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5 Things You Need To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

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This article is more than 9 years old.

As it turns out, I'm an entrepreneur.  I didn't really think about that when I started my own business, almost 25 years ago.  I was unhappy about the limitations for growth at my then-current job, and I had a really clear and compelling (to me) vision of how I could serve clients in a way I didn't see them being served, at my company or others where I'd worked.

And here I am, almost two-and-a-half decades later, with a thriving business that does, indeed, serve clients in unique and valuable ways, and that makes me happy to show up for work almost every day. And the rest of the team seems to feel that way, too.

As the years have flowed by and Proteus (our business) has continued to not go belly-up, and in fact to grow and prosper, I notice that more and more people ask me what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  (For example, recently I was included in the book Millionaire Moms, by Joyce Bone; she asked her profilees to opine about what we know now that we didn't know then, and what advice we might give.)

A few years ago I read an article in the NYT by Jay Goltz, a very successful Chicago-based entrepreneur, about what he thinks are the core attributes for being an entrepreneur.  He listed six: Ambition, Creativity, Tenacity, Risk Tolerance, Intuition and Personality. I mostly agree with him, but with a few important differences based on my experience.

First, I completely agree with tenacity and risk tolerance.  Getting a business from a glimmer in your mind to actually making money takes a kind of relentlessness; you have to get up every day and make effort to move the thing forward. And I've observed that it doesn't work if the motivation is coming from outside -- if you're doing it because someone else is cheerleading you, or because you're afraid of what will happen or who will think badly of you if you don't. That kind of motivation is likely to fade in the rough and tumble of starting and running your own business. Your tenacity has to arise from within you. Successful entrepreneurs want to see progress every day, and they do whatever they can to make that happen.  As for risk tolerance, if you're daunted by the idea that every day you're basically starting from scratch (especially in the early years) and that it's all on you to move toward the vision  -- you will not be happy being an entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs have to feel reasonably comfortable trading the relative security of a paycheck and benefits for the working-without-a-net life of the start-up.

I also agree with creativity and intuition.  A lot of making a new business successful has to do with blazing trails: making decisions where you don't necessarily have all the information you need; getting things done with limited resources; appealing to needs customers may not yet even know they have. And in the beginning, you will definitely run into situations where nothing you've done before has prepared you to address the problem or take advantage of the the opportunity that's in front of you. At those times, you have to be willing and able to think in new ways to come up with possible solutions that take best advantage of the strengths and assets you have at the moment.  It's a fundamentally McGyverish undertaking, being an entrepreneur.

Then Jay and I part company. I don't necessarily agree with the ambition attribute. Jay characterizes entrepreneurs as needing to be "70-hour-a-week obsessive, driven, hungry, ambitious."  I don't see myself as being that, and I'm not sure it's necessary.  Of course, my business might be much bigger and more profitable if I had spent the early years working day and night...but I think the rest of my life (and my kids especially) would have suffered.  I also disagree with the personality attribute. I've met Jay, and I suspect he thinks a big personality is essential simply because he has one (and maybe he's attracted to other entrepreneurs who are wired the same way).  But look around at some of our most successful entrepreneurs: does Bill Gates have a big, loud, charismatic personality?  I think not.

Rather than ambition or personality  I'd say entrepreneurs need passion - and by that I mean deep and irrevocable commitment to their vision of success.  And that doesn't have to be loud or social.  It does have to be unwavering, and you have to able to articulate why you think this a good idea in ways that are compelling to people, or you won't be able to attract a team or get customers. At the same time, real passion is permeable: truly passionate people aren't dogmatic, but rather invite others' input. If you care deeply about what you're doing, you want to make sure that it will be valuable to customers, you'll ask for feedback and dialogue about whether it's working and how to make it better.  Truly passionate people combine deep commitment and deep curiosity - and it's a powerful combination.

I think my passion for my business has been the single most important element of success over all these years.  I honestly believe that I, we, have something of great value in the marketplace.  I'm excited every day about getting better and better at offering it.  I'm passionate about helping people become who they most want to be, and at helping organizations clarify and move toward their hoped-for future. Yet I'm curious about how our approach is working, and about how we could be doing it better. I know I need others' insights, so I don't get locked into my own point of view.

So, if you've thought about starting your own business, ask yourself - What do I so much believe in, so much want to do, that I will make effort to make it happen every day, and I'll be OK with having the success (or failure) of that idea rest squarely on my shoulders? If the answer to that is "nothing," then don't quit your day job.

But if something comes to immediately to mind...you might just have what it takes.

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