I was standing the middle of the exhibition hall astonished. It was the last day of a 5 day convention introducing brand new and innovative products. Participants were carrying bags of products that were just launched a few hours earlier. It was a meaningful moment full of pride and fulfillment. I had spent the last two years attempting to reach this pivotal moment, and knew that there was even more challenges to overcome in the future. This was a moment when I realized what you can accomplish through Intrapreneurship.

I have been passionate about health, wellness and well-being for years and even pursued business opportunities as an entrepreneur in these markets before I took the position of COO with Qnet. I was excited about the idea of continuing to pursue my dreams, passions and interests within Qnet even, though I was not the owner.

“Would it be possible to pursue a personal interest which is outside of my employer’s core business?” This was a question I asked myself 3 years ago. I was not sure of the answer. No other employees had done so to my knowledge. To do so would require guts. I would have to Risk failure. It would require an investment of my personal time as well as the company’s resources. It would also require an entrepreneurial spirit that most corporate executives usually do not pursue once they start working for other people and stop working for themselves. Do I have what it takes to achieve this goal?

When most corporate executives are asked for their ultimate dream, they reply: “I want to be my own boss”. They want time and financial freedom, but very few actually ever achieve their dreams. They do not want to leave their comfort zone, take risks or they cannot afford the burden of financing their venture.

Do you want to feel unsatisfied, unfulfilled and wasted for the rest of your life like these executives? If you don’t you should change your focus from the ultimate goal to the journey itself. Once you switch your focus and intent from the ultimate goal to the journey, you start embracing new ideas of achieving your purpose wherever you are in the present moment. You do not need to quit your job. You do not need to take new financial risks like debt or loss of income. You just have to change the way you think. You will get all the rewards of entrepreneurship once you shift the focus from the ultimate results to the journey itself.

This kind of entrepreneurship was termed as intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working for an organization. This way of thinking was what I needed to use to pursue my own interests and dreams while working for Qnet.

An intrapreneur is an executive that works for a corporation and who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product. Intrapreneurship integrates risk-taking and innovative approaches that have been previously attributed to entrepreneurship.

In 1985 TIME Magazine published an article titled: “Here come the Intrapreneurs,” which discussed the intrapreneurship spirit. Newsweek followed in the same year with an article that quoted Steve Jobs: “The Macintosh team was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship ; only a few years before the term was coined—a group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company.”

Intrapreneurship requires executives to initiate and innovate without being asked to do so. Intrapreneurs transform ideas into profitable ventures by tapping into their personal creativities, passions and interests, while operating within their organizations.

Intrapreneurship gives executives the opportunity to redesign their job scope, formally or informally, and behave like entrepreneurs, while using the resources, capabilities and security of their employer.

Corporations can leverage on intrapreneurship to shake up the status quo by injecting the dynamic characteristics of entrepreneurship, without exposing intrapreneurs to the risks or accountability associated with entrepreneurial failure.

Google allows their employees to spend up to 20% of their time pursuing projects of their choice. 3M encourages many projects within the company and gives certain freedoms to employees to create their own projects. Intel also has a tradition of implementing intrapreneurship.

While entrepreneurs start their ventures independently and bear either the full risk of their failure or the fruit of their success, intrapreneurs are not independent, not liable to bear losses and they are not responsible for raising capital.

Take the capital risk and independency aside, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are very similar. They require innovation, creativity, the ability to look at things in novel ways, a capacity to take calculated risks and the attitude that failures are lessons. Intrapreneur and entrepreneurs are imaginative and relentlessly look out for opportunities to reinvent themselves.

What will it take for you to become the next intrapreneur of your organization?

• Develop a vision and purpose that is related to your personal passions and interests.
• Build a professional-support network.
• Expand your professional world in order to lead cross-functional teams.
• Challenge the status quo.
• Persevere in the face of uncertainty or failure.

Intrapreneurs are the energy behind new ventures that enable large companies to continue innovating and embarking into new markets, products and services. Would Blackberry have been more competitive if they had intrapreneurs? Sure, they would.

Don’t wait until your company allows you the chance to pursue intrapreneurship. Pursue it yourself. The more successful companies are, the more they fail to innovate. There is nothing that fails like success. Intrapreneurship is your chance to achieve a meaningful and fulfilling career, with all of the rewards and none of the major financial risks. Make sure that you take full advantage of this new way of thinking. I am sure glad that I did!