Entrepreneurs vs Employees

Ingat lagi tips extra saya bulan lalu, mengenai pentingnya
berbahasa inggeris.. Sebabnya kalini saya nak post 1 artikel
oleh Robert T. Kiyosaki yang saya ambil dari internet.. Saya
pun bukannya pandai sangat speaking ni, tapi takpela kita
skipping perlahan-lahan..

In 1983, the Harvard Business School published "A Perspective
on Entrepreneurship," a paper that defined the differences
between entrepreneurs and employees. This paper, written by
Professor Howard H. Stevenson, is one of the most articulate
articles on this particular subject that I have read. While many
differences were examined, I found two in particular to be
especially insightful.

The first difference between entrepreneurs and employees is:

1. Employees are resource-oriented. Entrepreneurs
are opportunity-oriented.
A person with an employee mindset might say, "I would start
my own business but I don't have the money." Or "I'd love to
invest in that piece of real estate, but I don't have the down
payment." In both of these examples the person focuses on
their resources--in this case their lack of money, rather than
the opportunity.

In a similar situation, a person with an entrepreneur's mindset
might say, "Let's start the business and we can finance the
business from the cash flow." Or "Tie up the property and we'll
find the money later."

My poor dad was a man who saw many opportunities, but failed
to act on them simply because he was resource-oriented. Instead
of taking action, he often said, "I wish I could do it, but I can't
afford it." Or "I would go into business for myself, but I need a
steady job. I have a mortgage and you kids to feed."

My rich dad (my best friend's father, an entrepreneur who taught
me a lot about how the rich think about money) was a man who
started with nothing, but eventually became one of the richest
men in Hawaii. Today, when you look at Waikiki Beach, you see
some of the biggest hotels along the ocean on land his family owns.
He said, "If you do not have resources, you need to become
resourceful." That is why he forbade his son and me from saying
the words "I can't afford it." He said, "Poor people say 'I can't afford
it.' That's why they're poor." Instead he insisted we learn to say,
"How can I afford it?" He believed that when we said, "I can't afford it"
our minds were turned off and went to sleep. When we asked
ourselves, "How can I afford it?" our minds, our greatest resource
of all, were turned on and put to work.

The second difference between entrepreneurs and employees is:

2. Employees prefer to manage via hierarchical structures.
Entrepreneurs manage via networks, utilizing the resources of other
people and organizations.

This means that employee-type leaders would rather hire people
and bring their talent "in-house." Rather than have an outside firm
do their creative work, an employee-type leader would prefer to
hire the talent and have them under their control. While there are
economic reasons for doing this, the report stated that the primary
reason is control. This is because employees gravitate to a leadership
style that is more suited to a military command-and-control type of
organization.

My poor dad was successful in the hierarchical structure of the
government, eventually rising to the top of the educational system
as Superintendent of Education and running for Lieutenant
Governor for the State of Hawaii. After losing that race--and his
position as Superintendent of Education--he tried his hand at
entrepreneurship. He purchased a national ice cream franchise
that failed in less than a year. Why? While the reasons were many,
one reason was his leadership and management style. When he said,
"Jump"... no one jumped.

Instead of the military's command-and-control leadership style,
my rich dad used a more cooperative and collaborative style of
leadership. He encouraged his son and me to learn to lead and
manage people who are not required to follow our orders--people
who did not need to jump when they heard the word "Jump." Rather
than hire people and bring them in-house, rich dad networked with
other people and organizations, which tended to reduce his costs and
at the same time increase his resources and influence in the marketplace.

Today, The Rich Dad Company follows my rich dad's advice. Instead
of becoming a stand-alone publishing house, we choose to cooperate
via a joint venture agreement with The Time Warner Book Group, as
well as licensed publishers around the world who offer our books in
43 languages. In this way, we keep our core staff small, yet we utilize
the thousands of employees of publishers around the world.

But leveraging the assets and resources of partners is not enough. It's
important to choose the right partners--ones who are aligned with
your goals and values. Choosing the right partners can make the
difference between success and failure--as I've learned the hard way.

As The Rich Dad Company has grown, we have worked with partners
who have opened doors to opportunities that were much greater
than what we could have been able to pursue on our own. In an
entrepreneurial spirit, we formed alliances with major media
organizations and international promotion firms that leveraged the
Rich Dad brand with their worldwide networks.

In doing so, we--as entrepreneurs--stay small, yet increase market
share by cooperating rather than competing... by networking rather
than hiring employees and bringing work "in-house."

In 1989 the world changed. That's when the Berlin Wall came down
and the World Wide Web went up. Instead of a world of walls, we
became a world of webs... networks of people working cooperatively
rather than competitively. It is a special honor for me to be
recognized by Amazon.com, a pioneer in the brave new world of the
web, founded by a great entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos. We at The Rich Dad
Company join in celebrating Amazon's successes and salute your
leadership in this world of webs rather than walls.

There are key, fundamental differences between the mindset of an
employee and the mindset of an entrepreneur. One of the great
things about this world of webs is that the world is now open for
business to billions of people who choose to think as entrepreneurs--
rather than employees.

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