Entrepreneurs Must Be Resilient: Advice from BRI's President Director

Becoming an Entrepreneur Requires Resilience: Advice from BRI’s President Director

Yogyakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Hery Gunardi, President Director of PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BBRI), shared his views on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. He said many believe that in order to start a business you must have a lot of money first.

‘From my perspective as a banker, that’s not necessarily the case. After decades in banking, the most important thing is the business idea. So having an idea for a business, and then the willingness to realise that idea,’ he said during the Entrepreneur Talks segment at the Jogja Financial Festival on Saturday (23/5/2026).

After obtaining an interesting business idea, the next capability is to understand the market. After all, the market is an important component, even more so than the ownership of capital itself.

‘DFrom the market, if we want to run a product business and we don’t have a market, it may be a bit difficult. The second is the ability to develop the product,’ he explained.

If the product can be developed well and there is a market for it, it can become a potential business idea. As for funding, prospective entrepreneurs can go to a bank to seek financing.

In addition to idea and market, to be a successful entrepreneur you need a tough mentality. Because in running a business, things do not always go smoothly and full of challenges.

‘From the experience so far, it’s unlikely that today we will always profit. So at least you have resilience, at least for a year or two, you may go through hard times first,’ Hery said.

‘If you fall, you give up, we entrepreneurs are supposed to be tough. If one failure, find another. Fall once, get up three times, run three times. This is something not many people have the mentality for,’ he stressed.