Entrepreneurship Is Alive and Well In Oahu

Whenever I travel to a different state or country, I’m always amazed at what people are willing to do to make money. As I wander the streets of Oahu this week, I sense that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive.

Everyone has a different way of defining entrepreneurship. Allow me to share the two thoughts that shape my definition of it.

Thought #1 – Profits vs Wages

The late Jim Rohn, said on multiple occasions, “Profits are better than wages”. Let’s examine this for a second. When you’re working for a boss, you’re at their mercy. They tell you when to come to work, how much money you make, how many breaks you can have, when to leave, and what you can or cannot wear.

When you’re working for yourself, or for profits, you control all of those things. If you want a raise, then you can give yourself one everyday if you’d like. How often would you give yourself a raise?

Thought #2 – Satisfaction

To me, entrepreneurship is satisfying. Ask any entrepreneur and they’ll agree. What makes this type of work satisfying? Three conditions must be met. First, there must be autonomy. Dictionary.com defines autonomy as, “the state or conditional of having independence or freedom”.

Second, there must be complexity. At a first glance, you might be thinking that the presence of complexity is absurd. Allow me to explain. I mean that the work must be stimulating and challenging. A better way of looking at it this, is by asking you the following question, “Would you rather work as a physical therapist and make $70,000 a year or as someone who runs a tollbooth for $100,000 a year?”.

A lot of you might say, “That’s easy; of course, I’d pick the tollbooth job!”. While that’s easy money, I doubt you could do that for 30 years. (That job doesn’t pay anything remotely close to that.) That job is not only boring and dull, but you would also never be challenged.

Third, this type of work must have the proper balance between effort and reward. Generally, the harder or longer you work, the more money you’ll make. This draws on thought #2, in that you can essentially give yourself a raise any time you want.

Examples of entrepreneurship in Oahu

As I wandered the streets of Oahu today, I saw several examples of individuals that were practicing their craft, pouring out their energy, and engaging in the passions for ‘profits’. Any of you looking to make some extra money can hit the pavement with any of these ideas.

Silver man

silver man

Dancing crew

http://youtu.be/C3zqum9tSz4

Guitar man

photo (2)

 Conclusion

Entrepreneurs are satisfied by their work and are in complete control of their profits and destiny. Maybe you need some extra cash and you need an idea. You can hit the streets showing off a talent of yours. If your dreams are much bigger, then you’re going to need a more revolutionary idea.

How do you define entrepreneurship?