What Motivated You to Become an Entrepreneur?
Many entrepreneurs struggle to bring business ideas or products, while others do it effortlessly. Some of them are Henry Sy, Tony Tan Caktiong, Lucio Tan, and many other business tycoons who have achieved legendary levels of success in their own fields of specialization. However, there are various remarkable business enthusiasts who may not achieve the same level of success yet remain highly profitable.
What Motivates Thriving Entrepreneurs?
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Businesses come and go, and entrepreneurs succeed and fail, but how do many succeed despite the countless failures? The greatest challenge an entrepreneur faces is to figure out how to rekindle the initial desire, passion, and dedication that fueled their sole idea primarily to achieve the highest human need. According to Maslow, there are five (5) needs that we need to achieve to be the most complete individual we can be. Not just to satisfy ourselves but to fill our self-confidence and achieve the most significant long-term happiness that will complete the whole “us.”
Maslow said that a person can only achieve self-actualization once the four lower needs have been satisfied. Primarily, we satisfy our
- basic needs – food, clothing, and shelter
- need for safety and security
- need for love and belonging
- self-esteem
- self-actualization
Wealth
Wealth is something that entrepreneurs pursue to achieve the first two levels of needs – basic needs and safety and security needs. But wealth alone isn’t enough to gain love, belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
Happiness and Honor
Entrepreneurs are working hard not just to achieve wealth but our greatest desire for happiness and honor. Some may think that being wealthy is equivalent to happiness and honor. The term happiness has broad significance and is incomparable with anyone’s joy. Essentially, wealth can never be equal to achieving happiness and honor. Sources of it can come from anywhere or anyone, which satisfies the need for love and belongingness and may even satisfy our self-esteem.
On the other hand, honor is integrity in one’s beliefs and actions. We all wanted to be respected, recognized, and proud of our achievements. We wanted to be seen as valuable people, important human beings. Honor drives us to work hard and risk something at the highest level of expectations that would make us successful and, more importantly, gain self-confidence.
Passion and Ambition
Entrepreneurs do what they do because they genuinely enjoy it. They get motivated by the focus on working on something because it’s interesting, engaging, stimulating, gratifying, or challenging on a personal level. And enjoying what you’re doing could make things easy and attainable.
Entrepreneurs risk their time, effort, and money eagerly to attain their maniacal ambitions in defense and discovery of the new. It is as well their ambition that will put them in a position of persistence, happiness, and excitement. Again, every one of us has unique self-thought ambition. No one can control and dictate our dreams, goals, and what we love to do. It’s our judgment that motivates us and will make us succeed.
Self Actualization
Attaining wealth, happiness, honor, excitement, and ambition only sums up self-actualization. Self-actualization is the primary motivation that drives any entrepreneur to risk everything they have for their initial venture. Self-actualization is the continuous desire to fulfill potential, to become the most complete “you.” It’s an avid need that becomes stronger the more you fulfill it.
So, how about you? What motivated you to take the leap and start your entrepreneurial journey?