Entrepreneurship is more than just owning a business or starting one, it’s also the mindset that must be developed to run the business and to make better decisions than others in the same field.
An entrepreneur has many characteristics that are different from someone who doesn’t start their own business. Although these characteristics may change as the business grows, here are the top 7 characteristics of an entrepreneur.
1) Active listening
According to psychologists, active listening is a way of listening to a person with both emotional and mental attention. Active listening is not just waiting for your turn to speak. It requires thinking about what you’re hearing from your partner and using that information in real time.
The most important component of active listening is respect; it means really hearing what your partner has to say and understanding where they are coming from without any judgment or criticism.
Remember, as an entrepreneur, your business will be dependent on strong relationships with vendors, customers, partners and employees, so practicing active listening skills early can set you up for success when it comes time to build those relationships.
2) Persistence
Making your big idea a reality is not going to be easy, and you need to be ready for that. You will face many obstacles and much adversity, so you must have a resilience in order to keep moving forward.
Being persistent means having willpower as well as drive and determination. It also requires setting goals and working towards them every day even when things get tough.
Most entrepreneurs fail because they give up before reaching their goals, but those who persist will always succeed. The same principle applies to entrepreneurship.
If you’re not willing to sacrifice your time, money, energy or other resources then there’s no way you can make it as an entrepreneur.
Be ready for some ups and downs while on your journey—and try not to let them get you down!
3) Open-mindedness
Successful entrepreneurs are constantly willing to learn and adapt, allowing them to grow and thrive in a dynamic market. If you’re not receptive to change, innovation and entrepreneurship won’t be worthwhile pursuits for you.
Additionally, entrepreneurial success largely depends on one’s ability to acknowledge and act on good ideas from others; if you don’t have an open mind, good ideas might fly right over your head.
4) Innovation
If you have an idea, but are afraid of failure – forget it. Fear of failure shouldn’t be a reason not to start your own business. It is always better to make mistakes while running your own business than it is to play it safe with a 9-5 job in someone else’s company.
You are responsible for everything that happens in your business, which means if you take calculated risks and act quickly, there isn’t anything that can stop you. You won’t see much progress in your career by playing it safe and being complacent anyway.
As an entrepreneur, you won’t have any time for regret or negativity – just focus on executing as best as possible from day one, and learn from failures as they happen.
5) Initiative
entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, not just a career choice. If you are thinking about starting your own business and want to become an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with uncertainty.
You will have to learn quickly how to make decisions on your own, because there won’t always be someone there to give you step-by-step instructions on how to do things.
This can be very difficult for people who don’t like change or having no one else tell them what they need to do. Because of that, self-starters who take initiative and find ways around obstacles are ideal entrepreneurs.
Being proactive and looking for opportunities isn’t easy in itself but it helps when other people may not even know those opportunities exist in their organization yet!
6) Patience
Every successful entrepreneur knows that success is never immediate, and there will be times when you’ll wonder why it’s taking so long to turn your idea into a big idea.
It’s not going to happen overnight, but if you want it bad enough you have to learn how to persevere and remain patient while your business takes shape.
The best way to develop patience is through practice: work on one of your ideas every day until it starts generating income. When that day comes, celebrate—then start working on another idea.
You can never work on too many ideas at once; in fact, failure breeds success only if you keep picking yourself up and trying again. Never let failure keep you down! Get back up and try again!
7) Creativity
While you may think of creativity as a skill possessed by those in design or advertising, creativity is actually a skill that all entrepreneurs should cultivate.
Being creative means thinking outside of your comfort zone, and not being afraid to fail. By continually pushing yourself and trying new things (and possibly failing), you can learn what works for your business and what doesn't.
To be a successful entrepreneur, it's important to make use of different parts of your brain - from planning and executing every day tasks to developing creative solutions to problems within your company.
Innovation: Successful entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities or innovative ways of doing things - they never stop thinking about how they can improve their business or meet customer needs more effectively.