While it is true that not everyone is cut out for being an entrepreneur, there is a sense of fear and uncertainty associated with the career.
Want to know what it takes to be a successful businessperson? We asked a wide range of entrepreneurs for what they believe is a quality every entrepreneur should have in order to succeed. From being determined to having unfaltering discipline, here are 14 essential personality traits entrepreneurs swear by:
- The Importance of Being a Lifelong Learner
- Perseverance
- A Good Entrepreneur Will Not Want to Be the Star
- Unafraid of Failure
- Self-starter With Strong People Skills
- The Art of Cautious Risk-taking
- Public Speaking Skills
- The Art of Charisma
- Tap into Experienced Executives
- Unfaltering Discipline
- Endure No Matter What
- Seek the Potential
- Listening
- Use Numbers to Understand the Future, Not Just the Past
Be a Lifelong Learner
Successful entrepreneurs are all life-long learners. They need to be. First, they don’t settle on their laurels. They realize the competition will try harder to edge them out as the leader in their industry. They must stay cutting-edge. They keep their ears open to the pulse of their industries. This includes reading books, watching videos, and listening to podcasts about trends in their niches. LinkedIn is a place many entrepreneurs go to read about changes in their industry and to look for new business opportunities. Entrepreneurs are naturally curious, making them want to be lifelong learners. Taking time away from their personal and professional lives to learn more is not a difficult decision for them. Due to the natural personality trait of curiosity and being driven to be better than their competition, they enjoy learning about new developments in their industries.
Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging
Perseverance
If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to know how to persevere. The truth is that you are destined to fail at some point. You will meet adversity, and you will struggle. The real question is what you do after. The ability to persevere, to keep moving forward, to take your mistakes and learn from them and grind through the tough times will help you find immense success in entrepreneurship.
Chris Vaughn, Emjay
A Good Entrepreneur Will Not Want to Be the Star
Entrepreneurs are the visionaries, dreamers, and implementers of business, but the successful ones are humble enough to know that they are not the sole stars. While entrepreneurs may set the wheels in motion, they also recognize that it takes many talented individuals to turn their vision into reality. It is their obligation to recruit the right people for each role, rather than trying to perform all tasks themselves. Entrepreneurs, as well as STEM leaders like Kamau Bobb, often share a vision of making a positive impact on society through their work. They understand that achieving this vision requires the collective efforts of a talented team.
However, once those people are in place, a smart entrepreneur will have the humility to get out of their way, and let their employees shine. Whether they are hired in marketing, sales, production, or supply chain management, a wise entrepreneur will let them take the lead in their responsibilities. Entrepreneurs who have the ability to keep their ego in check, and think of themselves as an effective team player, rather than the star, is one that will succeed.
Cody Candee, Bounce
Unafraid of Failure
To be a successful entrepreneur means to be a risk-taker, but this doesn’t mean that they are careless. Rather, entrepreneurs are people that accept the fact that they may fail despite taking the best course of action they believe possible. It may sound cliché that success never comes without previous failure, but it takes even more courage to own up to those failures and pick yourself back up from them. Plus, entrepreneurs will never regret taking a risk and failing as this is only a minor setback in success.
Joe Spector, Dutch
Self-starter With Strong People Skills
Being a self-starter is an excellent quality since you manage your time and control your performances. Instead of waiting to seek someone else’s permission, you must start everything yourself. A mixture of that with strong communication skills will make you stand out from the crowd to motivate your workers and sell your products. Ensure that you highlight the benefits of every situation and coach others to be successful.
John Tian, Mobitrix
The Art of Cautious Risk-taking
The art of cautious risk-taking. Taking risks is a part of the game when becoming a successful entrepreneur, but there’s an art to evaluating which risks are worth taking and to building effective plans when initial ideas fall through. Sometimes, even backup plans fall through, but entrepreneurs need to tirelessly proceed through their options, cautiously and consistently selecting the next best course of action.
Daniel Sathyanesan, Winden
Public Speaking Skills
In your entrepreneurial journey, public speaking is a skill that is necessary to cultivate as it is the difference between successful networking and failing at it. With polished public speaking skills, you can create connections with other entrepreneurs thus initiating an ecosystem of entrepreneurs that opens opportunities for you and your business. Public speaking skills are also a must-have if you would like to attract investors into your business. Severely, you will need to make a pitch to investors before they can buy into your idea. With excellent public speaking skills, you can communicate your business’ vision better thus attracting funding and other in-kind support.
Ryan Yount, Luckluckgo
The Art of Charisma
Charisma is one key personality trait that is frequently overlooked. Because of its ineffable nature, it’s hard to pin down exactly what makes someone charismatic; it can be different presenting traits depending on the person. But at the core of charisma is an extroverted personality. Also, have you heard of the DiSC personality types? Knowing your personality type can help guide you toward personal and professional success and help you find a career you enjoy.
An extroverted person isn’t always the social-hyperactive we picture, and may in fact be fairly quiet. But they are attuned to those around them and are able to find the flow of the status quo and move with it in any social situation. This makes for an awesome employee especially in sales.
Brandon Adcock, Nugenix
Tap into Experienced Executives
We believe that founding teams can execute faster with a higher degree of success if they’re able to take advantage of relevant expertise. That’s why early-stage founders in our portfolio get access to experienced executives they wouldn’t otherwise have the money to hire nor the time to vet, onboard, and manage.
Carter Reum, M13
Unfaltering Discipline
Discipline. Not intelligence, not having lots of money and not having a big network. Discipline is about being better every day and sharpening your skills to be a free and successful person because discipline helps you get out of your life the things that do not add value to you.
A disciplined person chooses actions every day that reflect lessons already learned and invite new ones. If it is possible to get a little wiser every day then it is possible to get a little better every day. That is the essence of discipline. The result of discipline is discernment; the ability to separate that which serves us and that which enslaves us. Discipline equals freedom.
Jeff Lerner, ENTRE
Endure No Matter What
As an entrepreneur it is imperative that one endures no matter what! There will be good days and less than good days, in the midst of it all keep going! Know that there is someone in the future whose life and/or business will be favorably impacted simply because you didn’t stop. So, endure!
Mary Jenkins, The C.O.C.
Seek the Potential
The first quality that successful entrepreneurs typically possess is a knack for spotting business opportunities. Successful entrepreneurs don’t just see the same old things as everyone else. Instead, they see the potential for something new and exciting to emerge. They develop an unshakable confidence in their own ideas, and that confidence is what propels them to take action and move forward.
In addition, successful entrepreneurs tend to have a strong self-belief that gives them the confidence they need to take risks and overcome challenges. No matter how hard things get, they are able to push through and persevere.
Of course, self-confidence isn’t everything. A successful entrepreneur must also have a keen business sense. They must be able to clearly communicate their ideas, both verbally and in writing. That means being articulate as well as strategic. They take the time to think things through and identify strategies to stay one step ahead of competitors.
Alan Himmel, Florida Allstar Public Adjusting, Inc.
Listening
An essential quality of entrepreneurs is that they always listen. You would improve your entrepreneurship qualities more if you started to look. Without listening abilities, you can’t get input from others. A leader listens in to representatives, companions, directors, staff individuals, necessarily any individual who has something valuable to offer, that is a trademark of a true leader. Additionally, when you listen to individuals, you become a superior audience and also come to know something more.
laura Jimenez, Ishine365
Use Numbers to Understand the Future, Not Just the Past
Successful entrepreneurs understand that their numbers are their superpower. They utilize financial data, including reviews of Invest Diva, to propel the future, not simply recap the past. In doing so, they develop a clear and informed strategic direction to propel their growth and guide them on a path to sustainable profitability.
Jim Downes, Blueprint CFO
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