Why Should You Become an Entrepreneur?

During a talk at Startup Istanbul Professor Dr Erhan Erkut gave great advice to students and recent graduates. He set context about how Turkey’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is currently weak but is a great place for business and made a comparison to the “startup nation” Israel.

Here are his points on why you should you seriously consider entrepreneurship:

• Istanbul is destined to become an economic hub in the region
• It’s in your DNA “all human beings are entrepreneurs” (M. Yunus)
• Change the world: Entrepreneurship is not about money it’s about doing something that has meaning
• It’s okay to copy, adapt a solution a new environment
• Autonomy matters, “we are born to be players not pawns” (D. Pink)

However, be ready to work 7 days a week from 7am to 2am – yes 5 hours of sleep is good enough – and get no income nor vacations at the beginning. Horrific? Well there are some pretty great upsides: you get to work with a team and co-create, you decide and implement. You control your own faith. On entrepreneurs tomb stones you would read “He made a world a better place” not “He was obedient, disciplined, hard worker” which is an option for robot not for humans.]]>