While entrepreneurship comes with freedom and flexibility, there is also a great deal of responsibility and a need for discipline. Entrepreneurs therefore need to have a certain set of qualities in order to be successful. There is no definitive formula for success, but a unique blend of certain qualities will help you be successful in your own exceptional way.
1. Taking initiative
Taking initiative is crucial in entrepreneurship. As said, entrepreneurship comes with freedom and flexibility, but if you cannot handle that, you will only procrastinate.
No one tells you what time to start working, what time to leave, when to take a break, when not to check your Facebook or Twitter, when not to play games on your phone or to hurry up. Without extreme self-control and natural drive, you will fail to meet deadlines and get work done.
Hence, having a get-it-done personality could help you bring your vision to life more simply. Successful entrepreneurs have the discipline to work on achieving their short-term and long-term goals. They are focused on ensuring that their businesses work.
2. Having passion
As Dan Scalco says, a blasé attitude is not associated with overwhelming success as an entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs love what they do.
If you do not, it will be hard to overcome the inevitable obstacles. Starting your own business is rarely an overnight success. Facing a lack of customers or profits is never easy. Without an undeniable passion for your niche, it will be difficult to stay positive among the disappointments and hard times.
To successful entrepreneurs, work is not simply ‘work;’ it is their life and they work extremely hard to accomplish their goals. That does not mean that they are married to their jobs; they set boundaries and work in a smart way.
3. Having people skills
Communication is a necessity in any business endeavor. While being a loner does not rule you out as a potential entrepreneur, lacking social skills could hinder your success. Without people skills, you could face difficulties forming partnerships, attracting customers, and networking within your industry.
4. Not giving up easily
Securing your own success requires perseverance, the ability to be persuasive, and thinking outside the box. Not everything is going to go exactly as planned. People, permits, laws, codes, and even yourself can quickly turn to barriers preventing your business from growing. You need to possess the strength to try harder or to try other options in order to overcome these barriers.
According to Kinley McFadden, successful entrepreneurs challenge themselves to learn more and to do more. They understand that all businesses are affected by certain internal and external factors, some of which are out of their control or beyond their abilities.
Successful entrepreneurs understand these limitations, and either build their own capacity so that they can get what they need, or work with people with different expertise and experience in order to overcome these barriers.
5. Being creative
Research has shown that while only 47 percent of people are creative thinkers, the percentage jumps to more than 75 percent when looking at entrepreneurs. After all, finding innovative ways to crack ordinary problems requires creative thinking. Successful entrepreneurs develop new ideas, methods, processes, products, services, and solutions, which meet new requirements and provide more value to stakeholders.
As McFadden states, a large part of being successful in business relies upon improvement and positive change; all good entrepreneurs have the vision to be creative and innovative in order to bring about this sort of change and improvement.
6. Being competitive
A competitive nature forces you not to just be better, but to be the best. The desire to strategize and to win translates perfectly into business. Being number one is what gets you in customers’ minds and on their shopping lists. Successful entrepreneurs are therefore always thinking about improving their aforementioned innovative and creative ideas, methods, processes, products, services, and solutions.
7. Being hardworking
Those who are willing to put in the most work are usually the ones who reap the greatest rewards. Entrepreneurs are not afraid to wear more than one hat, work through the weekend, or sacrifice for the success of their business.
Become active and use every channel available in order to bring awareness to your brand. You need to go out there, proactively market your product, and make a name for yourself. Nobody is responsible for your success besides you.
Please do keep in mind number 2: set boundaries and work in a smart way. You need breaks too, so you can look at your work with a fresh set of eyes. It is all about balance!
8. Being able to seize opportunities
As I said in my blog ‘How to Be Great at Seizing Opportunities,’ a thriving business is all about seizing opportunities. Being an entrepreneur is all about finding potential problems challenges and opportunities, and providing real, innovative, and useful solutions to them.
However, some entrepreneurs do not find it easy to see or seize opportunities. Most of us let opportunities pass by every day, because we are untrained or unaware of the signals. Other times, we see opportunities, but we do not take advantage of them as we believe they are nothing more than problems. Read my blog to see what you can do about this problem challenge.
9. Being a risk taker
Good entrepreneurs do not fear taking risks; they take them on head-on. The thing about taking risks, according to McFadden, is that successful entrepreneurs take calculated risks, not foolish ones. Successful entrepreneurs weigh the pros and cons, look at all possible outcomes, and make a calculated and informed decision.
As you can read in my blog, risks and rewards are two sides of an equation. The higher the risks, the higher the rewards are, at least in some people’s minds. According to Aditya Mishra, the assessment of risk and benefits is a rational process that plays out in everyone’s mind in any activity that we carry out. In this rational process, a person’s personality plays a role.
Some people adapt well to the demands of a situation, readjust their perspectives and change their thinking. In a high pace of change and uncertainties, it is natural that a business leader needs to be flexible and adaptable. If we are uncomfortable with the idea of flexibility in decision making, we stay on the path of the status quo, which possibly poses even more risks. We have to be evolving continuously, because successful entrepreneurs are the ones who come up with the aforementioned innovative and creative ideas, methods, processes, products, services, and solutions.
10. Not being afraid to make mistakes and to face failure
Successful entrepreneurs understand that mistakes are a part of the game, and they use each and every mistake as a learning experience. There is no entrepreneur who has not made a bucket load of mistakes. The truth is that every entrepreneur will end up making mistakes – some small and some big – and that every entrepreneur will fail numerous times. Nevertheless, each of these incidents will be an opportunity for the successful entrepreneur to come back in a better and stronger way.
Out of your comfort zone?
Do you recognize some qualities that you do not have, but that you wish you had? It is time to start working on it if you want to boost your chances of success.