The spirit of entrepreneurs can be defined by the wonderful and unusual way their world view differs from the main stream population. This can be explored by a few key characteristics:

(I) UNBRIDLED OPTIMISM: Entrepreneurs have the knack of always seeing the "up side" of situations. I remember walking with a businessman through the wreckage of his production plan which had just burned down. As we came to the centre of where a thriving business once had been, he paused, took a deep breath, and then said "Well, now I can up tool my production methods which I've always wanted to do". I marveled at a man who saw opportunity amidst defeat.

(II) ABLE TO DEAL WITH FAILURE/REJECTION -Entrepreneurs have a special way of dealing with failure and rejection. The most effective entrepreneurs are realistic enough to know they are going to make mistakes. They face these situations as LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES. Recognizing the elements of a failure will provide important guidelines to avoid similar problems in the future.

Effective entrepreneurs also know how to deal with rejection, because they know that rejection is a frequent component of doing business. Entrepreneurs understand the "conversion rate" concept. Conversion rate simply means how many contacts have to be made in order to achieve a sale. The "rule of thumb" is that only 1 out of ten contacts can be converted. Entrepreneur expects rejection! They will increase their exposure to rejection in order to increase sales. If the conversion rate is 1 out of 10, and the goal is to make three sales, then the entrepreneur knows that roughly 27 rejections must be encountered to achieve the sales goal. "You have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find your prince(ss) charming".

(III) INTERNAL SENSE OF WORTH - The spirit of entrepreneurship means competing against self imposed standards, rather than seeking external responses to satisfy their sense of self esteem. Entrepreneurs are not "people pleasers" who do things to receive the approval of others. Entrepreneurs are often mavericks, driven by their internal goals

(IV) SALES MEEAN SATISFYING CUSTOMER NEEDS. - Sales, naturally are important to entrepreneurs, but their whole outlook is that sales are not simple transactions, but measurement that the business is satisfying a need. That is what really drives an entrepreneur, from selection of the right product/service, to marketing toward an exclusive target market, to adjusting the business to satisfying

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