by C.V.Rajan

Created on: March 25, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

Before becoming a successful entrepreneur, one might have worked as an employee somewhere. But can all those who work as employees become entrepreneurs one day? Never! Some are simply born and destined to work under somebody else; their nature and characteristics are different from those of an entrepreneur.

Some of the typical "employee" characteristics are listed below:

(1) DESIRE FOR STEADY INCOME:

They will be very particular about getting a secure, predictable and a steady weekly/ monthly income. They would like to have the best control over their income and expenditure, their capacity to borrow and repay.

(2) LACK OF INITIATIVE:

Some of them will be comfortable and content in doing the work assigned to them; they will be least interested in taking self-propelled initiatives; When it comes to taking decisions, they would rather leave them to the boss.

(3) NO RISK:

They would not like to take any huge risk at their own cost; They may be excellent managers who have the capacity to take the right decisions and take the calculated risks within their scope of responsibility in the organization they work for; but they make sure that they have the relevant safeguards in place; the safeguards are in the form of higher managerial support and the company's capacity to absorb the consequences if their risk-taking backfires.

(4) DESIGNATION CONSCIOUSNESS:

They take pride in their designations, their ascent in the corporate ladder, the perks and privileges associated with their position in the organization and the security the job gives to their social and family life. Those who have grown to very respectable positions in their organizations know pretty well that some of the perks they enjoy could not be dreamed of by many entrepreneurs who do business with their organization.

(5)"FREEDOM - A MYTH"

In their opinion, the idea that "being a master of their own affairs" or "not being answerable to anybody else" is not truly and absolutely practical. In an organization, you have to be answerable to your boss. In case of an entrepreneur, he has to be answerable to his customer, since customer is ultimately the boss. So, their line of argument is: if independence is the motivating factor, there is not much of independence even if you are self-employed.

(6) NO MASTERY:

Some of them will be jacks of all trades, bust masters of none; They would not have acquired any focused mastery in any line of activity that they can confidently and independently handle. When it comes to specifics to

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