“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. The world is full with educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Ray Kroc
What is the driving force behind most famous, successful entrepreneurs that propel them in their quest to acquire massive wealth? This seems to be the most bugging question in the mind of small business owners. I am going to answer that question by sharing with you qualities most successful entrepreneurs possess and how you can develop yours. Join me as i reveal the secret of successful entrepreneurs such as Thomas Edison, Bill Gates and so on.
1) Passion And Energy: When you think of the likes of Bill Gate, you tend to feel he is living a life filled with long vacations and excessive free time. But that’s not true, most successful entrepreneurs are known to have a great amount of passion and energy. Infact, they possess the capacity to work long hours with minimal sleep. What most people don’t realize is that entrepreneurs work longer hours than most employees, shuffling between their families, business duties and meetings. This just reminds me of a quote from Warren Buffet, the world’s richest investor and founder of Berkshire Hathaway,
“Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.”
2) Ability To Take Responsibility: Successful entrepreneurs are known to take responsibility of their actions and decisions even in the face of failure. They don’t blame their employees; instead they take charge, correct their mistakes and move on.
3) Long Standing Commitment: This is a very vital character possessed by any successful entrepreneur you come across. Entrepreneurs are known to be committed not just for the moment but for years. You can imagine Warren Buffet, who is in his 80’s, yet he is still committed to the growth of Berkshire Hathaway, which he founded many years ago.
4) Self Confidence: Successful entrepreneurs are known to display a high level of self confidence. They have little belief in fate, they strongly believe in themselves and their ability to achieve their set goals. This is a major character venture capitalist watch out for before financing any business venture.
5) Persistence: “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” This is what persistence stand for. The ability to press on in the face of hardship. Without persistence, nothing can be achieved. When you think of persistence, think of Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor Company and Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds’.
6) Goal Setting: All successful entrepreneurs share the characteristic of being goal oriented. They have the ability to set clear goals for themselves. These goals are high and challenging but realistic and attainable. To them, life without goals set and achieved is life wasted.
7) Ability To Take Risk: As we all know, business is a risk and to undertake it, you have to be daring. Successful entrepreneurs are risk takers, they put down their time, energy and resources to make sure their business stand the test of time.
Intelligent Use Of Feedback: Feedback is one element successful entrepreneurs cannot do without. Infact, it is so important that they surround themselves with smart teams so as to get feedbacks about decisions they took. Most importantly, they make intelligent use of the feedback they receive. Please note that feedback can be in the form of criticism, opinion, advice and so on.
9) Strong Self Imposed Standards: Successful entrepreneurs have laid down principles which they don’t compromise for any reason. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you must be firm, strict and be a man or woman of principle.
10) Ability To Work Under Pressure And Uncertainty: To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have the ability to work under pressure and uncertainty. Whenever you are facing tough times in your business, just remember Donald Trump, who was in personal debt of a billion dollars and his corporation was in debt of 9 billion dollars yet he kept cool and worked his way out of the debts.
11) Strong Internal Control: Control is essential to the business survival of every successful entrepreneur. To build a successful business, you need firm control of your cash flow and all other business systems. Control is the watch word of entrepreneurs and investors.
12) Intelligent Use Of Resources: Sometimes, entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of building a business with limited capital. Thus, the need for efficient utilization of the limited resources. This is also called building a business on a “Shoe string budget”
13) Ability To Quickly Learn From Their Failures: Successful entrepreneurs make lot of mistakes that sometimes lead to business failures but they don’t bow their head in defeat. Instead, they quickly acknowledge their mistakes, correct them, learn from their failures and move on. They fail but they don’t quit. Instead, they get inspired by their failure and use their failure as a stepping stone to success.
14) Money As A Means Of Keeping Score: This characteristic might sound a little bit funny but it is a common attribute found in most successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs use the money acquired from their business as a landmark, a target and a sign to move on to other challenges. An entrepreneur who makes his/her first million dollars will be happy with the achievement and will set a goal to make his/her first 100million dollars.
15) Delayed Gratification: I should have listed this as the first but i decided to save it for the last. Most individuals like the concept of getting rich quickly, invest today and gain a 1000% ROI in a week and stuffs like that. Entrepreneurs know that profit or reward may not be instant and may even take as much as five years before receiving any dividend. Sometimes, they work without pay, hoping for a greater reward in years to come.
Having revealed the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, i will advise you try to develop these characters because without these characters, your success will be limited. Develop these Characters and i will see you at the top.
