Personal Enterprise

When Dr Google is consulted regarding the definition of Entrepreneurship, the first answer is along the lines of: [the act of setting up a business and taking on financial risks in the hope of profit].

Setting a business normally includes developing a brand name and an idea for target customers. Also, it will include months or perhaps years of market research and initialisation of plans.

Building a business requires patience and perseverance with a clear vision which can be seen in Zoom’s story of success. Eric Yuan - Zoom’s CEO - decided to come to the U.S. in mid 1990’s with the vision that technology could provide effective ways for people to stay connected. At the time, the internet boom represented the incentive of his travel as he predicted the boom to be the wave of the future. After being rejected 8 times for a U.S. visa, he was finally accepted in his 9th attempt and arrived in Silicon Valley in 1997. He worked as an engineer for WebEx - video conferencing enterprise - and in 2011 he and 40 engineers quit their job in WebEx to develop Zoom in the aim of creating a video conferencing platform that would make customers happy.

After two years of development, Zoom was launched in 2013. In 2017, Zoom had become a successful billion dollar company due to its CEO’s perseverance and Zoom’s affordable price for many features. Zoom’s pre-pandemic customers loved its service which explains its popularity in today’s virtual world!

Furthermore, an important skill of setting up a business is being able to efficiently manage all the duties with the help of organisation skills. We should learn from enterprises how to effectively manage our time and effort to improve our skills and reach our goals. Time management and prioritising tasks is an essential skill in the character of a successful person.

After understanding the intricacies of business entrepreneurship, I realised it’s application to our personalities and the lessons we can learn from it. Entrepreneurship may also carry a broader meaning other than the usual association to business development: one of providing value.

Entrepreneurship can be associated with the development of ourselves because, inside us we all have a personal enterprise that we must develop to be successful. Like a commercial business we should aim to improve our inner enterprises by planning, actively working and reflecting. Before starting any task, we should plan the details and then carefully complete our plan while adapting to any changing situations. After that, it is important that we have daily reflection on our work and actions. It is a process similar to the work of a business: the more you develop, the more you achieve. Therefore, it is essential that we develop our skills to reach our goals and aspirations.

If we are aspiring to become successful individuals then we must aim to be most productive and efficient in all our tasks, otherwise we will be wasting precious profit! Hence, we should never forget the importance of ‘Harnessing our Superpower’ by getting quality sleep which provides us with the essential energy to navigate our way through the difficult path of success.

Furthermore, the development of personal enterprises has a direct effect on the development of our local and global society. This is because the society represents a market, which means that the more successful the individual enterprises, the more successful the society.

Therefore, our role is not restricted around individual development but also includes an important role of motivating individuals around us to build their enterprises for the benefit of the society. To guarantee the success of society we must drive others to do a similar act and work together to support our society.

Some businesses may have a harmful effect on their society and environment which contradicts their aim to provide value. Hence, our personal enterprise should include charity donations and care for the needy people around us. We should work on giving back to our community in the light of the idea that our success is dependent on how much we provide to others. Our personal enterprise should have a bold vision that closely links its success to the success of enterprises of the surrounding community.

Finally, we must understand that the concept of Entrepreneurship goes beyond the act of setting up a business. It represents an important theme in our life as it is essential for the success of individuals and their society. We must act on it today: it is an important role that we must all carry out!

By Ahmed Mansoor 12F