Sometimes in looking at these types of figures we may overlook the entrepreneurs who take risks everyday to come up with different products and services that help keep this country moving forward and not backwards.

What is an Entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is someone who takes on the risk of operating a new business. An entrepreneur either brings a new product or service to the market or they improve upon one that already exists. An entrepreneur is a risk taker, a leader, an organizer, and one who isn’t afraid to take on the uncertainties that are present in life. An entrepreneur has the drive, confidence, and determination to succeed. An entrepreneur does not allow others to stand in their way when they try to achieve goals. They have a desire to achieve, are hard working, accept responsibility, and will watch over a project or venture until it can stand on its own. They will nurture a project like a new born child until it can live without them.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He introduced an assembly line manufacturing process which streamlined automobile manufacturing. He changed industrial production with his high wages, mass production, and offered low prices to the consumer. Henry Ford had a passion for mechanics since he was a child. In his teenage years he was considered to be quite the watch repairmen especially since he has taken apart and repaired watches of his friends and family. He took his love of mechanics into Detroit, Michigan after his mother died. With his mother being dead he had no reason to stay on the family farm which he despised. Once he became a Chief Engineer in 1893 he had the time and money to devote to his own personal projects such as gasoline engines. His drive and determination to succeed allowed him to complete and test his first completed project in 1896.

William Henry Gates

William Henry Gates (better known as Bill Gates) is the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft is the largest software company in the world. Gates had been interested in computers, mathematics, and science since he was young. Although he was from a wealthy family, he used his intelligence, ambition, and drive to form a company that sold traffic flow systems to the government. After this initial success he went on to form more companies and to develop computer programming software which he used to spearhead his Microsoft Corporation.

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison is probably the most famous inventor known today. He used the ideas from Henry Ford’s mass production theories and used them within the process of making inventions. He is credited with creating the first industrial research laboratory. Some of his inventions were not original ideas but his way of improving upon ideas that were already in existence. He is credited with holding more then 1,097 patents in his name.

All of these entrepreneurs exhibited entrepreneurial qualities ever since they were young, some even as children. They used their drive and determination to achieve goals and ambitions. They didn’t let anything stop them but kept on going even if someone said they couldn’t succeed. They saw success in their future and they strived to achieve it. They showed all of the entrepreneurial qualities. They were risk takers, leaders, organizers, and they were not afraid to face anything that wasn’t guaranteed. They tested their ideas and improved upon them even if they did work. They saw their projects through to the end and never gave up on themselves. They expressed confidence in their abilities as well as in their projects. They worked hard and kept moving on to project after project, improving upon the previous project and coming up with new ones. Their ideas were seen to the end and they shared their ideas with the rest of the world in order to improve lives one way or another.