10 ways to know you are a creative entrepreneur

You know how there are families out there where the profession runs through their family history? There are doctor families, lawyer families, painter families etc. The classic father & sons companies, passed on from generation to generation.

I was in my late teenage years when I started to realize that being a self employed entrepreneur runs in our family. There's not one family member I can come up with who's working 9-5 for some else's company or business. Not as far as I remember. So I believe it's genetically determined. I was destined to become one myself since the day I was born. This understanding has strongly influenced my decisions of studying, working and moving to Turkey. I knew that Alanya relies almost completely on tourism and agriculture before I moved here. And a local salary wouldn't by far support the lifestyle we have, never mind paying my flight tickets to visit friends and family throughout the year. I knew from the beginning that I would have to stand on my own legs. Something I always wanted to anyways. This would be my chance to do so.

So how do you know you if you are ment to run your own business or not? It's simple, when you feel like it's the only right thing for you to do. That's the easy part. Followed on the foot by the hard part of 'How on earth am I going to do that???'. There is no simple answer for this question. In fact, it will keep popping up down the road again and again, every time you enter a new stage or you are facing new challenges.

But for now, I would love to share this rocking cool list below with you, in case you too are wondering, or ever wondered, if you have it in you to become a creative entrepreneur. I double check #10, now struggling to work out how to manifest #9.

You know you are a creative entrepreneur  if:

1. You are challenged by working for others and you march to the beat of your own drummer.
2. You have a job working for someone else but you constantly imagine what you would do if you were self-employed.
3. You see the world as a place to experience life, not just make it through another day.
4. You have a unique perspective that you manifest and express using your own vocabulary – such as color, texture, shape, harmony, melody, composition, pitch, shade, tone, clarity, ambiguity, to the touch, palette, savory, sweet, light, dark … [add your own vocabulary here]
5. You encounter another creative person doing really authentic, honest work, and it makes you light up inside.
6. You graciously accept monetary compensation for your hard work and have a real sense of the value of your time and how that translates into what you’ve produced.
7. It is difficult for you to separate what you love from what you do.
8. You are never satisfied, and continuously yearn for ways to grow and develop yourself through your creative talent.
9. You are able to put both your right and left brain to work to produce something that is at once creative and also profitable.
10. It kills your spirit to work in any job other than what you feel drawn to creatively.

What do you think? Do you recognize yourself in most of the above? If so, you too might be a creative entrepreneur who can achieve amazing things once you start marching to the beat of your own drummer. I know, it's insanely scary. At least in the beginning it is. But once you've decided to FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY it's all about down sizing your action plan into bite-sized little chunks and baby steps. Baby steps are not scary. They are super exciting. And everyone can do them. Yes, including you canım benim. :)

Source: This list was composed by Tara Lutman Agacayak (www.taraagacayak.com). She is an American ex-pat and creative entrepreneur living in Istanbul. The above image (Self Portrait by flapperdoodle) and list were published on 'When I Grow Up Coach:  http://whenigrowupcoach.com/2009/11/12/ten-ways-to-know-if-youre-a-creative-entrepreneur.

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"Michelle Ward, aka The When I Grow Up Coach, helps creative people devise the career they think they can't have - or discover it to begin with! A certified life coach by the International Coach Academy, a musical theater actress with her BFA from NYU/Tisch, and a Corporate America escapee, Michelle has served as an expert source and contributor for such outlets as Newsweek, Forbes, and Psychology Today, as well as leading workshops and seminars at SXSW 2011 and the sold-out Etsy Success Symposium. She could be found coachin', bloggin' & givin' away free stuff at whenigrowupcoach.com."