7 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

“Do I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?”

Most people I know in the online business world are constantly asking themselves this question — or some variation of it!

The truth is, every single one of us ALREADY has what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. But we learn to harness our innate ability through awareness and practice!

The first step is being AWARE of the qualities you need to develop and grow, and the next step is just PRACTICING and improving your skill at each one.

Here are the 7 essential qualities of a successful entrepreneur, for you (and all of us) to model and practice!

This is for you if:

You’re a new or growing entrepreneur looking for the essential bases you need to cover to be successful.
You want to level up your mindset and become the best you can be!
You’re encountering roadblocks to success, which you know you can overcome with the right mindset.

Courage

Building something new in the world takes a willingness to try new things — which always comes with the risk of failure, difficulty, discomfort, rejection, and a host of other possibilities!

But when you have courage, none of those risks can stop you. Courage is just “the ability to do something that frightens you.”

You don’t have to feel confident, brave, or invincible to be successful! You just have to take action to get results.

Take action: Pinpoint something you want to try or do, but you’re afraid of what might happen. Then answer one question:

What definitely WON’T happen if you DON’T try? — What will you definitely miss out on, if you let fear win? Are you willing to miss out on what’s possible, just because of fear?

Then take action, and watch as each new leap becomes easier for you!

Empathy

Great business leaders and entrepreneurs are highly empathic and able to understand the thoughts and feelings of others.

This doesn’t mean they’re “nice” or generous people! It just means they just know how to tune into the emotions and thoughts of others — like dialing a radio — and understand people on their own terms.

Having empathy helps you create products and offers that people need, and share messages that connect with and move people. When you practice empathy — seeing things from someone else’s point of view — you’re in a great position to communicate in a way that’s impactful and meaningful to others.

Take action: Think about someone you’re struggling to connect with — whether it’s your audience, a customer, an investor, a referral partner, or someone else. Put yourself in their shoes and experience the world through their eyes! Then ask yourself, “What is something I can only see by putting myself in this other person’s shoes? What am I missing when I look at it through my eyes only?” and if you still don’t know… ask!

Curiosity

Effective entrepreneurs are deeply curious!

They’re the ones always asking “why?” and trying to understand how things work. They seek to understand and gain new insights, and they ask questions until they do. They’re open-minded, love to be challenged, and seek to sharpen their own understanding.

Curious people seek out new skills, and their curiosity propels them forward — past discomfort, vulnerability, and humility that comes with trying and learning something new. These realities are no match for their curiosity!

Take action: Think about a situation you don’t fully understand, that has you frustrated or stuck. Write a list of 10 questions that would help you understand the problem better, and see it more clearly. Then answer the questions intuitively, or go find someone who can help you answer them.

Vision

The greatest inventions and creations always begin with a vision of what’s possible!

Successful entrepreneurs make a habit of imagining, dreaming up, and looking for new possibilities and opportunities. They look for problems, because they know that problems point the way to a better future.

And once they have a strong vision in mind, they can use it to guide their actions and light the path toward creating the new reality they want.

Take action: If you’re not sure what to focus on, start by imagining a better, brighter future that you’d be excited to see unfold! Imagine how life would be different, how it could be different… and then step into this future, and imagine looking back on yourself today, at the first 3 actions you took to make this vision a reality.

Creativity

Successful entrepreneurs make a habit of creating products, services, opportunities, events, and strategies that weren’t there before. They get off the beaten trail, and create new pathways for opportunity.

Creative people get their hands dirty, and commit to making something new, even when it isn’t perfect. They know that imperfections signal progress, because they’re a sign that things are happening on the edges, outside the boundaries of what’s comfortable.

Creative people are comfortable with failure, because they know that creating something great only happens as a result of creating a lot of things that aren’t.

Take action: Think about a problem that has you stuck and not sure what direction to go in. Brainstorm a list of 20 ways you could get unstuck! Even if they’re crazy or outlandish, you’re practicing creating new pathways for yourself, so you never have to stay stuck again.

Resilience

Ultimately, success belongs to the people who are willing to fail more times than others. It belongs to the people who fell down, accepted the negative emotions AND the lessons, got back up, and tried again.

Because success takes resilience, the ranks are inevitably thinned out over time as more people drop out of the race, realizing it’s not for them. There’s no shame in it; everyone has to decide what’s right for them.

But the fact that this is hard, means that others will slowly fall away, if you’re just resilient enough to keep going. To keep climbing. To keep trying. And no matter how many times you fall, to get back up and try again.

Take action: Think about something you’re discouraged about right now. Maybe even something that makes you want to quit. Ask yourself, “What will be possible if I’m resilient? And if I CHOOSE to be resilient, what will I do in the next 10 minutes?” and then go do that thing!

Patience

Successful entrepreneurs practice patience. That doesn’t mean they sit back and do nothing, and wait for things to happen… it just means they don’t expect results overnight. They stick with things long enough — however long that is — to see results.

I think of Patience and Resilience as two sides of the same coin… Resilience keeps her head-down and does the work, day after day — but patience knows and accepts that big changes take time.

Take action: Think about something you’re frustrated about not having, doing, or being yet. For example, it might be something like, “I’m not ______.” Ask yourself, is this truly what I want? If the answer is yes, rewrite your thought: “I’m becoming _______.” If you stay in the game and practice patience while you’re in this phase of change, your desired state will be yours with time!

Recap

That’s it! The 7 qualities of a successful entrepreneur are:

Courage
Empathy
Curiosity
Vision
Creativity
Resilience
Patience

What do you think? What would you add to this list? Is there another essential skill or quality that has helped you press forward as an entrepreneur?

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