When we think of entrepreneurs, we usually call to mind leaders of their industries. Billionaire business owners, perhaps. These men and women have established themselves as front runners in their respective niches, and often they’re also managing thousands of workers all over the world.
We see them and know them today, not as the men and women they were years ago. Though their hit ideas may seem like an overnight success, they were more likely the end product of overcoming a string of failures.
So what makes a successful entrepreneur? What unique qualities does an entrepreneur possess that inspire their intuitive, inventive, and fighting spirit?
If you’re reading this article, there’s an excellent chance you possess a good number of these entrepreneurial habits already. Other characteristics may need to be nurtured over time to take your ideas to the next level.
The Path to Becoming an Entrepreneur
Your path to being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug may have been a long and varied one. You may have grown up in a home where these types of skills were taught and encouraged.
However, it’s more likely that you were thrust into learning how to make lemonade from the lemons life gave you. It’s also possible that your overwhelming student debt makes it difficult to make timely payments, affects your credit score, and makes it increasingly hard to land a regular 9-5 job.
You may also struggle to repay other debts and loans and believe that some extra income will help you pay them off faster. You may have even lived through a job loss, illness, divorce, or other hardship.
Life circumstances have led you to this point, and it’s now possible to understand why and how you see the world differently.
Once you better understand how an entrepreneur thinks and acts, you’ll be able to nurture those qualities in yourself so that your new and innovative ideas survive and thrive in the open market.
Here are three essential characteristics of a solid entrepreneurial spirit:
1. Calculated Risks
When we look at a typical business school graduate, we can see that they are taught how to use calculated and measured risk management to get the “car” of their business from second gear into fifth gear out on the open highway of “big business.”
Conversely, entrepreneurs are the ones who put immense energy into finding the car, making it start, and driving it in first and second gear up that bumpy and challenging dirt road and over to the main highway.
As you can see, entrepreneurs think differently and are certainly not adventure averse. They are also not afraid to try new things because they constantly calculate the risks of what they can afford to lose and still keep going.
Established businesses and investors are comparatively more careful. They’re always looking for ways to minimize risk and hit targets to get the most significant returns on their investments.
2. Nothing to Lose
Many entrepreneurs are not afraid to take chances because they tend to live their lives as if they have nothing to lose. Not only do they personally live by this creed, but they are also excellent risk dividers – doling out the risk and pulling in additional partners in a venture to spread the danger thin.
Taking chances is an ingrained trait that enables them to make fast, intuitive decisions and calculations regarding their affordable losses. Whereas investors may need to see countless spreadsheets and exhaustive data analysis to make a decision (and take weeks or months to decide), entrepreneurs always know precisely where they stand and what they can afford to lose at any given moment.
Being confident gives them the freedom to take big chances, seize opportunities, and keep pushing forward with their businesses.
3. Humility
Entrepreneurs are aware of who they are and understand their strengths and weaknesses. For the most part, they’re also not arrogant. Entrepreneurs admit that they don’t know everything and can form partnerships with others.
This humility and honesty make entrepreneurs great at reaching out to others to fill the gaps in understanding what their business needs. They hire other professionals to make a stellar team and headhunt suitable candidates for their team.
They cover the critical aspects of their business that they cannot do. Their team may include boutique accountants, graphic designers, content writers, marketers, and a host of other professionals that lend their talents to the growing business.
You’ll rarely hear an entrepreneur say, “I’m better than you.” What you will hear them say is, “I love what I do – I’m always learning – and I want to grow and learn with you.”
You’ll rarely hear an entrepreneur say, “I’m better than you.” What you will hear them say is, “I love what I do – I’m always learning – and I want to grow and learn with you.”
Entrepreneurs know how to leverage the slack resources they see around them to create new opportunities for growth and advancement. They also make quick decisions about what directions to take without fear of complete failure.
Their general risk-taking nature propels them to thrive against all odds – and when they grow large enough, we all get to hear about their overwhelming, seemingly “overnight” success.
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Which Entrepreneurial Habits Do You Have?
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