Entrepreneurs are often subject to misconceptions and myths. Popular misconceptions include the following:

• Entrepreneurs are born not made or have special abilities/circumstances – entrepreneurial skills can be improved giving individuals an opportunity to be more entrepreneurial. Below, we will review key skills and resources you can use to improve them. Also, most entrepreneurs, even the talented ones, must work very hard for their success which means that being born with entrepreneurial streak or having special circumstances are not enough.
• Entrepreneurs start off with an innovative cutting edge idea - entrepreneurship is not always about cutting edge ideas but very often about improving existing goods and services. Entrepreneurs do not sit idly thinking up ideas and innovations, they are regular people – they work, shop, go out and, like everyone else, they notice ‘problems’ with goods and services available on the market. Like most of us, they can also think of solutions to these problems. However, unlike many, they decide to implement the solutions they come up with.
• Entrepreneurs are high risk takers – research has shown that entrepreneurs usually do not take excessive risks, rather, they are calculated risk takers - they weigh up risks and opportunities to make decisions
• To become an entrepreneur, you need to have money - many entrepreneurs started their business from home and spent only necessary minimum on the raw materials or equipment to produce their product or service, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started in their garages.

While it is important to remember that entrepreneurs are usually regular people who just act entrepreneurially. Entrepreneurs often display certain skills, abilities, characteristics and behaviours. We will review some of them below:

Many entrepreneurial skills and characteristics are not fixed and can be improved. Given the fact that, as mentioned in Fiche 1, entrepreneurship can take multiple forms – new ventures, intrapreneurship, public sector, academic, social, cultural entrepreneurship - everyone should aim to enhance their entrepreneurial skillset. First, critically analyse your own skills and characteristics along the dimensions listed above. Assess to what extent you display them and whether you can think of examples when you demonstrated them in real-life. It may be helpful if you write down your analysis or discuss it with a friend (see example below). This exercise should highlight any areas that may need to be improved.

Secondly, there are several standard ‘entrepreneurial tendency tests’ available. You should consider them as a guidance and not a definitive statement of whether you can and should be an entrepreneur. Research has confirmed that these tests do not perfectly predict whether an individual will become an entrepreneur and if the venture will be successful.  Rather, they will highlight weaknesses and areas that need further improvement. Most popular entrepreneurial tendency tests include:

• General Entrepreneurial Tendency Test (GET/GET2) – assesses five dimensions of personality: need for achievement, autonomy, drive and determination, risk taking and creativity.
• Kauffman Test – developed by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation in the world devoted to entrepreneurship. Tests entrepreneurial aptitude along similar dimensions to GET/GET2 tests.
• Other tests – there are many other tests available online that test similar dimensions to GET and Kaffman tests.

Once you have identified areas you would like to improve, there are numerous techniques and resources you can explore:

• Self-reflection is a process of assessing yourself, your skills and abilities. It helps to develop your skills and abilities and review their effectiveness. It may involve questioning yourself (in a positive way) about what you know, how you do things and why. This will help you highlight areas of improvement and decide how to best improve. Self-reflection is an on-going process that you should engage in it regularly throughout your life and career in order to learn how to be a better entrepreneur. As the world is a dynamic place, where technology and trends change at a fast pace, you will have to revisit and improve many skills throughout your career.
• Make a conscious effort to improve, taking on challenges that specifically target your weaknesses.
• Online resources – there is a wide variety of resources available on the internet such as:
  • Formal online academic style courses available at Edx.org or through universities (e.g. MIT Open Course Ware). They offer a wide selection of courses from a variety of disciplines including business, finance, computer science etc. These resources may be particularly helpful if you need practical skills such as accounting, finance, project management, economics etc.
  • YouTube offers a great range of resources such as Khan Academy offering courses in finance, economics, history etc., talks and thematic videos on almost every topic imaginable.
  • Entrepreneur.com – a home to Entrepreneur magazine, offers advice, insight, profiles and guides for established and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide.
  • Mindtools.com – a training site offering help with management, leadership and personal effectiveness skills.
  • EU offers a range of resources including Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs - a programme which matches an aspiring entrepreneur with a more experienced entrepreneur-mentor in another country (http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html).
  • Reading about entrepreneurs to see how they behave and solve problems
• Entrepreneurship and thematic courses organised by local authorities, universities etc. 
• Further resources available to entrepreneurs are discussed in Fiche 3.

After the initial frenzy of staring up your company, which is a very busy period for any entrepreneur, it enters a quitter stage where you will have to focus on managing it and establishing yourself in the market place. You will become an owner-manager, however, not all owner-managers remain entrepreneurial. Day to day managing of the business may be very absorbing and may not leave much space for innovation. Also, the managers may choose to keep their company small, at least for some time, while they are developing and practicing managerial skills needed to run the company. On the other hand, entrepreneurial managers are never satisfied with the status quo, they are always thinking about the next thing – how to grow the business, where to expand, new products/services, markets. As mentioned in Fiche 1, you can remain entrepreneurial by fostering intrapreneurship activities within your company.

Being an entrepreneur is not only about having the skills, knowledge and the idea to start a new venture. The environment in which entrepreneurs operate may affect the way an entrepreneur applies his/her skills and whether he decides to put them into action at all. If the economic and social environment, the government and public policy are oppressive to entrepreneurs they may turn their ingenuity and innovation into endeavours that are unproductive or even destructive for the economy and society such as operating in the black market, mafia or organized crime. There are numerous examples of this in developing countries where regulatory system is often so burdensome that entrepreneurs often cannot possibly comply with all requirements and therefore, turn to illegal activities.

Further, social legitimacy of entrepreneurship affects individual decision to become an entrepreneur. For instance, in the former Soviet Union and other post-communist countries, entrepreneurs were seen as thieves and crooks. This did not encourage potential entrepreneurs who, apart from taking on the risk of running a new venture, would have to face lack of public support and mistrust. Similarly, in societies where failure carries a stigma, potential entrepreneurs, no matter how talented, may not be willing to take up more ambitious and riskier projects in fear that they may fail.

On the other hand, societies that encourage taking up challenges, embrace failure and make the regulatory environment friendly towards small businesses, entrepreneurs can put their skills and talents into practice and thrive. Entrepreneurship is often celebrated in the media by showing success stories and highlighting that it often takes more than one trial to get things right. Entrepreneurial companies are put on a spotlight and praised for giving their employees freedom to develop their own ideas and innovate. This way all individuals, irrespective of their occupation are encouraged to develop and use their entrepreneurial skills.