10 CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR

1. Curiosity

Successful entrepreneurs have a distinct personality trait that sets them apart from other organizational leaders: a sense of curiosity. An entrepreneur’s ability to remain curious allows them to continuously seek new opportunities. Rather than settling for what they think they know, entrepreneurs ask challenging questions and explore different avenues.

2. Willingness to Experiment

Along with curiosity, entrepreneurs require an understanding of structured experimentation, such as design thinking. With each new opportunity, an entrepreneur must run tests to determine if it’s worthwhile to pursue.

3. Adaptability

Entrepreneurship is an iterative process, and new challenges and opportunities present themselves at every turn. It’s nearly impossible to be prepared for every scenario, but successful business leaders must be adaptable.

4. Decisiveness

To be successful, an entrepreneur has to make difficult decisions and stand by them. As a leader, they’re responsible for guiding the trajectory of their business, including every aspect from funding and strategy to resource allocation.

5. Self-Awareness

A great entrepreneur is aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Rather than letting shortcomings hold them back, they build well-rounded teams that complement their abilities.

6. Risk Tolerance

Entrepreneurship is often associated with risk. While it’s true that launching a venture requires an entrepreneur to take risks, they also need to take steps to minimize it.

7. Comfort with Failure

In addition to risk-management and calculated decision-making, entrepreneurship requires a certain level of comfort with failure.

8. Persistence

While many successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with the possibility of failing, it doesn’t mean they give up easily. Rather, they see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

9. Innovative Thinking

Innovation often goes hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship. While innovation in business can be defined as an idea that’s both novel and useful, it doesn’t always involve creating an entirely new product or service. Some of the most successful startups have taken existing products or services and drastically improved them to meet the changing needs of the market.

10. Long-Term Focus

Most people associate entrepreneurship with starting a business. While the early stages of launching a venture, such as securing funding, are critical to its success, the process doesn’t end once the business is operational.