Important Entrepreneurship Characteristics

Becoming an entrepreneur is not easy, as you have to build an entire business venture from scratch. Doing so takes a specific type of person that can handle the hard work, long hours, and mounds of stress. Based on my 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, I have found that to become a successful entrepreneur, one must possess the following four characteristics:

Passion/Motivation:

While this may seem obvious, an entrepreneur cannot just be passionate about his or her business. Rather, to be a successful entrepreneur, you must live and breathe your passion to the point where you are willing to spend 80-100 hours per week for months or years on end building your business. Your passion must be strong enough to motivate you to sacrifice large aspects of your personal life so you can focus non-stop on your business venture. Moreover, seeing as starting a business comes with its mishaps, you must be passionate and motivated enough to keep going despite the hardships.

Vision:

Starting a business means having a clear vision for exactly what you want your business to be and how you want it to look. Moreover, you cannot just have a general vision or idea. Rather, you must have a specific vision that can fulfill a specific market need. This involves lots of research and analysis to ensure your company vision has market value. Furthermore, once you have a vision, stick to it; it can be easy to get distracted and stray from the vision of the company.

Decision-Making:

Starting a business venture means you are the CEO (and at the beginning, the CMO, CFO, COO, and more as well). This means you are responsible for all decision-making for the company. And with so many things happening at once, you will be forced to make numerous tough decisions within short periods of time. Because of this, a successful entrepreneur must be an excellent decision-maker. You must be able to quickly analyze situations, consider all variables, make tough decisions, and have the confidence to follow through on your decisions.

Confidence:

Speaking of confidence, every entrepreneur must have this trait to succeed in the competitive landscape as well. This trait will come in handy especially when you meet with investors to get funding for your venture. You must be able to present the vision of your company with confidence because no investor will want anything to do with a CEO who appears weak. Be confident in your business and proud of what you are doing.

About the Author -- Joshua Ferdman

Joshua Ferdman is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, specializing in technology, finance, and real estate. He started working in the mortgage business at the age of 16 and hasn't stopped since. Joshua always said that the most important job you can ever have is phone sales. He writes about entrepreneurship, leadership, and succeeding in the professional world.