Capacity Building - Building A Foundation For Success

The entrepreneurial process can be demanding and sometimes make you question whether you can get it all done.  The journey to establishing a successful enterprise presents many entrepreneurs with the following question, "How do I create a blueprint for business and personal growth?"  Answering this question can sometimes feel daunting.  One way to ease the pressures of creating a successful enterprise is to lay a foundation for pursuing your dream or vision by focusing on capacity building.  Capacity building refers to those activities that improve either an organization's ability to achieve its mission or an individual’s ability to define and realize goals and do a job more effectively.  For organizations, capacity building can relate to almost any aspect of their work: improved governance, leadership, mission and strategy, administration (including human resources, financial management, and legal matters), program development, fundraising, marketing, income generation, etc.  For individuals, capacity building can relate to leadership development, advocacy skills, training/speaking abilities, technical skills, organizational skills, and other areas of personal and professional development.  Motivational guru, Anthony Robbins, has stated that "Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." 

While tenacity and fortitude are key ingredients for most entrepreneurial success stories, the extent to which an aspiring entrepreneur  develops personal capacity, as well as the capacity of his or her enterprise, can make the difference between success and failure.  To overcome the obstacles you will inevitably face in building your enterprise, you have to have a plan in place for pushing your enterprise past the tough spots and taking your vision to the next level.  The likelihood of your success depends on having the necessary support systems in place to make your vision a reality.  There is no question that capacity building is an essential step in achieving success as entrepreneur in order to create wealth and build an institution.  Whatever your idea, remember great ideas need great people and organizations behind them.  

The Path to Being an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person willing to take-on the various risks related with bringing an idea alive--to bring it to market.  As defined by Wikipedia, an entrepreneur is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks.

Have you ever wondered, “Do I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?” Or, have you ever thought, “I’m just not sure I’m the ‘entrepreneurial type’.  If so, you’re not alone.  Many talented people with great ideas believe they don’t have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  For many, the thought of running their own business leaves them feeling anxious and apprehensive.  For most people, the notion of leaving a secure job or profession creates a host of questions, fears, and uncertainties that kill their dreams before they even have a chance to breathe.  I believe the fear of becoming an entrepreneur stems from a flawed thought-process, which if corrected, can help you find your inner entrepreneur. 

Most people believe that entrepreneurs somehow emerge from the womb at birth.  Many of us believe that being an entrepreneur is an innate skill, and you’re either born with it, or you’re not.   While I agree there are certain people who know virtually from birth that their one mission in life is to found a start-up “widget” company, take it public, and then spin it off into several international widget conglomerates, most of us don’t find our inner entrepreneur quite as naturally. My conversations with many successful entrepreneurs of all ages, sexes, and races have led me to this conclusion.  Entrepreneurs are not born.  They are made.  Being entrepreneurial is not an innate quality that some of us get and others of us don’t.  Rather, an entrepreneur emerges from an individual’s identification of his or her talents, which he or she develops through a course of intentional acts and persistent conduct.  I hope to share insights from my personal journey through this blog and hope that it might be helpful to you in finding your inner entrepreneur.