The Entrepreneur’s Journey & Being Your Authentic Self: An Interview with Dreamers & Doers
“The most underappreciated and profound leadership trait is curiosity. A leader's curiosity about others, the world, themselves, and their experiences fosters an openness to learn, grow, and the expansion of one's world and vision. Curious leaders become better listeners, ask thoughtful questions to uncover deeper insights and new possibilities, and challenge their own assumptions.”
Recently featured in a Dreamers & Doers article, our founder Gokce Gizer Clover recounts the journey from her entrepreneurial roots in Turkey, to the building of Beyond42 and her mission to support founders in the tech ecosystem.
A serial entrepreneur, Gokce has been supporting founders from ideation through to fundraising and scaling for over a decade, designing programs, building communities, and leading competitions.
Photo credit: Nicole Engelmann
Throughout the interview, Gokce described her experience as an entrepreneur, and how introspection and being honest with herself empowered her to trust the process, and show up everyday, in the face of uncertainty and setbacks.
Often, the entrepreneurial path is thought to be filled with self-doubt - and one that we walk alone. However, Gokce explained that it doesn’t have to be this way, and in fact that this line of thinking is actually negatively impacting founders’ performance as leaders.
A lot of this self-doubt stems from the idea that we must be perfect in all that we do, as entrepreneurs. Already going against the grain, we have a lot to prove, and this pressure can be immense, especially without a support network around us.
On her own journey, Gokce’s perspective has shifted from achieving this perfection to valuing the importance of showing up consistently, putting in the effort, and striving for excellence.
A few insights and learnings from Gokce’s own joruney:
Building a team and support network: Gokce emphasized the importance of surrounding yourself with people that love and believe in you, and recognize your best qualities.
Being true to yourself: as a leader, it is so important to be authentic to yourself. There is power in honesty, and embracing who we really are. Further to that, showing up as your true self also encourages and models that behaviour for your team. Leaders have an impact on the individuals around them both inside and outside of work, and need to be mindful about this influence.
Underappreciated leadership traits: Gokce highlighted the role of curiosity in leaders, and how important it is for a leader to be curious about others, the world, themselves and their experiences in order to foster an openness to grow, and expand their world view. She went on to add that curious leaders are also better listeners, uncover deeper insights, and can challenge their own assumptions.
Discover more insights and dive into Gokce’s story in the full article, here!
