Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? You don’t need to come from any particular socio-economic background, possess a particular set of experiences, or even have a formal education. What will actually make you successful is having the right combination of personality traits.
There are many common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Some people are born with them, some people learn to grow them, and some people focus on the ones they excel at, while working with partners that have the traits they’re missing. However you do it, these are four of the most important traits you will need as an entrepreneur.
1) Drive: What makes you get out of bed in the morning? What makes you truly excited to face the day ahead? Entrepreneurs know how to tap into that deep-seated source of energy each and every day…especially on the days when they’d rather not. With no one else standing over you telling you what to do with your day, you have to be the one to keep yourself motivated to work those long, hard, business owner’s hours.
2) Perseverance: There’s no such thing as an overnight success. There’s just people you haven’t heard of before they became successful. If you look into any successful entrepreneur’s history, you’re going to find a lot of long hours, failed attempts, returns to the drawing board, and building blocks, all leading to the “overnight” success. Can you keep going no matter how tough it gets?
3) Flexibility: The road to entrepreneurial success is a long and convoluted one, and you’re not always going to get there in the way you planned to. Markets change, technology changes, customers change, employees change, and you need to change too. What earned you success five years ago, a year ago, or sometimes even yesterday, is not going to earn you success now. Failure is a constant companion on this journey, and you have to be prepared to learn from it, adapt, and bounce back quickly. You need to be flexible enough to manage all these changing conditions and continually supply your customers with something they’ve got to have.
4) Vision: Entrepreneurs are noted for their dedication to a personal vision that not only guides the creation of a product or service, but is so exciting and well-communicated that it inspires others to dedicate themselves to it too. Are you the kind of person who can find a vision like this, share it with others, and stay true to it, in the face of hard work and failed efforts? If so, you might not only have what it takes to keep your company on track, but to inspire your customers to take part in your story, and buy.
These are just some of the key traits of successful entrepreneurs. Do you recognize them in yourself? Where can you strengthen them? Can you think of other traits entrepreneurs need? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
