I. Introduction
Entrepreneurial
activities and ventures can be considered as incubators for product and market
innovation for a nation or society. Mostly entrepreneurial ventures are
prescribed as key theory for the economic growth and development in the country
which is underlying in the border of underdevelopment. Entrepreneurial
activities always offer numerous working opportunities and pave the way of
attaining economic growth and sustainability. Thus, entrepreneurship has been
instituted in the educational programs and national incentives for a large
number of Asian, Latin American and Eastern Europe countries (Harper, 1991; Gibb,
1993).
Nevertheless,
according to Ramirez (2013) in order to
conduct entrepreneurial projects, a competent entrepreneur is always assumed as
prerequisite, since an entrepreneur is the particular individual who introduces
the idea. Hence, an entrepreneur is an agent of change who transforms one
ordinary idea into incredible things. According to Bygrave and Hofer (1991) -
“An entrepreneur is someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an
organization to pursue it”.
Furthermore,
the traits of an entrepreneur usually refer to the personal entrepreneurial
characteristics (PEC) or qualities which should have possessed by an
entrepreneur. The mixture of multiple entrepreneurial optimistic traits in an
individual characteristic’ enables that particular individual to be a
successful entrepreneur. However, no specific characteristic or trait defines
the entrepreneur, as well as not all the entrepreneur will have all sorts of
traits. The traits that an entrepreneur generally maintained is subjective,
since, it might differ from one another. Moreover, the characteristics of the
entrepreneurs are the configuration of several traits which has defined them
different from the ordinary individuals.
In
addition, there are a number of personal traits which has been identified as
the instrumental and significant traits for being a competent entrepreneur,
namely integrity and reliability, initiative, versatility, decisive, time
competence, perceptiveness, ability to learn from mistakes, ethical
consciousness and foresight. In this paper we would like to shed light on
entrepreneurial traits that are highly needed to operate the business by the
entrepreneurs with the existent example of entrepreneurs related to the
particular traits.
II. Content
a. Integrity and Reliability
Integrity
refers to the level of being honest and adherence to the moral code of conduct,
meanwhile reliability states of doing what one has promised to do. These both
of the traits are interconnected with one another which are considered as
prerequisite for being an entrepreneur. According to the Langstroth (2009), Integrity is the firm
adherence to a moral code or values. Thus integrity is an inseparable trait for
an entrepreneur, which indicates that the entrepreneur should provide or serve
the exact quality of good or service as they have promised to do. The research
conducted by Timmons (1989) found that around four-fifths which is not less
than 81% of the interviewees confirm that integrity and reliability as one of
the essential factors for being successful in any extent. Furthermore, being
honest and reliable is vital as well as first and foremost principles for many
cultures. If a business wants to enjoy the long term business success it has to
deal with its customer through integrity since integrity carries the hallmark
of the business. When an entrepreneur demonstrate his/her honesty, reliability
and integrity through performance then that entrepreneur can earn the loyalty,
custom and good will of the customers, suppliers, investors, colleagues and
employees which is necessary for ongoing success (Bygrave & Hofer 1991).
However,
when we look around in the business and technology world the people who has
reached to top level of success are mostly entrepreneurs who deal with
integrity and reliability. Among the entrepreneurs who have gained their
achievement due to integrity and reliability Farrah Gray is one of the most
well-known. Farrah gray is an African American who has attained the designation
of millionaire in an early age of fourteen. Despite of having a poor family
background, he proves himself as one of America’s biggest assets of all time.
Farrah Gray stepped in the working life at the age of six when usually one
child makes plans of playing and enjoying lollipop. He used to collect almost
empty body lotion bottle from his neighborhoods after that combine them and
sell them door to door at a lower price of $1.50. The following year when he
was 7 years old, he started to carry a business card named “21st Century CEO”
which made impressed, career mentor Roi Tauer. Furthermore, at the age of eight
Farrah owned his first business club which is really a matter to be started
The
achievements that Farrah has attained in a very early age are associated with
the principles of integrity and reliability which he has inherited from his
family values. He believes that everything needs a base in order to grow
higher, likewise entrepreneurs need integrity and reliability to move further.
According to Ekwujuru (2012), he says that his
grandmother is one of the main sources of inspiration for him, as he learnt the
lesson and blessings of integrity, honesty, sincerity, hard work, patience,
resilience and many more from his grandmother. He has mentioned in his book “Reallionaire”
one significant moment of his life when his value of integrity was examined. He
said, - “one of my publications failed because it was going to compromise my
integrity. Because it was popular among the youths, the tobacco and alcoholic
companies wanted to advertise on it. But I would not buy into it because of my
belief (Fastenberg, 2011) .
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| Kiran Mazumder- |
b. Initiative
Undoubtedly,
many people have different ways to use an entrepreneurship in the world.
Entrepreneurship is the process by which individual pursues opportunity without
regard to the resources they currently control. Not only that, it is the Inventor
makes something new also differ from one to another in business. Nonetheless,
people ask themselves why an entrepreneur became. They are becoming an
entrepreneur to achieve their ambition, they recognize ideas for new ideas.
Realize financial goals (Ulrich Kaiser, 2009).
As a
matter of fact, entrepreneurship has one of the important thing which is
initiative. The initiative is all about assuming responsibility. An initiative
is the first in a series of actions. Initiative can likewise mean an individual
quality that demonstrates a readiness to accomplish things and take
responsibility. People with initiative is the motivation to do things. If they
take the lead, and they are ready to get things done on their own. Taking the
initiative can be risky. If they do something on their own initiative, then
there is no one they can blame if it goes wrong. In addition, entrepreneurs
should know the best way to achieve their business. A good illustration of
that, Warren Buffett a good leader also looking for independent thinking, a
keen understanding of both human and institutional behavior and emotional
stability.
Warren
Edward Buffett, is the third wealthiest person of the world. He is an American
business tycoon, financial specialist and giver. In 2012, Time named him as one
of the world's most persuasive individuals. Buffett is known as the
"Wizard of Omaha" or “Oracle of Omaha", or the "Sage of
Omaha and is noted for its adherence to the investment and management of
personal value to him in spite of his vast fortune.
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| Warren Buffett |
There
are numerous points of view on how we can investigate Warren Butler's
administration style. His initiative style is to some degree mix of just
administration, hireling authority and toward oneself enabled authority. The
explanation for this is that he assumes the part of a just pioneer, examining
with his workers about the point or a task that needs to be achieved and when
correspondence is two-way. Concerning the act of a worker pioneer, he hones the
standards of a hireling pioneer and for instance, he relates representative. He
may judge an individual in light of their missteps and blames yet never would
he judge the single person as an individual.
On
the other hand, learners’ feeling of activity comes to fruition along these
lines, making them needing to experience their thoughts, however, it moreover
has the target of telling them the dangers of beginning their own business and
the troubles they can meet. Also, members will have to peruse a rundown of the
writing on the point business, which involves some key subjects, for example,
vision, mission, disposition and evaluation of the thought of big business and
of the goal.
c. Versatility
According
to Cambridge dictionary versatility mean able to change easily from one
activity to another active, or able to be used for many different purpose (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 2015) .
 |
| Jack Ma |
 |
| Howard Schultz |
Actually,
he failed in business and covered up with many mistakes. What was he in
versatility before he cease with his company. However, Howard helped employees
and partnership were firstly transfer the company and secondly he would never
forget with this company and promised that he will come back in one day. He
never gives up of what he had done before even not successful at that time.
What he needs to know the questions which were from employees and customers to
versatile in his experience. He also apology in front of the public of what
Howard was a failure (Riordan, 2011).
The
next few years, Howard’s versatility with his failure and become a successful
entrepreneur. By seeking what he was getting mistook than seeking every day in
the market and cheeked what were the customer need in his product.
He
is a versatile person in his business by learning from the past and come up
with a new strategy. On other hand, his flexibility, noting of competitors
which he could serve the excellent espresso. In terms of that, he organized his
service which convinces for customer need a place for meeting or public
squares. What in his goal is “to serve a great cup of coffee” or “build
accompany with soul”. According to Newsroom
(2015), Starbuck is the best in business which provides a services
finest coffee in the world with more than 21,000 stores in 66 countries.
d. Decisive
The person who has the trait decisive is
a person who has the ability to decide effectively or takes led to a decision
and has the ability to act as well. Normally, decisive refer to a person who is
already good at making decisions quickly with purposes. At every step of doing
business, a person always has to engage with making decisions, even though
sometimes it might be challenging for the person to come out with making proper
decisions. Whatsoever, according to Patel (2015) successful entrepreneurs always
regulate their actions through reasonable decisive, since they have occupied
all the authority that they have decided earlier in the business progress.
Likewise, decisive does not mean that
the making of a decision have to be ineffective, stubborn, irresolute,
procrastinating, hasty or weak decision. The ability of making significant
decisions is always within entire condition. Decisiveness is a kind of skills
where it could be accomplished in anywhere or any other places. In addition,
the progress could begin from nothing, and later on, the person will be able to
recognize his/her improvement in making decision. Basically, it does not waste,
waste of time in term of making slight decisions. Thus, it can be stated that
the more we practice the qualification of improvement is much higher.
Therefore, once a person started the practice of making a decision from small
then day by day the person will be expired automatically in making decisions
efficiently.
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| Muhammad Yunus |
On the other hand, he was further
influenced by his mother in order to help poor people. Subsequently, this was
the source of inspiration for him to commit himself to the eradication of
poverty. While he studied he frequently see how the poor people survive and he
was willing to help them, but during those times he had not much capability to
help them. After he finished his study in U.S, he became a professor in
Chittagong University as an economist profession. In 1976, once upon a time he
visited with the poor person's family in the village of Jobra which located
near to the Chittagong. From there he discovered that very small loans could
make a big dream.
During that time he saw village’s women
made bamboo furniture and to do that they had to take usurious loans to buy
bamboo besides, they had to repay their profits with high interest rate.
Traditional banks did not want to make small amount of loans at reasonable
interest to the poor due to high risk of failure to pay. In the context, Yunus
used his extraordinary skill of decisive by creating a financial system known
as micro credit for the individuals in need of money to start their business.
When he introduces this micro credit system of finance then thousands of young
started to take part in the entrepreneurial activities. Since a big number of
people start to operate their own small business it brings a positive change to
the economy of Bangladesh.
However, now this micro credit system is
not only confined in Bangladesh but it has reached to the extent of world
economy. Due to the decisive power of Dr. Muhammad Yunus the world has
experienced an organized economy system. Thus, Dr. Yunus is considered as an
ideal of effective decision making for the entrepreneurs all over the world.
e. Time Competence
Every
entrepreneur who is doing entrepreneurial activities must have three main
things which are behavior, attitude, and skills. Behaviour and attitude are
used to deal, mostly, about intercommunication with other people. Our behavior
and attitude reflect how good our organization or company would be in the other
people’s point of view (perception). Though we are not necessarily use our
voice to communicate, our gesture has told everything. Besides that, skills
also are important things in order to run the business. Research that has been
conducted by Prof. Francis Green (2011) in
University of London, skills are so important for economic progress. He also
emphasizes that skills are considered being used as fundamental of analytical
research and policy interventions in the modern era (Green, 2011) . As the result, our
organization or company has high competency models that can compete with any
other competent competitor. One of the model of compentency is time competency.
Time is the whole chain when process, act or situation is
going/happening at the moment. Anything we can against in this world, except
against the time. There are two different world on how to describe the time.
Perhaps, for the businessman, who considers the concept of “time is money”, always
calculating how do I get the money within particular time. But for the
entrepreneurs, money is only for the company’s battery life cycle. The main
goal for the entrepreneur is how do I make something new within a certain time.
 |
| Wright brothers |
Their invention in the aviation world has helped many people
who always busy moving in one point to another point in the very short time.
Before he invented a plane, people might spend several hours by bus or any land
vehicle. It means Wright brothers’ invention could save time for the world to
make something valuable.
f. Perceptiveness
To
perceive is to see and to observe, and people have different perception towards
what they have seen. The interpretation of a thing is called a perception. Yet,
what does perceptiveness of an entrepreneur mean? According to the Cambridge
dictionary (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 2015) , the definition of
perceptiveness is defined as the ability to see and understand something
quickly in a way which other people could not.
Basically
the perceptiveness entrepreneurs are a person who is alert and quick-minded if
we compare to normal people of minor alertness and perceptiveness that would
fail to notice (Leyden & Link, 2015) . Furthermore, the
word perceptiveness in entrepreneurship term is explained as a trait of
entrepreneurs who can turn the obstacle to become an opportunity and innovate a
profitable product in order to reach market as the first mover. Likewise, the
entrepreneurs they go around and observe the threat which allow them be build
an innovation. Entrepreneurs
are able to learn from real-world experiences and transfer that knowledge to
new situations. It is understood that they are alert to the market environment
of sight and determine the problems and find solutions to overcome those
complications, which mean their ability of sensing the “opening window of
opportunity” is ironic and they identify market dynamics and manage to adjust
profitably (Harper, 2005) .
From
the past until today, many professionals have been studied and analyzed the
characteristic and trait of entrepreneurs to determine how they become
successful in their business. As a
result, there are many traits have been proved that entrepreneur possesses
including perceptiveness trait. According to destiny reporter reported that five
qualities of a successful entrepreneur are open-minded, perceptive, predatory,
and reflective and self-motivated (Five
qualities, 2013).
 |
| Frederick W. Smith |
Published in 2014 by Forbes staff, Abram Brown that the fresh
entrepreneur raised $80 million to launch Federal Express that delivery service
began smoothly with small packages and documents. In the first two years, the
venture lost $27 million and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It
revealed that Smith had lost all of the stockholders' capital, including his
own brothers and sisters. However, FedEx didn't go down according to the
Entrepreneur site which reported in late 2008 the future of FedEx remained
positive and the company generated a profit of $3.6 million in 1976. By 1980,
FedEx went public with revenue gained to $415.4 million and profits rose to
$38.7 million.
From then on, the company
has become the number one overnight shipper in the world, delivering from few
million packages to nearly 210 countries each working day. His perceptiveness
had brought him a huge success that he made global challenges turn into
opportunities by delivering solution that ease individuals’ business.
g. Ability to Learn from Mistakes
Failure
is the pillar of success. If someone wants to do something new mistakes would
be happening. But don’t worry about the mistakes. It’s the way to learn
something different. But the important thing is that if we want business success, we have to look clearly at our mistakes and
stop repeating them. To do this, we need to work with our group, not against
them.
Sometimes we think that the
mistakes are very small. But in business, there are no small mistakes at all. Repeating
small mistakes can lose customers, kill a business or cost an employee his job.
In a study conducted by Duke
University and the University of Southern California, 549 successful company
founders said the most important reason for their success was their ability to
learn from mistakes. Learning from failure is how we succeed.
Another thing is that, if
someone goes in a wrong way, he needs to change the path. In today’s world, if
you want to be successful in business or as a business entrepreneur, there is
certainly a continuation ‘evolutionary’ process that we must all undertake. In
other words, there are mistakes entrepreneurs should avoid making multiple
times. We must practice, learn and re-learn the correct ways in order to thrive
in today’s business world. As our business system changes, we need to be able to adapt
those skills to our surroundings, or be left behind.
On the other hand, having some fear of failure keeps you
healthy. Too much fear is just the opposite. Remove fear rather than fearing
mistakes to the point that you avoid or delay decisions. This is very difficult
for some people to master.
Some of the most successful
entrepreneurs failed in early business. But they took it positively and then
made success. Mistakes happen. Goals change. People change. Give up and your
fate is sealed. Keep hustling and be open to altering your course.
Possibilities can exceed your wildest dreams.
 |
| Thomas Alva Edison's Quote |
 |
| Walt Disney |
Another example in this
regard is Walt Disney. Today Disney earns in billions from
merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world. But starting was not easy
for Walt Disney. He was fired by a newspaper editor because of his lacked
imagination and had no good ideas. After that, Disney started a number of
businesses that didn't last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He
kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that
worked. Walt Disney shows us how we can learn from mistakes.
Another remarkable
entrepreneur who learned from mistakes is Harland
David Sanders (Colonel
Sanders). He is the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Sanders had a hard
time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe
was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it. From this example we
also know that how someone can overcome from mistakes. All these successes
happened because of their strong mind and their honesty in their loved job.
To overcome from mistakes
one must follow some steps such as- avoid fear of mistakes, take the project
positively, be confident, Have a strong mind and believe that he can do
it.
h. Ethical Consciousness
Ethical consciousness is another important entrepreneurial traits.
However, what is the meaning of ethical consciousness? Before that, let define
the definition of ethics. From (Ethics, 2015) , ethics are derived
from the old French word ethique, Latin ethica, and
from ancient Greek which means a moral philosophy or code of morals practiced
by a person or a group of people. Hence, ethics are a principle of conduct that
guide us to judge what is right and wrong.
Consequently, according to the Business Case Study on the
importance of ethic in business (2002) , stated that ethical
behavior is needed to possess in everyone’s mind to determine the fairness and
justice. It concerns with individual moral conscious about right and wrong.
When decision takes place, it should be in line with a moral code of
conduct. Whereas, decisions engaged
within an organization, whether made by a particular person or clusters of
people, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the
company. The ethical decision is a moral behavior to take the right course of
action that employees must pursue.
Despite, consciousness is self-realization towards morality when
entrepreneurs face dilemmas and have to make a decision. In business, an
entrepreneur must consider all edges of factors before making decisions to
avoid any influences that can affect all levels of stakeholders. Essentially,
ethical consciousness is known as ethical awareness which determine the
willingness and ability of entrepreneurs in identifying moral and ethical
contexts in organizational decision. In addition, decision made by
entrepreneurs have to emphasize, critically examine, assesses and implication
of one’s behavior for the better.
According to Bholanath Dutta, he defined ethical consciousness of
entrepreneurs as a self-realization regard code of conduct as entrepreneurs
should have self-consciousness and realization to implement self-control.
Personal ethical consciousness exposes entrepreneurs, individual attributes
that ethical values developed in the relation of emotional balance, sense of
values developed in consistence with social manner (Dutta, 2009) . However, the
importance of being ethical consciousness leads individually (entrepreneur) to
behave ethically and take the obligation toward corporate social responsibility
as they do business concerning with social welfare and the environment.
Besides, entrepreneurs gain more advantages from public trust such as build
good image for firm reputation, stable employees, attract more investors and
vitally gaining more new customers. Thus, entrepreneurs better to maintain a
good ethical behavior for modelling other as well.
In the fast-changing entrepreneurial space, it has become evident
that ethical consciousness is the constant driving force behind every
successful business. Ethical awareness not only cultivates moral behavior and
trustworthy in organization, but is essential to creating a company culture and
identity that resonates with consumers.
 |
| Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com |
Bringing to evidence about how the entrepreneur is ethical
consciousness, Jeff Bezos the father of Amazon is one of the main
model. Born in 1964, Jeff Bezos is an
American business magnate and investor. He is known as a technology
entrepreneur who has taken the growth of e-commerce opportunity to operate an
online business named as Amazon.com, an online merchant of books and later of a
wide variety of products (Bezos, 2015).
Before, the innovation of Amazon Bezos had worked for few enterprises such as
Wall Street, Networker for international trade, and Banker Trust. However, he
left his job to start up Amazon in 1994 due to the rising of internet users.
The question shall be asked, why online business can bring him
such a huge success. The recent research reported by Georgia State University
2014, said “Jeff Bezos is number 12 on the Forbes list of the 400 richest
people in the U.S. with a net worth exceeding $27 billion.” The truth
about online business is the realization of ethic which plays an important role
to gain trust from public regarding payment and
quality of products. Thus, entrepreneur and employee must maintain their moral
code of conduct to gain more market share in the business.
Likewise, Bezos was given the honor title by Forbes as number one
of ethical leadership for Amazon is confidential care of its ability to
personalize the site for each user, doing right for customers and always put
customers and investing for the long term first (Anders, 2014). Expressed by
Maria Liantada in her study research on Bezos as an ethical leadership 2014,
said Bezos moral principle of organization is treating stakeholders according
to Golden Rules and quoted “ Treat others only as you would be willing to be
treated in an identical situation”. Accordingly, a notable turning point
might be Bezos greatest accomplishment as a remarkable.
i. Foresight
Rationality
is the characteristic of entrepreneurial behavior. The most successful company
consists of decision-maker, which operate in microeconomics market that is
relatively predictable. Prediction of the future (foresight) is one of the
trait that an entrepreneur needs to have. In this context, rationality to
pursue the principle of economic “get the maximum profit inspires all
entrepreneurial actions – including the rational optimization of technologies,
financial structures, and wage policies. In short, according to Fontela (2006) rationality in pursuit of profit
maximization is the unifying principle of modern entrepreneurial microeconomic
management.
 |
| Susi Pudjiastuti and Susi Air |
If
the entrepreneurial contexts shift from present to the future, the
decision-making becomes more complicated and potentially less rational, this is
because the uncertainty of the market (Fontela et
al., 2006) .
But this one example of an entrepreneur has broken the uncertainty of market
growth. Her foresight, skill of calculating the risks and decision-making
skills has changed their business result. This person is Susi Pudjiastuti, the
owner of Susi Air and Susi Marine Product.
Susi
Pudjiastuti is Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia
currently. Her entrepreneurial soul has been built since she was seventeen
years old. She is tougher woman, more than four languages fluently, and casual
appearance. She is also the leader and CEO of seven companies including CEO of
ASI Pudjiastuti Company (Marine) and CEO of ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation (Susi
Air). Presently, she also receives more than fifteen entrepreneurship awards (Sukirno,
2015) .
Thus, awards do not make her pleased and forget about her aim to bring impacts
to the society.
 |
| Susi Pudjiastuti holds high quality lobster |
According to (National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) that had been
published by the Ministry of MSME in India, one of the myth that entrepreneur
are doers, not thinkers seem to be wrong. She did not have a degree and even
did not finish her high school, but she thought about what to do next after
dropping-out came true. She dropped-out from because in the 1980s, she showed
that she had a high integrity (The Jakarta Post, 2014) . Her desire just
wants to be a successful entrepreneur. Startup Owl (2015) says one of the method to discover forsight ability is by analyzing
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of potential decision.
Therefore, she is confident to open new business even she does not have any
experiences to do so. She rely on opinion that ability to have foresight is not
only by studying it in normal education, but it depends on personal and passion
individuality.
She started to be a fish vendor in Pangandaran beach,
West of Java in 1983. Until 1996, her business had grown up and built ASI
Pudjiastuti Company (Marine) pioneered the export of various sea products to
Japan, especially lobsters. Susi sought lobster as potential commodity. She
helped local fisherman to market their products became international based and
she paid the lobster with a high price, thus the local fisherman did not feel
loss/cheap.
In
2004, she convinced Mandiri Bank to give her loan to build an airstrip and
purchase two Cessna aircraft in a village nearby the fish auction. Lobster is
the most sensitive commodity because little bit late will be rotten, therefore,
the quality and price will be affected too. The first intention is to save time
and meet delivery deadlines for shipping her lobsters to customers (Nababan,
2010) .
Meanwhile, in the same year, tsunami in Aceh occurred. Her heart string pulled
on, she flew to Aceh to deliver the humanitarian aid with her husband as a
pilot. The plane was the first which landed in isolated area. With her social
action, The NGO’s hire her company Susi Air to send the logistic in rural and
isolated area.
Indonesia
is the country that has many islands and jungles. Furthermore, the problem that
she will see Indonesia in the future is about transportation, lack of
infrastructure will create a high-cost economy (Nababan,
2010) .
Currently, people in Papua and Kalimantan get the benefit from Susi Air. They
receive twice monthly the daily needs such as rice, sugar as well as oil and
petrol. Her strategy also to prevent people dying of hunger that occurred years
ago in Papua.
In
the meantime, the other problem is lack of human resources. The pilots that she
hires mostly are foreigners. Therefore, she establishes Susi Flying School and
offers scholarship to ten students from Indonesia. She hopes that in the next
five years, her company will cover over five hundred small airports in
Indonesia. The tagline of Susi Air is - one kilometer runway brings you to the
world and the world to you (Nababan, 2010) .
III. Biography: Dr. Mohammad Yunus
In 1974, there was an extreme famine occur in
Bangladesh. Many people died without food. At that time Dr. Muhammad Yunus
first introduced with poverty. He also invented the idea about small loans. He
discovered that a very small loan can change the life of a poor person or a
poor family. He started to give loans to the poor. At first he gave only US$27
loan from his own pocket to poor women who lived in a village near Chittagong
University. They made bamboo furniture and sold these. First time they could
make a profit of 5 TK (. 02 USD) from that long, but this money was not
sufficient to survive a family. However, usually the banks do not offer small
loan to such types of poor. The traditional banks always think that there is a
risk to give loan to the poor.
At the same time he started researching about
the economic condition of rural people and established a Tebhaga Khamar (three
share farm) and government supported him. In 1976 he established the Grameen
Bank. Grameen Bank is called the bank of poor and Dr. Muhammad Yunus is the
banker to the poor. Grameen bank works among the rural people. More than 90% of
them are women. The bank gives loan to the poor women to do small business and
to get a better life. Day by day Grameen bank spreads all over Bangladesh to
remove poverty. In 1987 a Grameen program first started outside of Bangladesh.
Malaysia was that country. After that this program opened in many countries around
the world such as India, Nepal, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Latin America,
Africa, the United States and Europe. The microcredit system and the social
business model have proved universally. As the bank grew bigger day by day
Professor Yunus started another project for the poor. Grameen acquired 783
pounds to build a fisheries foundation to provide jobs for the local poor.
In 1993 he started Grameen Uddog which means
Grameen initiatives. It helps the poor rural textile weavers to sell their
quality products in the garment industry. In 1997 he started a cell phone
business by the name of GrameenPhone. Each Grameen bank member borrowed a
mobile phone and started selling telephone service to the neighbors. Now
GrameenPhone is the most successful and leading mobile operator in Bangladesh.
GrameenPhone is the name of a nonprofit telephone company in Bangladesh which
directly deals with villagers. In 1996 he started another two projects- Grameen
Shakti (meaning energy) which is the source of energy and Grameen Cybernet
which is based on internet business. All this organization is nonprofit
organizations. All these organizations are built to remove poverty and help the
poor people especially women to develop their lives. Dr. Muhammad Yunus the
banker of the poor wants to make the world free from poverty. He believes that
charity is not the way to make a poverty – free – world. He states, “The real
issue is creating a level playing field for everybody, giving every human being
a real chance.”
To become a social entrepreneur, Professor
Yunus has shown many traits such as passion, innovation, new ideas, decisions,
integrity and reliability and versatility. He invents a new business model
which is known as a social business to make a poverty free world. He creates a
new banking system which is run by the rural poor people. He took the decisive
action in 1974 when Bangladesh had gone under a horrible situation after the
extreme famine. He worked hard and visited door to door to make his dreams into
a reality. He is the pioneer of social entrepreneurship. By applying his theory
of microcredit and microfinance many countries of the world now get a solution
to solve the poverty.
IV. Conclusion
In general, we can define that entrepreneur
is someone who see the opportunity and use that opportunity. The opportunity
where the entrepreneurs always put the common interests rather than the
interests of him/herself which is only for money. The opportunity which can be
the foundation of economic growth and development in the country which is
underlying in the border of underdevelopment. The opportunity of second life
chance to the unemployed as a first step to eradicate poverty in the country.
To be an entrepreneur is not necessarily must
fit the profile of an entrepreneur. At least a new entrepreneur has one of the
entrepreneurial traits to start. Integrity,
reliability and ethical consciousness
are helped entrepreneur of being honest and adhered to the moral code of
conduct. Always take an initiative
action before the other people do without any command. Always calculating the
risk not taking a risk like any gamblers usually do, it means being divisive. Quick learner for another
possibility and always take care about the time and do not forget about what is
next in the future, these reflect perceptiveness,
time competence and foresight traits.
In the conclusion, every individual has a
chance to be an entrepreneur. It is not only about how to start, but it is
about how willing are you make little changes. Henry Ford has said, “When
everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off
against the wind, not with it."
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