionally, Bianchi (1993) further states that some people become entrepreneurs because business runs in the family. For example, there are many people out there who have for many years been involved in family businesses. Other characteristics that may predispose people toward entrepreneurship include being the eldest in the family, readiness to rely on management experts, risk- taking attributes among other characteristics (Bianchi, 1993).
As social creatures, successful entrepreneurs rely on their social networks to succeed in what they do. Through networking, they are introduced to opportunities that they may not have pursued, or opportunities that they may have missed (Byers et al., 1997). Additionally, social networks become important means through which entrepreneurs are able access the resources needed to succeed in business, such as skilled workers, etc. This implies that the success of an entrepreneur depends on personal contacts established and maintained throughout the entrepreneurship process (Byers et al., 1997). Therefore, entrepreneurs who wish to succeed in their ventures must master the skills needed to attract the right people needed for success. While a firm can be started by a handful people, it takes the collaboration of many people to put together the pieces that constitute a successful business company (Byers et al., 1997).
The view of entrepreneurship as a social activity predisposes that entrepreneurs are not solo players but they are rather social players. Nevertheless, this should not be taken to imply that the individual skills and knowledge of entrepreneurs is irrelevant and meaningless to the success of their ventures. With that said, it should also be noted that while the money that investors put into their entrepreneurship ventures is crucial for success, the success of ventures is more dependent upon the network of contacts that entrepreneurs develop in society (Byers et al., 1997). Once entrepreneurs have determined the relationships that will be beneficial for the success of their businesses, they must commit themselves building and maintaining the relationships. In other words, successful entrepreneurs must be able to join their cause and take the actions that will lead to the success of their ventures (Byers et al., 1997).
One of the most known attribute of successful entrepreneurs is their ability to persuade others to do things that they may not have done, and this is the reason why most entrepreneurs have highly influential interpersonal skills (Byers et al., 199). Successful entrepreneurs also have high negotiation skills which they use to influence others. They may, for instance, negotiate with their employees about salary options, or with potential acquires over the purchase of property. Another social nature of entrepreneurs is that they excel in teams or working in groups. They spend time in project team meetings, board meetings, management team meetings, etc. In other words, these entrepreneurs understand that they cannot achieve alone but with collaboration with other like-minded individuals. This explains why they always surround themselves great-minded people, and they try to inspire others into success. Successful entrepreneurs inspire creativity, they inspire self-drive, and they enhance group decision-making as a way of making them effective and driving their firms to great heights of success (Byers et al., 199)
Social Characteristics of Bill Gates
Gates is a very interesting person to study when looking at successful entrepreneurs. After dropping out of school, he took risks and pursued his dreams based on his creativity and personal knowledge instead of following what others told him. Gates can be described as a transformational leader who not only had passion to pursue his dreams but his strong influencing skills enabled him to energize other people to join his cause. One important skill that makes Gates a successful entrepreneur is his influential abilities (Miller, n.d.). As a social and creative person, Gates encourages himself and even the people around him to embrace creativity. Because of his deep understanding that individual perspectives can create new opportunities, he encourages people around him to explore new ideas. Even though there are many people who follow gates because of his charisma, many follow him because they believe that he can help them become better leaders too (Miller, n.d.). According to Bianchi (1993), entrepreneurs are risk takers and they are comfortable relying on the skills of others. When gates dropped out of school, he knew he was taking a big risk. However, he chose to believe in himself and decided to pursue his dreams. Along the way, however, he knew that the success of his company would require him to involve other people. He worked on attracting the best talents and he encourages his employees to explore new opportunities. The success of Microsoft would not have been possible without the input of other people.
Another social characteristic of Bill gates is that he is community-driven. Besides being a successful entrepreneur, he is also passionate about making changes in the lives of other people and in the general community. Besides being considered to be among the richest people globally, he is also a very prolific giver to contribute to many philanthropic causes in the world. His caring attitude is also evident in his workplace where he provides his employees with the opportunities to pursue the successes they desire in life. And even though he can be described as a school-dropout, he is not ignorant of the benefits of education. He has programs around the world to assist people pursue their educational dreams. Gates was not a very social person when he was starting his business. But because he understood the importance of social interactions, he worked on improving his skills such as communication and speaking skills so that he could improve his interactions with others in society.
Conclusion
This essay has emphasized that successful entrepreneurs recognize the importance of building relationships with other people. While individual characteristics are also important to the success of business ventures, social relationships enable entrepreneur’s access the resources needed to succeed. The example of Bill Gates provided above sheds more light to the social aspect of entrepreneurs who are not only risk takes but they also have the ability to influence others to join them in their cause. Bill gates, for example, have many followers because of his charisma and his passion to assist others succeeds in life.
References
Bianchi, A. (1993). Who’s most likely to go it alone? Inc. Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/magazine/19930501/3537.html
Byers, T., Kist, H., & Sutton, R. I. (1997, October 27). Characteristics of the entrepreneur: Social creatures, not solo heroes. The Handbook of Technology Management, Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/class/e145/2007_fall/materials/Characteristics.html
Miller, K. (n.d.). 9 Bill Gates Leadership Style Traits, Skills and Qualities. Future of Work. Retrieved from https://futureofworking.com/9-bill-gates-leadership-style-traits-skills-and-qualities/