An entrepreneur is best defined as an individual who possesses the fundamental intellectual resources to incur financial risks and create a profitable business out of them. "Entrepreneur" is a word derived from the French language - "entre" (to enter), "prendre" (to take) and applies in general to anyone embarking upon a new project or exploring a new opportunity.
Most societies look upon on an entrepreneur as a valuable person. Many governments across the globe encourage their activity by offering access to inexpensive finances for capital, many tax and duty exemptions and consultation. Greatest success to an entrepreneur comes from focus on an innovative and unfamiliar market niche which may be too small to have been ignored by mainstream businesses. To encourage and make new technologies marketable, many research and educational institutions have "business incubators" which help entrepreneurs turn their cutting edge research into effective and useful marketable products.
An entrepreneur possesses many unique characteristics in which he or she differs from the average career person. These qualities include spontaneous creativity, assessment and reasoning skills, willingness to problem solve in absence of substantiating information and the courage to take calculated risks. Persistence is another virtue an entrepreneur must possess in order to build and sustain something tangible. The drive and passion to create something new is a desirable quality that sets apart an entrepreneur from a businessman. A businessman is a one time entrepreneur while an entrepreneur moves on from business to business. In the civilized economy, an entrepreneur has been described as a person engaged in "creative destruction" of existing products and services by replacing them with the new and the better.
Entrepreneurs are always moving, since he or she is highly independent and does not thrive in big business environments. For example, Apple Computers, the mother of most startup enterprises had to fire Steve Jobs, only to have him return later a much more suitable person (intrapreneur*) for the job.
Entrepreneurs in Toronto, Canada are no different and they act in confines of their own opportunities and society. Although Canada encourages entrepreneurs, many of them have been known to have used their skills outside their geographical area of operations. Notable amongst them is Ryan S, Thompson, well known in the IT industry worldwide for his innovative solutions through MagicFloppy.com, MediaQube and Star Media Holdings, all of which have been his successful entreprenual forays into the IT industry and based in the USA. However, he began his career at the age of 16 in Toronto, Canada by being the consultant for work majors like Coca-Cola and Packard Bell NEC. His success in Canada not withstanding, the achievements in the neighboring country have done Toronto and Canada proud.
Toronto has a lot of entrepreneurs waiting to cut their wings in the path shown by Ryan S. Thompson.
* intrapreneur – An individual who acts like an entrepreneur from within the confines of a large organization.
