Characteristics of Entrepreneurs An entrepreneur must necessarily have some personal attributes that enable him to take on the challenges of an enterprise. These include: Willingness to work hard Knowledge and skills for planning and implementation Skills of management of finances, materials, personnel and time Having the courage to take calculated risks Ability and preparedness to handle many tasks simultaneously Ability to learn and acquire the necessary skills for the tasks at hand Ability to deal with tough issues and find the solutions Being realistic and not expecting easy solutions Ability to cope with set-backs, challenges and failures Ability to develop partnerships, and able networking Ability to negotiate, strategise and prioritise Being flexible and able to handle crises Have good communication skills. In short, to achieve his / her objectives, the entrepreneur must be innovative, creative and goal-oriented. The entrepreneur must be ready to initiate direct action and be motivated to seek and adopt more effective means of doing things.
Recently, more comprehensive and holisitic conceptualisations of entrepreneurship have emerged wherein entrepreneurship is seen as a specific mindset resulting in different forms of entrepreneurial initiatives such as social entrepreneurship and knowledge entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship focusses on doing social good. The social entrepreneur aims to achieve large scale benefits through entrepreneurship for a specific group or to society at large. Generally, the social entrepreneur works for the benefit of the underserved, neglected, disadvantaged groups or individuals who do not have the financial resources to achieve the benefit by themselves.
Social entrepreneurs are ‘social catalysts’, visionaries who create basic social changes and sustainable improvements. Such actions may have the potential to stimulate global improvements in their specifically selected areas, be it education, health care, economic development, the environment, the arts, or any other social field. The success of social entrepreneurship is ascertained not so much by the profits made but more by the social benefits and impact. A ctivity Form groups of - children and organise a discussion in the groups about issues concerning unemployment.
The discussion and presentation should focus on the following: Do you know anyone who is unemployed? How is that person’s standard of living and state of mind affected by the fact that he/she is unemployed? Does he/she want to work? Is unemployment a problem in our country?
What do you think are the main causes of unemployment in India? What does the government (locally and nationally) do about the problem? What other suggestions can you make to resolve this problem?