Difference Between Entrepreneurs and Criminals
February 11th, 2007 by binnur
Cathy Park , a social entrepreneur in South Africa, had an interview with Ode Magazine on her experiences teaching business skills and life skills to juvenile offenders. Her experience has shown that there are striking character traits that the successful criminal and entrepreneur share.
- You need to take risks and have no fear;
- You need persistence and staying power;
- You don’t want to work for a boss;
- You need the right connections and need to know your market in order to supply that market with what it wants;
- You have to be prepared for the unexpected;
- You have to be self-motivated and self-determined;
So, what differentiates us? It comes down to the choices we make everyday: realization between instant gratification vs. hard work and time that it will take to reach our dreams, and taking accountability for our actions.
Peter Drucker would concur as he stated in The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)
A decision is a judgment. It is a choice between alternatives. It is rarely a choice between right and wrong. It is at best a choice between “almost right” and “probably wrong”.
Here is to making good choices.
Technorati Tags: Cathy Park, entrepreneur
surely you have just pointed out the similarities, not the differences, between entrepreneurs and criminals?
It is true, there are striking character trait similarities between the two. However, Cathy Park was pointing out the key difference that differentiates us: the choices we make. She leverages this knowledge to help the juvenile offenders to find new direction in life: first she highlights their knowledge and asset base (i.e. similarities with entrepreneurs), and second she coaches them on making better choices. I feel Peter Drucker further highlights this fine line that the managers walk everyday by stating that: a decision is a judgement, a choice between “almost right” and “probably wrong”.
What do you think: is our judgement/choices the only difference, are we more similar than we think (especially looking back at various scandals of the past and current…)?
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