It’s going to be just hard to term myself as an Economist, as I am aware how lack of technical skills such as Econometrics and fundamental Statistic of a person I was. The ideal of being adept in Economics while running business is more influenced by my father: After all, he had a Master Degree in Economics, and he run his own business. I have never question the distinctive disciplines the two fields before, as I have already seen a living model in my father, that you can be as good of a businessman as you can be an Advisor in Economic Development. Although an article pointed out how awkward the relationship between Economics and Entrepreneurship is. Regardless, you can make anything awkward, and so the relationship between two interchangeable fields.
It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to shake away that thought. That I should become what my father has become. And my mom too. But it’s extraordinary to think of how, at the age of 20, they are still serving as my guardians, my role models, and my idols.
I have so much to learn from them, and I want to learn as much as I can from them.
When I sat in the morning and wrote down in my diary the question: “Are you, right now, who you want to be?”, the very fast answer is “No.” I am not who I want to be just yet, and I know that I still have a long way to go. But that question wasn’t too difficult to answer. The one that I have to eventually face, to assess the current direction that I am heading to, is “Are you on the right track?”
But the ultimate question that I would have to answer is, “Who do you want to be?”
In my high school, I thought I would have that answer laid out crystal clear after I enrolled into university, or after I have bumped into enough shit holes, and went through enough hell to realize what should be my stake. Yet I am still, at this moment, entering the third year of my life at university, still sitting like a rock and wondering what I should become. Perhaps I should read more about people’s glory, to maybe adopt their model, and have an anchor on my compass to know whether I am walking the right way.
After all, my dream didn’t really change, but they were crushed. It was tough, but I think I should be building a better version again.
Soon later I might be able to do something better for not only myself, but also the world. or maybe just for someone that I hold dear to my heart.
I wanted to learn Economics Development just for the sake of that. In order to figure out what are the problems, and what can we do to solve it. As of for now, I have been able to deal with Theoretical Economics better than Applied Economics, but that’s because I haven’t really been taking Econometrics classes or Advanced Finances.
However, back to where I was about entrepreneurship.
Competition, is what I am seeing. But I want to be able to see the opportunity.
1st thing first, I want to train myself to be an opportunist.
What’s wrong with being an opportunist? People criticize them, just because they know what to do in a chaos. People are always going to be in chaos. People would always see problems and find someone to blame on. However, opportunist uses that problems to better themselves, so sometimes, people view them as being selfish. They are, most of the time, selfish, because they fit in the categories of not caring so much about the suffering of the people, but care more about how to make the most out of it. In many ways, opportunists can be seen as unethical, because they don’t abide to the common understanding of empathy and compassion. If you care, and feel empathize, you won’t take advantage. Opportunist sometimes are seen as leaches thrust on people’s vulnerability for benefits, and that’s why society have not so nice words about them. Opportunist don’t confront, but rather, take the shortcut.
Regardless how badmouthed people can be, just because everybody is entitled to their own opinions, being an opportunist bring a lot of values to the society. Entrepreneurs can’t be successful without being a bit of an opportunist.
There are a few definitions out there about being an opportunist, but I will probably make my own and define the way I interpret it here:
An opportunist seizes every opportunity to improve things, or a person who adapts one’s actions to take advantage of opportunities and circumstances.
For who? You might ask. A lot of people debate on how opportunist are self-interest and do bad things in expense of others. But personally, I think it’s just unfair to term it so negatively. You have to prioritize yourself first of all, at least pass the survival level, to sufficiently care for others and make decisions for other people. There are different priorities in human natures and of course compassion are included, but the disregard of self-importance is misleading to an extent. I think that everyone is ultimately selfish, and also have the equal ability to help others. No one is not selfish. So considering the benefit of opportunities for who is very contextual, and it can’t be applied with the progressive change in conscious entrepreneurship.
The other malicious definition of being an Opportunist is “A person who places expediency above principle”, but that’s just unnecessary. To be successful regardless of expertise, not even only Entrepreneurship, you always have to have principles. If you violate your own principles, you lost your own trust.
So in my opinion, the best combined definition for Opportunist is, to seize opportunities to improve things without violating one’s own principles, for the greater good of oneself and others.
And that’s maybe the primary of discovery of who I want to become.
Qbooz 