On Friday, 9th February, we took a self-assessment test of three sections related to  entrepreneurial skills and potential. Here are our results:

 

Out of a total of  23 students who completed the motivations section as to investigate the underling reasons that induce someone to act as an entreupreneur, only one student managed to achieve above average scores. The rest of us, on the other hand, had a narrow fail scoring slightly below average.

 

In particular, specific reasons referring to the need for achievement, power and control appeal, challenge and ambition, as well as self-sufficiency and freedom fall into four categories of motivations respectively, thus constituting the above section.

 

In terms of the first category, 83% of the Greek students had below average scores. As far as the second category is concerned, our average score was close to the general average score, with 35% scoring above average. As regards to the third category, the majority of the students, 18 out of 23, had below average scores. Lastly,  the figures recorded in the fourth category show that the majority of the students scored below average, whereas some of us obtained the minimum grade.

To sum up, we obviously lack motivation required for a successful entepreneur. Although we  like having power and control, we don’t have a high need for achievement. To make matters worse, getting really ambitious, being our own boss or making decisions indepedently are qualities we do not seem to possess.

While completing the section about attitudes, where our perceptions, feelings and judgement were investigated, only 17% of the students had above average scores.  

Concerning the category of perception to act upon one’s destiny, most of the students ( 75%)  had below average scores. Likewise, our orientation towards action scores were 70% below average.

It is obvious that we do not tend to believe we have the power to influence a situation by our actions. This is due to ignoring the fact that having initiative is  the fundamental characteristic of an entrepreneur.

The third section of the test refers to our aptitudes, which are our natural inclinations, competencies and abilities that predispose us to become entepreneurs. We all got below average scores except for one out of 23 students.

Concerning qualities such as perseverance and determination , 65% were below average. Similarly, while evaluating themselves on self confidence and enthusiasm, 70% were below average.The two categories in which the minority of the students, around 15%, had above average scores were tolerance towards ambiguity and resistance to stress as well as creativity and imagination.

To put it in a nutshell, some of us are able to persist in our efforts and we are characterised by constant determination, thus putting faith in our own resources.   We should, though, decrease the stress caused by uncertainty and improve our abilities of being mentally-stimulated, inquisitive, able to anticipate things and imagine various solutions to a problem.

All in all, we have come to the conclusion that we don’t seem to have the skills required in order to become entrepreneurs. Through the activities and practices of our ERASMUS+ Program, we hope that we will trigger ourselves, so as to evolve our attitudes and mature our aptitudes.

Authors: Dafna Katerina & Aggeliki Katsiroumpa

Supervising professors: Chryssanthi Korre & Elena Zalavra

Participating students who took the test: Kostas Cheliotis, John Monogios, Dimitris Lazos, Elisavet-Despina Seferidi, Margarita Papavlasopoulou, Tatiana Tourkogiani, Katerina Karkalou, Anastasia Vasilikou, Christina Xotza, Anna Kokkinou, Isidora Kapsali, Dimitris Malios, Bill Mentzinis, Christina Mentzini, Mary Kaskarika, Ariadni Barbari, Maria Bifsa, Kalomoira Kourbeti, Niki Kribali, Nefeli Koutala, Aggeliki Katsirouba, Katerina Dafna, and Spiridoula Mitropoulou.

Test is available online here and our results are available online here