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What It Takes To Create Your Own Business - Really

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This article is more than 10 years old.

It turns out, I'm an entrepreneur.  I didn't really think about that at all when I started my own business, 22 years ago today.  I was mostly just irritated 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.

And here I am, two decades plus later, with a thriving business that does, indeed, serve clients in unique and valuable ways, and makes me happy to show up for work pretty much every day. And the other folks on our team seem 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, a few years ago 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 weeks, ago, my husband sent me the link to 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: 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. Not because someone else is encouraging you, or because you're afraid of what will happen or who will think badly of you if you don't. You have to want to see progress every day, and make the necessary effort.  As for the risk tolerance part, 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.

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.

I'm not sure I agree with the ambition attribute. Jay characterizes entrepreneurs as needing to be "70-hour-a-week obsessive, driven, hungry ambitious."  I'm not 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 (my kids especially) would have suffered.  I'm also not sure about the personality attribute. I've met Jay, and I think he thinks a big personality is essential because he has one.  But look around at some of our most successful entrepreneurs: does Bill Gates have a big personality?  I think not.

Rather than ambition or personality  I'd say entrepreneurs need to be passionate - and by that I mean deeply and irrevocably committed 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 build a team or get customers.

I think my passion for my business has been the single most important element of success over all these years.  I honestly and truly 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.

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 the success or failure of that idea resting 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.