An Entrepreneur is someone who uses capital, own or borrowed, to generate more capital and in the process takes risks, senses and creates business opportunities, disrupts markets , create employment, improve lives, and create wonderful things. Without them, there is quite a possibility that the world would not have had Telephone, Automobile, Computer, Railways, Water Purifiers, Coins and a many other things; this world might not have been the same as we see it today.
World has seen millions, probably more, entrepreneurs and their contributions touch our daily lives in many ways from bi-cycles to cars, computers to smart phones and the list can go on for pages.
Well, my list of favorites include four entrepreneurs who I believe have a major contribution in the way we live our lives in 21st century. They have changed the way we Commute, Compute and Search for information.
“If you embrace the unknown, you’re an entrepreneur.”
1. Automobiles have been such a integral part of our daily life that we just can’t imagine reporting to work on time without our vehicles, and an Entrepreneur named Henry Ford made this possible.
Despite experiencing two business failures, Henry Ford democratized the automobile by making it available to masses. His constant endeavor to improve on the quality of automobile and reducing the price saw the production of better,faster and cheaper cars in early 20th century. It took him close to 5 years for his first commercial product to be rolled out and another 5 years to roll out the famous Model T, which was inexpensive and was available for the masses, if it was not for his Perseverance & Focus, the automobile world could have been very different than we know it now.
His life inspires me because of his unparalleled tenacity towards his vision and his commitment to challenge and improve his own inventions.
“Thinking is the hardest work to do, that’s why so few people are engaged in it.” – Henry Ford
“If you see opportunity when others see impossibility, you’re an entrepreneur. “
2. I am using my Personal Computer to write this blog, you are probably using one or your smartphone to read this blog. Now just imagine life without these wonderful gadgets.
When IBM clearly stated that a small computer was impractical, a young Entrepreneur named Steve Jobs resolved to have a computer on every table. Steve Job’s passion for perfect designs, better user interface lay the foundation of almost all the products Apple ever rolled out. His obsession with Customer Experience as a Innovator and as a Marketer saw Apple’s revival in 1997 and obviously changed the way computing is consumed. His spirit of learning from his mistakes and achieving greater heights especially after being hit hard continues to inspire many entrepreneurs.
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs
“If you believe that nothing is “unrealistic”, you’re an entrepreneur.”
3 & 4. Take a pause and think, when was the last time you didn’t use Google to get answers to your questions.
Google was started with a mission to Organize and make the world’s information universally accessible and useful. Two Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw an opportunity of improving the way information is searched over internet, the rest is over a decade’s history which saw Google becoming a synonym to search and changing the way people access information.
This duo continues to wow the world with amazing inventions, they keep challenging the status-quo, they keep taking unrealistic challenges and turn them into opportunities, which is hallmark of a true entrepreneur. One more thing which I like most about them is culture of entrepreneurship (or intrapreneurship) they have built in Google.
“If we were motivated by money, we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on a beach.” - Larry Page
Lets celebrate the spirit of Entrepreneurship at TiECon Pune’s maiden edition on 30th March 2013.
About Author: ,an Entrepreneur, is the Founder & President at BlazeClan Technologies. Gurmeet has keen interests in Cloud Computing, Cloud based Learning Technologies, Digital Marketing & Indian Start-ups.