Entrepreneurial ability is more than creativity

Entrepreneurial success cannot be predicted on the basis of the entrepreneur’s creativity.

Inventiveness is not a certain indication of entrepreneurial ability. Many of the well-known inventors: Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, were able to see what no one else could. They designed machines or proposed ideas ahead of their time, ideas that would later become billion dollar enterprises. Yet they would not be the ones to create value for their communities from the ideas they generated, neither would they capture any of the benefit for themselves.

This is important to recognize, especially in our culture, for the confidence that one has what it takes to succeed is a crucial component of entrepreneurial success. If people disqualify themselves on the basis of creativity, this will severely limit the number who undertake any venture, and may reduce their likelihood of success. The expenditure of energy to launch a successful venture is staggering, and the barriers are many and never-ending. To advance into risk without certainty of reward, the entrepreneur must have confidence they can see it to the end.

This realization gives me hope that I too could be an entrepreneur. Pressure to invent a solution to the needs of a population is daunting, especially when it must be something no one has thought of. Adapting an existing idea for a new market, such as the case with Cinemex, is something I could in fact accomplish (Isenberg, chapter 2, pg. 16). As economies grow in other countries, the needs of the population expand to include goods and services already accepted in a place like America. Where this can be re-worked for another location, value can be created.

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