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In an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurship is being defined by a common set of global principles. Although, what we discuss today, in not how to achieve entrepreneurial success in a global village; we attempt to understand the universal principles that make any entrepreneurship successful, no matter where in the world you are. Learn to recognize an opportunity A successful entrepreneur is one who sees a gap in demand and supply or one who thinks he can supply the best in a market crowded with supplies. The 2010 Forbes Richest Man in the World, is an entrepreneur who pounced on an opportunity. An immigrant in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helú started off with a dry foods store, made money from his real estate investments and then went on to grab the government-run Mexican Telecom Business when it was being privatized in the 1990s. Today, he’s valued at $53.5 Billion, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who, incidentally, also made their riches by learning to recognize opportunities. There are entrepreneurial lessons to come out of the British Royal Wedding too. Catherine Middleton’s mother, Carol Middleton, a stay-at-home mom noticed a huge opportunity in the Kids Party segment in the 70s. The wife of a flight dispatcher, she set up a hugely successful home business that made the family wealthy, propelling them into social circles that would eventually lead to the Royal union. The company, Party Pieces, is currently valued at 30 million pounds. Have you learned to recognize an opportunity yet? Recognize the potential of your idea If you haven’t seen ‘The Social Network’, you’re probably detained in Guantanamo. If you’ve seen it, you’ll definitely remember the bit where Sean Parker talks to Mark Zuckerberg about Roy Raymond. The Stanford Business School grad who wanted to buy lingerie for his wife, was too embarrassed to buy it in a mall where everybody could see him and came up with the idea for Victoria’s Secret, a high-end lingerie store, where men could buy lingerie without feeling like perverts. Unfortunately, he sold his company, and jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge a few years after. While introducing Mark to Victoria’s Secret models, Sean makes his point to the future billionaire – recognize the potential of your business idea. Universally, if there’s one thing that sets successful entrepreneurs apart from would-have-been success stories is this simple skill to know where an idea can take you. Roy Raymond sold the company he created for 5 million and died when it was worth 500 in a few years, because he failed to recognize the potential of his brainchild. Sean Parker received 7% of Facebook’s stock and is worth $924 million, when he didn’t even come up with the idea. His networth is the result of his genius in being able to recognize the potential of Mark’s idea. Stay Foolish, Stay Motivated If you look at some of the biggest entrepreneurial success stories of our time – Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Amazon, Google, etc. – these were all begun by crazy guys, dropping out of college, setting up small businesses in garages and setting out to do ridiculous things like compiling the entire data of the internet and writing algorithms to make it easy to sift through this data. But these were men who stayed motivated and stayed foolish. Jeff Bezos started Amazon after a comfortable stint as Vice President at a well-paying Computer Science job. Indeed, not all IT Czars became billionaires at 25! He kept the fire in his belly alive and thought of the Amazon business plan on a cross country drive from New York to Seattle. After working in the plush offices of Wall Street, he risked it all for setting up a company in his garage. Present day billionaire entrepreneurs who started from scratch follow the simple universal approach to entrepreneurship, they stay foolish and motivated, which Steve Jobs put so beautifully in his Stanford graduation speech to deafening applause. These entrepreneurs have defined what it takes to be successful – all you have to do is have enough belief in yourself and continue to put in the effort and work it takes. These guys wouldn’t be at the top of their game, if they weren’t constantly motivating themselves. Follow your passion Jerry Seinfeld is an inspiration to all those artist-entrepreneurs out there. Whether, you’re a writer, a painter or a stand-up comic, Seinfeld shows you that if you’re really good at what you do, there’s no need to trade money for following your passion. Currently valued at $800 Million, Seinfeld retired from television more than a decade ago but continues to rake in the moolah by syndicating his show, Seinfeld. After landing a small role in an HBO series, in the 80s, Seinfeld was fired over creative differences, showing streaks of a classic entrepreneur who doesn’t get along with people. Let’s not forget Steve Jobs was fired from the company he created! He went on to create a pilot for Seinfeld, along with Larry David, and sold the show to NBC. He refused to extend the show by another season, even for 5 million per episode, or take up a Hollywood career after the show ended and instead he continued to be a stand-up comic, making more millions through his shows. The four approaches to entrepreneurship described above are so universal in nature that they can be applied to any business, in any part of the world. They are simple as philosophies, strong as ideas and enduring as steps to entrepreneurial success. Preetam Kaushik is a freelance writer/independent columnist and an avid blogger. He is a web 2.0 expert and writing consultant serving a wide array of clients. 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