What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur
Emotional Intelligence and the Entrepreneur
Written by Chukwuma Asala for Gaebler Ventures
How does emotional intelligence help in entrepreneurship? What are the characteristics of a high EQ versus low? The article evaluates the consequences of both.
Out of all the many methods that exist to create wealth and lifestyle none of them come remotely close to the potential of going into business.
Working a conventional job automatically limits your earning potential and you spend a good eight to twelve hours a day trading your time for someone else's money which comes in the form of paycheck. The famous equation time equals money comes to mind. The challenge with that is you lose time to create money.
Investment income, also known as passive income, is one of the ways most working professionals hope to leverage some of the time they are losing while the work and create an autonomous income stream that is not dependent on their physical ability to perform. In this equation money equals time.
Entrepreneurship however creates lifestyle. Lifestyle means having both time and money and having both increasing at the same time. You could say that time equals life and money equals style so the combination of the two is what produces lifestyle. In order to develop such an enterprise however you will require something that most people in the other vehicles for making money do not need much off: Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence, often referred to as Emotional Quotient (EQ), is an ability that can be developed to perceive, control, evaluate and manage the internal emotions of a person and the external emotions of the people they come in contact with. It is the single most important reason entrepreneurs are able to succeed or fail down the road. Managing the emotions of others can only be done after you have learned to master your own emotions so the process for developing emotional intelligence is a long one.
Managers who have emotional intelligence approach managing their teams from a different perspective than authoritarian military-type managers. They understand the importance of communicating effectively and treating each employee with respect. Those who want to be effective 21st century managers would be wise in developing a deeper understanding of the concept of emotional intelligence and applying it to their management strategies.
But what is the role or the importance of EQ in entrepreneurship? A trait that all successful people have is buoyancy. They all possess buoyant spirit which enables them to bounce back up after getting knocked down. EQ plays a big part of that. As an entrepreneur you are bound to face a number of setbacks. You will find out soon enough that success and failure are Siamese twins that travel everywhere together. The ability to manage your emotions during tough times will determine how long it takes for you to start progressing forward. The good news is even though you may not have much EQ yet, as you start to grow your business EQ will be developed as a by-product of the mistakes you make along the way.
Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.
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