When it comes to starting a business, what do Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Allon Raiz have in common? They’re millionaire businessmen, yes, but certainly not the same kinds of businessmen: Zuckerberg is a social media mogul, Branson an empire builder, Jobs a computer innovator, and Raiz a business incubator.
So could there be certain shared characteristics required for being an entrepreneur? Why yes, yes there are.
Entrepreneur characteristics: The common denominators
In no particular order, entrepreneurs are:
- Dreamers and naïve – anything is possible
- Thinkers and visionaries – seeing things as they could be rather than as they are
- Leaders with team and spirit building abilities
- Able to foster trust, respect and confidence in others
- Passionate and believe in their vision
- Self-confident, driven and tenacious
- Committed to a purpose
- Courageous / have high risk tolerance
- Positive and optimistic
- Opportunistic
- Self-motivated and self-starting
- Energetic and charismatic
- Innovative and creative
- Different – they think differently and reject the status quo
- Decisive
- Masters of nothing – broad knowledge in many spheres but no specialist expert knowledge
- Dedicated and show fortitude in tough times
- Resilient to criticism and rejection
- Resourceful, flexible and adaptable
- Able to learn from mistakes and turn failure into learning opportunities
- Strong negotiators able to create beneficial networks and partnerships
- Strong understanding of leverage.
The downside of entrepreneur characteristics
Are you an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs can be known to be:
- Difficult to work with
- Egotistical
- Stubborn
- Willful
- Hard to reason with
- Overly risk tolerant – i.e. take gambles
- Workaholics and obsessive
- Dreamers who become isolated from the real world.
