Are you an entrepreneur? Not everyone is, and that is fine. The world needs entrepreneurs, managers and worker bees, but determining the category that you actually fall in can help make your life more successful. Remember that an entrepreneur is a risk taker and a builder who rejects the commonly accepted idea of security in a paycheck signed by someone else.

The entrepreneur is the one who signs the paychecks for others, and has the self-confidence to take the risks necessary to build the business that provides the jobs for others.

The entrepreneur must be creative, hard working, smart working, persistent, motivated, full of stamina, dedicated, energetic and able to direct the efforts of others. He must be able to delegate duties, train personnel, be affable with all, and enjoy his time spent. The entrepreneur must be, above all, confident in his own abilities, and it must not be blind overconfidence, but confidence in himself as a competent individual.

These qualities hold true of many people who are not entrepreneurs. Many company middle managers, for instance. But the quality that truly sets the entrepreneur apart from all of the others is that the entrepreneur is willing to place his time, money and very life at risk for a dream that he is creating. IN that sense the modern entrepreneur is the equivalent of the pioneer farmers and ranchers of the American frontier, the entrepreneurs of their days.

And of the shopkeepers and merchants who went west, and the prospectors of the California gold rush. Today’s entrepreneurs are the under appreciated creators of jobs for other people, and comprise the fastest growing part of the American economy. It is the small business entrepreneur who drives the economy and makes it possible for everyone to make a living, pay taxes, support charities and contribute to the American way of life.