Startups are easy. Entrepreneurship isn't.

Entrepreneurship is a developmental process. We admit that the importance of fostering the entrepreneurial spirit from an early age and keeping it alive through all educational levels. In most cases entrepreneurship is instilled in classes where is provides the context for learning other basic skills and motivating students to want to learn. In the more advanced grades it also has become a separate course assisting the outcomes of the higher levels of the long-lasting learning model.

Entrepreneurship education means many various things to educators – from primary schools to university, from vocational education to a university MBA. At each level of education, it is logical to expect different conclusions as student mature and build on previous knowledge. But the overall purpose remains to broaden skills as an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is a lifelong process that has at least five well-defined stages of progress. They are basics, competency awareness, creative applications, start-up and growth. This lifelong learning model assumes that everyone in our education system should have opportunities to acquire knowledge at the beginning stages, while the later stages are aimed at those who may specifically choose to become entrepreneurs.

Educational institutions should encourage entrepreneurial students to learn from their colleagues worldwide. Mobility within international learning networks, creates an informal circles of exchange. Therefore, an effective entrepreneurial strategy is needed to embrace teaching entrepreneurship for future entrepreneurs and start-ups. This can also include project-based exchanges for students, who can study abroad, experience to work in a different country, and later return home to set up a new company that can operate locally or to conduct business across national borders. This form of brain circular migration drives a country to international prestige in the new age of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial economy.

Mr. Honda - Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew

A successful entrepreneur in Malaysia, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew is a millionaire in Pulau Pinang and also the founder of Honda. When he was a kid, he never had a chance to obtain knowledge at school due to the family financial problem. This situation has caused him to work to collect animal’s feces as a plantation fertilizer and also fishing then sell it to gain more income for his family. Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew came from a poor village that called Hui in Fujian, China and then migrated to Pulau Pinang when he was 12 years old with his father to find the sources of income. He was asked by his father to work at a mechanical workshop. The father and son worked so hard to make more money and then send to their family member in China.

Every single night, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew worked as a bus cleaner with 10 cents per bus as wages. When he was 18 years old, he was interested in starting his own business and trying to make changes to achieve his ambition. With the collection of little money day by day, he bought a few of mechanic tools that costed RM10 and 8 buses that costed RM200 to repair it and become a bus that can use to bring a passenger. These buses had brought him a considerable income, which is RM1.20 until RM1.40 per day. He saved the revenue to become capital in his business. In 7 years, he owned 40 buses, battery and automobile spare parts shop. After the end of The Second World War, Tan Sri Dato Loh expanded his business by opening a second-hand car shop and became an agent distributor of British motorcycle.

In 1958, he traveled to Japan and he saw a motorcycle with a Honda brand that he had never seen in Malaysia. After he found out the manufacturer of the Honda motorcycle, he decided to order 12 units of the motorcycle. After he came to Malaysia, he sold the motorcycle to his close friend with original price. The motorcycle that brought with him was mocked by the citizen due to the problem broken fast. Despite that, it did not deter Dato Loh’s hope to introduce motorcycle to the people. In 1963, the Honda motorcycle became a mode of transport that is favored by all. 3 years later, Dato Loh managed to increase the sales of Honda vehicles to the top three best sellers in Malaysia. Now, he has made his business well-known which is classified as one of the top ten significant entrepreneurs in Malaysia and then also as a millionaire in Pulau Pinang. Until now, the people still remember the achievement of Dato Loh in the field of the automobile business. Although he is an illiterate person, nothing can be his barriers to stop him from realizing his dream and also his career. So, this has proof that Dato Loh has many entrepreneurial skills that enrich his business and then allow him to become a successful entrepreneur.

During the way to becoming the successful entrepreneur, he has demonstrated the five entrepreneurial traits which are proactive, observant, visionary, outcome oriented and open risk taker. One of the characteristics that Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew possessed in becoming one of the notable entrepreneurs around the world is being proactive. Referring to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary International Student’s Edition, proactive is describing a person controlling a situation by making things happen rather than waiting for things to happen and then reacting to it. An example of the late Tan Sri being proactive was his decision in bringing in motorcycles from Japan to improve the people’s lifestyles back in the 1950s.

When he visited Osaka, Japan in 1954, for the first time ever Tan Sri saw a very tiny motorcycle which he described as a ‘cub’. He thought it would be a great idea to import this back to Malaysia. He would follow and chase around motorcycles in Japan just to get a closer look at the details of the motorcycles. He commented that the Honda motorcycle is suitable for petite Asians as it is small and light enough compare to the motorcycles made in Europe which is relatively huge.

At first, the idea did not gain much support from the public and they doubted it will be successful. However, this did not deter Tan Sri’s hope of promoting the motorcycles and marching into the 1960s it has become everyone’s favorite mode of transport.

Besides that, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew also has the highly visionary want to be a wealthiest in Malaysia. He was an immigrant from China comes to Malaysia to work. He was a mechanic since eighteen years old. He did extra work to increase his saving in order to further his investment in the automobile industry. He had reconditioned the eleven buses and sold them at a higher price. Next, the money that he earns uses to invest into property investment.

As a successful entrepreneur, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew seems as a highly visionary for the company as he is the person who brings in Honda motorcycle to Malaysia. He believed that the machine with lost cost and high efficiency can create a new market in Malaysia. This can be seen from the construction of the first motorcycle industry in Malaysia which is Boon Siew Assembly Plant owned by Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. in industry area of Mak Mandin, Pulau Pinang. With the construction of the factory, Honda motorcycle is no longer installed in Japan, the installation process can be done in Malaysia. This can save the cost of installation and sales.

With the construction of this factory, Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. also introduced several new model of Honda motorcycle began in 1971 which is model Honda S90Z. Besides that, the first Honda showroom also set up at Pitt Street in Penang where near the home of Loh Boon Siew as a sign of respect and trust. Today, Honda has been introduced a various type of motorcycle in the market in order to competitive with others.

Highly visionary is a trait that drives Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew to continue to succeed in the field of motorization. Not all entrepreneurs have the ability to look ahead like Tan Sri. A positive attitude is the main element in his efforts to continue to contribute in the motor industry in Malaysia.

Furthermore, when Boon Siew was 12 years old, his father sent him to work at the machine shop. At that time, Boon Siew started learning about the knowledge of machine components and paying close attention about the process how to repair the machines and the structure of machines. When he grew up to 18 years old, he decided to run his own business and often figure out a way how to get the opportunity. He took out the money that he saved and bought some mechanical equipment, worth RM10.00 and 8 buses that worth RM200.00 to be repaired and used as a passenger bus. The bus came the highly profitable to him was about RM1.20 to RM1.40 per day. After 7 years, Boon Siew had 40 buses and opened a store spare batteries and vehicles. When the Second World War ended, Boon Siew expanded his business by opening second-hand car shop and became distributors of some sort of British motorcycle. As a result, observant was stirred up the interested of Boon Siew to start his business.

Next, Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew was a risk taker entrepreneur. He initially worked as an intern’s car mechanic to gain knowledge. When he was 18 years old, he purchased about 10 buses to repair and seal the buses with the price of 6 times than he bought. Over many years, the first automotive factory was built in Mak Madin, Pulau Pinang.

Honda factory was operating well in 1960, the market demand base in the motorcycle industry was consistently filled by the customer. The reason he wishes to build his own Honda factory in Malaysia which in the case of anything happen to Japan’s Honda company, Malaysia’s Honda factory will not affect because Malaysia has their different management.

The benefit that Boon Siew built his own factory was a good way to reduce the cost of motorcycles indirectly when compared with the motorcycles that directly import from the Japan Honda factory that included import duty.

Even though Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. has become a famous company in Malaysia, but Tan Sri still maintain the shareholder for his important persons and his family. The main concept of Boon Siew to make the decision was to ensure the stability of Honda company. Nowadays, Boon Siew Honda has monopolized the motorcycle industry in Malaysia.

Last but not least, Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew is someone illiterate and has no formal academic background, but this does not mean that he could not become someone successful. With his strong memory and spirit to advance and succeed that high, Tan Sri succeeds to manipulate his powerful memorizing ability to become successful. This proves by Tan Sri’s success to sell Honda Motor Limited Japan to appoint and nominate him as Honda motorcycle sole distributor in Malaysia.

His ability to sell Honda Motor Limited Japan management perceived as a great success to all Malaysians, due to the difficulty to sell Japan Honda management in a host country which was once occupied by the Japanese army in the early years. With the negative perception from some of the Malaysians that they do not want to buy the manufactured goods from the country that have conquered in Malaysia namely Japan, but this does not affect Tan Sri’s interest to sell Honda motorcycle in Malaysia.

With the high confidence and outcome oriented exist in Tan Sri towards Honda motorcycle, Honda motorcycle total sale in Malaysia has reached over 2 million units until today. Poised to succeed, optimistic and outcome oriented having thought has made Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew a successful entrepreneur in Malaysia.

It is not an easy way to be a successful entrepreneur. One must be prudent in predicting the right product to the market and ensure the product can be compatible with socio-cultural communities. As Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew, his idea of bringing in the Honda motorcycles in Malaysia and make him a successful entrepreneur.

Lori Greiner - QVC.com

Entrepreneurial Trait ⑨ - Proactive

A female American entrepreneur known as “The Queen of QVC”, Lori Greiner was born on 9 December 1969 in Chicago, Illinois. She had invented over 450 products and owned 120 United States and international patents. In 1998, she became the host of "Clever & Unique Creations Show".  Lori was also a famous cast member of a reality entrepreneurial business TV show called Shark Tank in 2012. After she joined this TV program, she got a nickname “The Warm Blooded Shark”. She had a major in Communication from Loyola University Chicago.

The entrepreneurial skill that can relate to Lori Greiner is proactive. According to Oxford Dictionary, proactive means an individual or management controlling a position by making things happen rather than waiting for things to occur and then reacting to them. Another explanation  to define proactive is an individual with a prototypical proactive personality identify probabilities and exploit on them, show initiative, take action, and process until substantial change occurs (Crant, 2000, p. 439). Therefore, an entrepreneur must instill proactive character to generate more new ways as a preparation for the future changes and then bring beneficial to him or her on their own business.

Lori owned a copyright of an earrings box after she succeeded created it. To expand her business, she borrowed money from other sources to design a sample product. As a result of her exertion, the earring products made a considerable income after 18 months. Without waiting new things to happen, she always shows her proactive character to make her career become more develop. For instance, she is not only clever in designing new products like jewelries and cosmetic stuffs, she also constantly adding new features in a large range to make sure her business become more attractive and establish. Her non-stop efforts to make more opportunities exist in her business have made a good consequence toward her career. Therefore, Lori has passion to bring people live in a situation which is full of happiness, so her aspiration of design different products that aim to make people life become more easier are appeared widely. To make a conclusion, Lori always find new ways to keep her business alive instead of aiting for a situation to occur.

Tony Fernandes - AirAsia

Entrepreneurial Trait ⑧ - Team Oriented

As we know, Tony Fernandes is a successful entrepreneur in the airline business and founder of Malaysia “Tune Air Sdn. Bhd.”. When he was young, he always followed his mother to make advertising of Tupperware at everywhere. After obtaining a university degree from the London School of Economics in 1987, he worked briefly with Virgin Airlines as an auditor, and subsequently from 1987 until 1989, he became financial controller to Virgin Records, a Richard Branson in London. In October 2001, he used RM1 bought the Air Asia from DRB-Hicom. At that time, the debt of DRB-Hicom was about US$11 (RM40 million). So, he used his own way and experience to solve the problem.

Tony Fernandes more prefer team-oriented used in his company. It means that it is a group of people work together not work as individuals. Their duty is to ensure the strategies and goals are always aligned with the organization’s long-term vision and objectives. They discuss the problem together and making the decision based on the information they analyzed.

After Tony Fernandes took over the company, he laid off some employees to reduce the cost of the company and led a team of employee to run the business process became more efficiency and effectiveness. He reformed the company and reallocated the job to all departments and built the new vision and mission for his company. In addition, the vision for the Air Asia is to be a cheaper airline around the Asia. While for the mission, Air Asia wants to be a best airline company to work whereby employees are treated as part of the big family. Tony Fernandes said that employees came number one and customers came number two. If employees had a happy workforce, they will satisfy the customers needed.

Nowadays, we can see that Air Asia has many subsidiaries in others country, there are Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, Air Asia X, Viet Jet AirAsia, AirAsia Japan, AirAsia India and AirAsia Philippines. It accomplished its slogan that is ‘Everyone can fly’. Enplaning to everywhere, not a dream, Air Asia did it. Comparing with Malaysia Airlines (MAS), Air Asia always provides the low-cost ticket for their customers.

Steve Paul - Apple Inc.

Entrepreneurial Trait ⑦ - Outcome Oriented

Steven Paul Jobs was born at San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955 and passed away on October 5, 2011. He was a well-known American entrepreneur. Not that all, he was widely recognized as the chairman, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc. Besides, Steve Jobs was famous as a pioneer of the microcomputer transformation of the 1970s and his co-founder, Steve Wozniak was along with him.

Another important entrepreneurial trait that serves an essential character of an entrepreneur is outcome oriented.  Based on the justification stated out in Oxford Dictionary, outcome oriented mean that a person is pay more attention toward the result of an action than the process to get there. In NLP, the notion of outcome oriented is a situation show what a person or organization intends to accomplish or attain. To elaborate this statement, outcome oriented refers to the aspirated state or objective that a person or organization strives to bring about. In a nutshell, outcome oriented is the feedback to the question, “What do you want”? To make a conclusion about the definition of outcome oriented is the elementary goal of an individual or organization to meet intentions and realize positive growth.

Steve Jobs was an outcome oriented entrepreneur which can see through his management style. According to his previous interview and also the views of his employees, Jobs was a hot tempered and harsh person. So, these made his employees so scared of him and always prevent getting into a same space with Jobs especially in the elevator. Nonetheless, the reason of Jobs acted this way was the best way to extract the best in employees and make them to do the best work they could. And in fact, most of the employees under Jobs were agreed that they can produce more qualities achievement under his pressure. For an example, the Mac team members in the early 1980s all of them were admitted without the strong will of Jobs, Mac probably would not exist. Another case to elaborate the outcome oriented trait of Jobs is by the statement made by an Apple employee named Mike Evangelist. Based on his statement, he said that Jobs had forced him to work harder during their first time dinning and he strongly agreed to the pressure that given by Jobs, so that he can do his work much better than otherwise. To sum up, Jobs used his strict action toward his employee to ensure they can provide the best result to his company.

Walter Elias - Walt Disney

Entrepreneurial Trait ⑥ - Open Culture

A man of dreams. He dreamed big dreams; and he made his dream come true. He was Walter Elias ‘Walt’ Disney. The Great Walt Disney was an entertainer, director, film producer, animator and most importantly an entrepreneur. His many innovations include the very first cartoons in TV with synchronized sound, the first full-length animated feature film and, of course, the theme park. His most prominent creation is Mickey Mouse, a universally recognized cultural icon. The company started by him is still developing successfully, inspiring so many people, young and old.

Walter Elias ‘Walt Disney’ is one of the most successful entrepreneur in the history of mankind. He introduced the foundations of a magical, optimistic and mischievous world full of imagination many decades ago that instantly caught the hearts of the audience. The magic of his creation is still alive today.

The entrepreneurial skill that is linked to Walt Disney is open culture. Open Culture is a concept according to which knowledge should be disseminated freely and its growth should come from developing, making a difference or enriching existing works on the basis of sharing and collaboration, without being restricted by rules linked to the legal protection of intellectual property. One of the open cultures that can relate to his work is open design which is referring to the most legendary cartoon icon ‘Mickey Mouse’. Open design is an application of open source methods to the creation of physical products or machines to develop projects. In 1929, instead of having just one famous cartoon figure, Walt created new friends for Mickey Mouse namely Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck.

Robert Kuok Hock Nien - Genting Highland

Entrepreneurial Trait ⑤ - Failure Is An Option

Robert Kuok Hock Nien is a Malaysian Chinese Billionaire businessman. He is a member of the Malaysian Chinese business. His business interest range is from sugarcane plantations, sugar refineries, flour milling, animal feed, oil, mining to finance, hotels, properties, trading, freight and publishing. This can show his successful tycoons who rules the business world.

Robert Kuok is an entrepreneur that show the characteristic of failure is an option in the process of achieve success. Failure is defined as a word that carries a negative connotation. Nobody wants to fail in their life. But failure, if you are doing something worthwhile, it is inevitable. The important message is when we are facing failure, we must learn from it, try to avoid damage and do your best to recover gracefully. Besides that, we must have the positive attitude when we are facing failure. We cannot give up and have to fight with the everything we got it.

In the process of getting success in his career, Robert Kuok had faced the hard times where he began the first direct in sugar trade war with China’s Mainland. In 1960, after the Indonesian government take over the confiscation of the industry of Indonesian family Oei Tiong Nam, no one can dominate the field of Asia Sugar, and cause this field become incompetent. This situation had created an opportunity to Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade to start collaboration with government to enter a large amount of sugar from China to Malaysia to seek for long-term occupation of the market. For a time, a large amount of sugar coming from China had poured an avalanche to the Malaysian market. Robert Kuok was unprepared with this situation that can be menace his business because the sugar that import from China is much  cheaper compare to the Kuok’s sugar and make him cannot competitive in this market.

Robert Kuok had found the solution to recover this situation which import the white sugar from India to lower price in order to regain the sugar market in Malaysia. Eventually, the Robert Kuok had defeated in this sugar trade war and get the nickname of the sugar king of Asia. Through this sugar trade war, China government and Robert Kuok become a business partner and start a cooperation of sugar business in Hong Kong. This evidence had proved how Robert Kuok implied the characteristic of failure is an option when he was facing sugar trade war.