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These Three Traits Make for Great Entrepreneurs
Written by Dave Choate on October 26, 2011 in Business Insights, Small Business And News
These Three Traits Make for Great Entrepreneurs
We understand that striking out into the entrepreneurial world on your own can be daunting and intimidating. We talk to a lot of entrepreneurs in this business.
There are a number of quality attributes shared by successful entrepreneurs, among them persaverance, intelligence and drive, but I particularly enjoyed the Harvard Business Review rundown of three traits that really bring success.
If you’re thinking that means a list, then you’ve pretty much figured me out. Let’s get right to it!
- Practicality. Your business can be truly outrageous. Maybe you want to knit sweaters for goats who live in the chilly environs of the Andes mountains. Heck, there’s a market for everything, if you know where to look.But you should always sprinkle a handful of practicality on those plans. Explore the market for goat sweaters. Develop a plan to get into that market, and a plan to advertise your business in a way that underscores both the quality of your product and the affable absurdity of what you’re trying to do. You can have an outlandish idea and implement it in a coldly rational way. In fact, the HBR and I would both recommend it.
- Have a purpose. What is the value of your products and services? How can you add new ones that aren’t just cool, but give your customers what they want and indeed demand? If you don’t know the answer to that, you’re not going to be successful.Again, you have an idea that’s off the grid a bit, but it has to be practical to implement and people have to actually want it.
- Be impatient. Some businesses can be built up to the point where you can sit back and watch your sales roll in. For entrepreneurs who are coming up by their bootstraps and probably making delicious bootstrap soup until they find success, that’s simply not an option.Craft a plan and implement it quickly,secure franchise financing, adjust it on the fly and get out there. Nothing less than committed action—or as the HBR puts it, inspiration with perspiration—will get the job done.
Do you think these three traits define success? Let us know!
