What Determines Success in Entrepreneurship?

This article is written by Brian Malika, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

Elmira Bayrasli is an entrepreneur, writer, consultant and lecturer. She was present at Startup Istanbul 2015 where she talked about success in entrepreneurship.

Have you ever wondered what does greatness entail in entrepreneurship? Like is greatness equal to conquering your market sphere?  Or perhaps being ranked as the most influential business establishment by a leading magazine? Well, greatness in entrepreneurship has varied descriptions to different people based on their interests at heart.

As you know, every society has standards pertaining to everything and entrepreneurship is not excluded from this. Hence, we have social ratings on how a successful entrepreneurial standard should merit.

For example, in some societies, if you serve customers well you might be recommended for an award by the city mayor which in turn means that your services or goods will be the most preferred since you are well recognized by the area authority.

With all the differences in the type of business standards that are placed in our society, there is content competition and aspiration by most entrepreneurs to fit.  And this trend of fitting in what is the standard for greatness posses a serious risk for businesses to limit their full potential by striving to settle for the status quo.

Therefore, with all the above sentiments in place, it is important to note that the greatest challenge to you as an entrepreneur is aiming to fit in the set standards of what greatness is. By accepting to settle for the status quo, you actually limit the many possibilities that are unknown which you are in a position to unlock if you chose to be more daring.

Do you now want to explore the different ways in which you can defy the status quo? Am sure you do,  so, please scroll down to the next topic for more exploration.

Where to start when thinking of how to defy the status quo

When it comes to defying status quo in entrepreneurship you must have the courage to accept to be different amidst uniformity even if it sounds uncomfortable. Nurture the ability to perceive business situations within the box, outside the box and even without the box through a process called exploration. And a such, you must be flexible to change when there is competing evidence on how something new can work better .

And today, one of the best ways you can defy the status quo is through seeing yourself as part of the global network. In other words, be a global citizen. Let's imagine you live in the city of Indiana, in the U.S  and your an innovative entrepreneur on making online communication to be interactive and short as possible for the well digital connected American population.

On that note, even if you become successful in coining better digital communication techniques in the U.S  and you emerge to be the best over there you should not contend that you have made it according to the U.S standards. But rather you should imagine innovating digital communication ideas to be replicated even outside the U.S in places like Africa where populations are not well connected on digital platforms.

Dare to think the unimaginable as an entrepreneur by not being limited base on the status quo for excellence in your place of residence or boundaries.

And of course, there will be legal, political and even lobby groups that will aim to impede your courage to break out of the cocoon of normalcy. This is because when you think beyond the status quo you initiate the possibility of discovering finer, efficient, healthy and better products and services which will eventually disrupt the less competent but established companies that are entitled to the benefits of the status quo.

However, do not be intimidated by all the frustrations you will receive from the old business guards who are scared of new innovations. Forge ahead and you will disrupt the status quo in business.

Hold onto that courage to launch your innovative business idea no matter how different it seems.

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