Awaken the Entrepreneur Within

The four dimensions of the entrepreneurial personality

There are four dimensions to the entrepreneurial personality that come into play in the creation of a new venture: the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller and the leader. It's important to get a better understanding of the role each plays in the conception of an enterprise.

The dreamer

Surprisingly, the dreamer is the least known and understood personality within the entrepreneur. You would think it would be exactly the opposite. Everyone knows that entrepreneurs dream, but few people truly know what it means to dream. They think of dreaming as daydreaming, as wishful thinking.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a clear dream, but few of us can be said to "have a dream of our own"; one that moves us, consumes us, keeps us awake at night, a dream as big to us as Dr. King's dream was to him. Is there a dreamer in you who will have an epiphany when the purpose is suddenly revealed as your purpose, as the one thing you were brought here on this earth to fulfill?

Who is that dreamer - that one inside you - who is so inspired, so completely aroused, that there is no question that you are going to do this? The only question is, "when and how?"

Who is that dreamer in the centre of you? Not the one who dreams about getting a new home, or moving to Hawaii, or becoming a millionaire, or finding the perfect mate.

I'm referring to the other one. This dreamer lies at the center of the entrepreneur's heart. Without this dreamer, the entrepreneur would have no real life, and would get busy with life's toys to eradicate, or at least muffle, the pain that comes from having given up on the possibilities. This dreamer pictures a life in which little dreams are distractions rather than substance. This dreamer stands on the mountaintop of imagination, and creates dreams where there are none at all. This dreamer's dream comes to us in the light, yet we avoid looking directly into it for fear we will not be big enough to bear it.

The Thinker

The thinker is the dreamer's most important companion, his most important ally. He listens carefully to the dreamer's thoughts, and knows that without the special role he plays in the manifestation of the dreamer's vision, the dreamer would be lost.

The thinker is the one who thinks "how" in relation to the dreamer's extreme "what." The thinker asks the questions essential to formulating the business model - the form the dream will take visually, emotionally, functionally, and financially - as well as the impact the Dream will have on its customers, its investors, its employees, its suppliers, and its strategic partners.

What is unique about the venture? What will be delivered? How will it be delivered? What are the core operating assumptions of the venture? What problem is it intended to solve, and how will that problem be solved? Will it be solved cost effectively?

The thinker, however, is not the devil's advocate in his relationship with the dreamer. Rather, the thinker's role is to help the dreamer fulfill the dream in ways the dreamer might not have anticipated. The objective is to empower the right-brained genius of the dreamer by melding it with the left-brained genius of the thinker.

When the dreamer finally consults with the thinker, the goal is to help make the dream even more compelling and viable. The dreamer's requests are, "Show me the financial advantages of doing business this way, the functional advantages of doing business this way, the marketing advantages of doing business this way, and the brand advantages of doing business this way. Is there another way we could accomplish my objectives and fulfill my dream that I'm not aware of?"

The thinker revels in putting the puzzle together in a way that supports his right-brained self. The outcome of the thinker's participation in the entrepreneurial process is a white paper that spells out in great specificity the argument for proceeding toward the actual planning and design stage of the venture being dreamed into being.

The storyteller

The storyteller could be called by his other name, the performer. He is the one who evokes excitement when the dream is conveyed to other people. The storyteller knows that without a compelling story, no dream would become a reality in the world of ordinary people in which the dream is intended to manifest itself as a striking reality. The storyteller digs deeply into the dreamer's vision and the thinker's formulation of that vision, and looks for the creative arc that lies at the heart of every great story.

The storyteller begins to "speak" the dream, to "sing" the story, to test its sound as she tells it to many, many people on all ends of the spectrum. They may be people in the industry, people in other industries, people who could be customers, people who could be managers, people who are simply great audiences and love a good story. They may be people the storyteller knows or might just have met.

The storyteller cannot test his reality without people. People determine if the story either rings true or rings hollow. To the storyteller, a great story is the essence of live. To the dreamer and the thinker, the storyteller is the means through with they find voice.

The leader

The leader is the one who assumes responsibility for moving the dream forward, takes accountability for fulfilling the dream, for knowing where he is going, how he is going to get there, when he's going to get there, and what the venture will look like when it gets there. The leader takes on the vision and the formulation of the enterprise. The leader knows the story, buys the story, lives the story, is committed to the story, and tells the story in concrete terms that are evidence of the fact that the story is more than just a story but rather a tangible reality that can be lived and experienced.

The leader possesses the passion of the dreamer, the intellect of the thinker, and the joy of the storyteller. The leader knows that all big things are the product of small things done very, very well.

The leader possesses the five essential skills of concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation, and communication, through which all great things are made real in the world. To the degree in which the leader is deficient in any or all of those skills, he makes it a point to develop his or her capability in each, knowing that his mission, to be realized, will demand more of him or her than he imagines at the outset, and, like the good boy or girl scout, the leader is constantly aware of the possibility that he or she may not be prepared and ready or able to do his very best. To be prepared is the hallmark of a worthy leader, no matter how silly that might sound to him or her when it is said.

He also knows that once the dreamer and the thinker and the storyteller have created the platform upon which the leader will stand, the entire success of the venture rests squarely on his or her shoulders. That he has bought the dream, agreed with the logic of it, internalized the story is insufficient for the dream to become a successful reality; when all is said and done, the leader must execute it to the best of his or her ability and beyond. All things finally rest upon the leader. There is no escaping the leader's overriding accountability if the dream is to become a reality.

The Core Team of Create Abundance is not composed of ordinary people. Becoming wealthy is an extraordinary feat. The Life Entrepreneurship Program awakens the entrepreneur within. It unleashes the eternal warriors that once changed the world.

The Create Abundance Core Team does what other people thought was impossible.
Creating wealth from zero.
First world Philippines.
A world that works for all.