One of the most important concepts I learned is that an entrepreneur is not someone who created and owns a business. Entrepreneurs are businesses themselves. As such, they must be and do differently from most people to succeed.
However, successful entrepreneurs share traits and habits. These characteristics, some of which may seem incompatible, let them influence the world and stand out.
Below, I will try to list most of them in a way that lets us understand the ambiguity and sometimes complexity of this path. After all, life isn’t easy, especially when you decide to be an entrepreneur, but it’s fulfilling.
An Entrepreneur must BE:
Ambitious but unselfish.
It means you have a noble reason to seek constantly outstanding success through your goals. The reasons may be making the world a better place by improving things, fighting injustice, helping others, or, most importantly, having a meaningful life full of happiness. After all, pursuing happiness isn’t selfish if you don’t make other people’s lives miserable.
Prudent but fearless.
It doesn’t mean you don’t feel fear; it means fear doesn’t stop you. It means you assessed the risks and mapped out the worst-case scenario, and if that worst scenario comes, you will face and overcome it. It means you are ready to get tackled by failure and stand up again.
Persistent but adaptable.
It means that you don’t give up on your goals but aren’t stubborn in doing things the same way. It means you’re ready to fail multiple times while pursuing the same goal without giving up. After all, these failures are learning opportunities and mere temporary drawbacks in the process of finding the best way to achieve them. After all, you can’t control every variable in your adventure, but you can always control how you respond to them.
Adventurous but strategic.
It means you willingly try new things and take risks but still try to identify signals that point to a negative outcome. It doesn’t mean you’re compulsively trying to plan every bit to eliminate risks, but you make conscious plans with room for unknowns to be ready in the worst-case scenario.
Heroic but humble.
It means you believe and have self-confidence but are ready to face humiliation if it means achieving the goal. It means you understand that the goal is more important than your ego.
Hopeful but realistic.
It means that you’re positive about the future but at the same time are aware of and act on the present. It means that while you have a big dream, you take action based on what you have, know, and face now. It is through action that we get closer to our dreams.
Self-aware but ready to evolve.
It means that you know yourself, your skills, talents, things you love, etc., but are still striving to discover more and act on those discoveries. It means that you recognize you are not a static being, so you constantly seek to improve your skills or train your weak spots. It means you desire to master your talents and are in a state of constant learning.
An entrepreneur must DO the following things:
Take on adventures to discover your strengths:
Try new things and experiment with different industries. That is the most reliable way to discover your strengths, talents, gifts, and what you do best. You don’t need to spend much time on it to realize it is your thing, and if it isn’t, simply move on.
Don’t think life owes you something. Take charge and live with intent:
To believe that life owes us something is to sign a contract to live a life with disappointment. You will waste your time complaining that life isn’t fair because it isn’t. The best way is to take charge and start making your path to what you want to happen to you.
Make plans but account for unknowns and variables:
Creating plans and setting goals is essential to living and not simply letting life happen to us. However, we don’t have a perfect knowledge. We and the things around us change, so always leave room for variables and make a hypothesis for what you can’t control.
Serve others and procure to generate the best impact possible:
Serving others, you learn, find opportunities, influence lives, gain meaning, and are satisfied with yourself. Working with the mindset to serve will help you transcend money and live a fulfilling life. Also, these connections may serve you in the future to potentiate your career.
Progressively introduce volatility and intelligent risks to your life to get familiar with failure:
Don’t trust your ability to anticipate what could go wrong. Instead, build up resilience to unexpected fatalities. Introduce risks you have assessed and know you can afford to get the worst outcome. Take these intelligent risks periodically, and you will achieve stability in facing unexpected troubles. As humans, we overestimate risk most of the time.
Fail quickly, cheaply, and often:
You must embrace failure to succeed. Failures are learning experiences and, in the long term, the more you learn, the better. However, try to fail quickly and cheaply. In most cases, the quicker, the cheaper.
Choose wisely with whom you spend time:
Surround yourself with smart, talented, driven, and good people who share your mission. Don’t waste time with people without values or who don’t share your mission. Time is limited, so spend it with good people that you love.
Grow and leverage your network contacts:
A network is the key to discovering more opportunities and resources and getting information. Leverage the knowledge and skills of people in your network to increase your power exponentially or to make informed decisions. Nurture and grow it by staying in touch, helping, and adding value to your interactions.
Lastly, remember an entrepreneur needs to hope for the future, act in the present, and learn from the past.