Comments on: Fertile ground for Entrepreneurship.

By: Roger Potter

Roger Potter — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 03:05:02 +0000

Part 2 of Hawaii IS NOT a Fertile ground for Entrepreneurs !!!
In my first writing I stated that there is a big difference between Business People and Entrepreneurs. I
also stated that the qualities that made people entrepreneurs were looked upon by too many people in Hawaii as negatives and they were:
1. Attitude
2. Confidence in Yourself
3. Kick butt mentality.
4. Not a team player.
5. Not only do these people not follow the norm – they
do things their way.
I am going to expand on these and other items.
Attitude:
Websters Contempory Dictionary – defines this as 1. Position of the body as suggesting some thought,feeling, or action and 2. State of mind, behavior, or conduct as indicating one’s feelings, opinion, or purpose.
I have been with enough business people and entrepreneurs
to know and see that The body language is different but
also their State of mind is totally diferent, and I feel
that it is this ‘state of mind’ difference that scares a
lot of Hawaii’s business owners into not hiring them or
if they do hire them they are the first to be fired.
In fact Joseph Anthony who wrote the 7 signs of an
entrepreneur states that One of the traits is that ‘You
are a lousy employee’. He goes on to say that there is
no need to sugar coat this. People who have owned their
own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more
than often. He’s not saying that you were laid off for lack of work – you were cut loose, or quit before they
fired you. He went on to say that ‘think of it as the
marketplace telling you that the only person who can
motivate and manage you is yourself.
Now why should you the employer keep these people who
have such strong ‘states of mind’. The Most important
reason is What if they are the people that you need to
propel your company into the Stratisphere and you fire
them because they ‘don’t fit in’ ??? In Rosa’s book on
page 35 she recounts in the final interview that this
particular applicant ‘He valued his independence on the job, feeling he normally worked a quicker pace than most of his peers (scandalous) – yet Rosa hired him for another division and what happened to him – as Rosa says
‘Today he is one of their success stories – in fact Rosa
writes that ‘his instinctual performance opened opportunities to serve the customer and helped define the departments future goals. What is Rosa had not had
that courage and insight???
Confidencer in Yourself:
There is self-esteem, self-awareness, and self-confidence
These are all good and needed by everybody. But a lot of
people do not have Confidence in themselves. I myself
rank self-esteem as #7, self-awareness as #6, and self-
confidence as #5 – and Confidence In Yourself as #1. So
your asking what is at #’s 4,3,2 – nothing. Confidence
in Yourself is sooo far above that some people never attain this level. Why – because when people are not with you or in some cases against you – when your family
doesn’t back you up/talk you out of a dream/ – when your
family/friends tell you ‘who do you think you are?’ when you won’t give up – when they only person you can rely on is You and you keep trudging along – THIS is Confidence In Yourself!!!
Kick butt mentality:
This is when you sometimes have to tell others to ‘stay out of my way’ I am going to get it done.
Not a team player;
Team players have to agree with each other before anything gets done or moves ahead. Entrepreneurs are
people who just do it – they don’t wait for people to agree with them.
Not only do these people not follow the norm – they do
things their way. This is why a lot of entrepreneurs get fired – because owners supervisors get afraid because the ‘status quo’ is not being followed and ‘we
have been doing it this way for the past 10,000 years -
why should we change now. Entrepreneurs forge their own
path – ‘that old saying – they hear the beat of a different drummer’. They are not afraid of trying a new
path that has never been done.
There were two other things that Joseph Anthony said that I disagreed with – they were 1. You’ve got the
support of your family – and like I said – some of them
do not – Fact of life. and 2. You know you cannot do it
alone – Too may times entrepreneurs have had to go it
alone because nobody saw any vision/completed item/were
afraid – except them.

By: Roger Potter

Roger Potter — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 03:05:53 +0000

Hawaii is Not only NOT a fertile ground for Entrepreneurs
it is not even a base.
We must first classify that their are two types of people
that own businesses: 1. Business owners of course and
2. Entrepreneurs. They are not the same – they are as
different as nite and day. They think different, act
different, talk different, do things different.
There have been two incidents with friends here in Hawaii
that happened about 24 years apart, which still shows that Hawaii still wants the status quo and does not like
entrepreneurs.
The first occasion was in 1973 inwhich this friend was
giving me a ride back – he said got to make one stop -
no problem. I knew that his folks owned a beauty salon
and I saw a boutique – when I asked about the boutique -
his answer surprised me – not only what he said, but how
he said it. He said ‘yea, the boutique was now the thing
to do’, and it was ‘how’ he said it – like wistfully with
a tinge of fear. He was like saying ‘now it was okay to
open up this type of business – ‘his folks wouldn’t be
critized for upsetting the ‘applecart’. They didn’t want
to be Trendsetter or to Stand out.
I began to realize that businessnes people wanted to keep
the status quo, and to do things that were socially ok.
I also began talking to others who owned businesses and
found out that others had a different take. These didn’t
care what people thought about them – they did what they
thought would make money and get them someplace. If they
saw a trend coming and nobody either had to guts to tackle it they would. I once asked one of these ‘what happens if you failed’ – the reply ‘so what – I’ll just
try something else’.
I noticed that these people really didn’t care what their
colleagues thought of them – they were going to do what
they were going to do to accomplish that what they wanted
to do.
I started to learn that Business People:
1. Were not Trendsetters.
2. Did not want to Stand out.
3. Did not want to Make waves.
4. Did not want to Upset the applecart.
5. Sometimes had no courage to do anything on their own
except run their business and hope to make it work.
I found out that other people that owned businesses – and I began hearing that they were Entrepreneurs:
1. Were Trendsetters.
2. Had no prolbem either Standing out or Making waves -
in fact some told me that if you don’t Stand out and
Make waves you will never be Noticed!
3. Didn’t care if they Upset the applecart – they
wanted to see what happened.
In time I also began to see that these Entrepreneurs had
qualities that the Business People did not have – not
only that, but these same qualities were also looked upon by one too many people in Hawaii as Negatives:
1. Attitude – This is so misunderstood !
2. Confidence in Yourself – This is so far above self
confidence – there is no match.
3. Kick butt mentality.
4. Not a team player.
5. Not only do these people not follow the norm – they
do things their way.
In fact I down loaded from MSN.com written by Joseph Anthony who writes for money matters:
7 signs of an Entrepreneur
1. You come from a line of people who couldn’t work for
some people.
2. You’re a lousy employee.
3. You see more than one definition of ‘job security’.
4. You’ve gone as far as you can go, or you’re not going
anywhere.
5. You’ve done the market research already.
6. You’ve got the support of your family – This I
disagree with to some degree.
7. You know you cannot do it alone – Disagree with him
to a large degree on this one.
That second incident with another friend of mine 24 years
after the first one above shows that Hawaii does not like
entrepreneurs and wants to keep (at all costs?) the
Status Quo.
He is a High School dropout. For about 10 after droping
out he did odd jobs, tried his luck at working for people
and would get upset if the person(s) who hired him could
not keep him busy or motivated. He discovered Real Estate. He passed the test on the first round. After a
couple of years – he found out that he could get listings
without any trouble – in fact getting listings was easier
than making sales. When he was a his last brokerage
before he got fed up and left for the mainland – he pleaded with the Broker in charge to let him concentrate
on listings so the firm would always have an inventory.
He was met with ‘no – do things our way (follow the status quo). He was fed up – he left for the mainland and settled in a state – read the Real Estate laws for
that state and began. Soon he had his first property in partnership with another person, and then from that he
himself began buying properties – most of them already
Revenue producing/some fixer uppers. What Hawaii would
not let him do – The mainland would.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 23:58:05 +0000

Aloha Anita, e komo mai; welcome to the Ho’ohana Community and mahalo for your kind comment.

By: Anita Campbell

Anita Campbell — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 23:52:04 +0000

Hi Rosa,
I found you through the link to my site. I like your blog very much! I’ll be sure to come back.
Best,
Anita