5 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

It takes a certain type of person to be an entrepreneur. What Kind of person doesn’t settle for mediocrity and takes on the challenge of putting ideas into production?

Passionate: Most entrepreneurs can’t wait to get out of bed each morning and start working on their idea. The live and breathe their idea, spending most waking moments thinking about their idea. They ask themselves what’s already good about the idea, and what can make it better. They have many motivations when it comes to their idea. They like the thought of being their own boss, creating products that benefit others, having a desire to be rich, fear of losing their job, and not wanting to look for another one.

Embrace Change: Entrepreneurs see change as a good thing. They always ask “Why not?” challenge the status quo, and don’t seek change for the sake of change. In fact, the idea of change installs fear in many people. So many of us are set in our ways, we wouldn’t know what to do if we had to step out of our “box.” You won’t find many entrepreneurs thinking inside the box. The idea of change leads to many good ideas. Not every new business is about creating a brand new product. Many build on existing products and ideas. For example, if you grew up in the 1970’s, you’ll remember those TV’s that looked like a piece of wooden furniture. They had the knob tuners (you had to actually get up off your butt to change the channel), and some were only in black-n-white (sigh). Today we have flat screens that are barley thicker than a credit card. Nothing new. Just taking an existing idea and making it better.

Benefits vs Features: They focus on benefits, not features. The most important thing is what a product can do for you, the customer, not tooting their own horns because they created something so awesome. Take the smart phone for instance. It has a camera in it, which is a feature. The entrepreneur says “wouldn’t you like to be able to send vacation pictures to your friends and family instantaneously?” That is a benefit.

Think Positively: Entrepreneurs need to have the right mindset because starting a business is challenging and time-consuming. Successful people are no different from you and me. The difference is they control their thoughts, not the other way around. You are the master of your own fate because you can control your own thoughts. Everything we do begins with a thought. Be decisive, and don’t be afraid to take chances. Get rid of toxic people. They will only keep you down. Finally, successful people never use the word “can’t, which is one of the worst words in our vocabulary. Scratch it from yours.

Trust and Delegate: They know what they are good at and what they are not. They have no problem hiring people to do the stuff they aren’t good at or the ones they are if their time would be better used elsewhere. This is one of the key messages in Napoleon Hill’s best-seller Think and Grow Rich. To be successful, you must have the ability, and power, to make action happen. If you don’t have it, get it from someone (s) who does by creating a mastermind group. The Master Mind is a co-ordination of effort between two or more people for the attainment of a definitive of purpose. Members usually have different skills that add value to the group. Henry Ford grew up poor, had no skills or education. He started his master-mind group with Tomas Edison. Yes that Tomas Edison. Andrew Carnegie had around 50 people in his master-mind group.

I hope this gives you some insight on what it takes to start your own business.