There are certain attributes, personal qualities and mindset that may be found in many successful business owners.
While there is no real “list” of these attributes that will guarantee success, the following certainly have held true over time as mindset and qualities that help to enhance and encourage success.
How many do you possess?
Desire – do you really desire to be an entrepreneur? Often this is called “passion”, something that you just have to do, no matter what you have to do or sacrifice.
Physical and mental energy – being an entrepreneur can be physically demanding as the long hours required to invest to make the business a success can be overwhelming. This takes a toll on not only the physical body but the mental capacity too. Having above average energy and strength is essential to being a successful entrepreneur. The calls on your time and the sacrifices you make, can all affect your physical and mental well-being. Keeping these in check are central to not only your starting a business but becoming an entrepreneur into the long term.
Self-confidence – do you truly believe that you can succeed? You must have the internal ability to believe that you can succeed. This self-confidence has to show not only inward but be shown to the outside world. That is not to say arrogance! But rather a solid, move forward manner that is still packaged in a way that people will want to deal with you!
Trust – do you trust yourself and your reactions to the situations that will arise? You must be able to deal with difficulties effectively and trust yourself not to become overwrought or “breakdown”. You must be able to trust in your ability to sort out what needs to be done when things go wrong and you experience set-backs and/or failures.
Intuition – can you see into the future? Can you see opportunities where others can’t? That is where the intuitive and successful nature of entrepreneurs can yield great results. Entrepreneurs can see things in a different way and use that intuition to provide them with ideas, strategies and solutions.
Courage – the ability to stay on course and deal with what comes takes courage and is an essential quality of the entrepreneur. You can’t succeed without have the wear-with-all to keep working and moving forward to achieve your dreams, despite the setbacks and eventual obstacles.
Resilience – when things go wrong you need to have the resilience to move forward and keep going. Especially things that were not under your control (such as people that didn’t treat you very well) and circumstances (the external economy) that you can’t do anything about on an individual level.
Pragmatism – being emotional and an entrepreneur – do not go together! You must be able to see things in their proper light and not be sidelined into sentiment or feelings that have no place in business. You must be aware that your competition and other out to get the better of you, may try to use emotions to get what they want and the expense of using you and your feelings.
Discipline – it takes a great deal of work to make your entrepreneurial dreams become a reality. It takes a fair measure of discipline – the ability to keep working even when you are tired, discouraged and have worked so many hours that you believe you can’t work anymore! To stay on course and to get things accomplished the successful entrepreneur must be disciplined beyond what the regular person can be
Honesty – the old adage “nice guys(gals) finish last” is true sometimes, but overall it’s those whom are honest and have integrity that are successful and remain so.
This is by no means a comprehensive list – but it does point to some of the somewhat obvious characteristics that are understandably helpful towards the path of success.