Do you have a strong desire to become a successful entrepreneur? Would you like to know if you have what it takes to build a successful business? I’ll give you the good news upfront; almost anyone can develop the qualities necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur.

As I started to research the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their success, I started to realize just how relative the idea of a “successful entrepreneur” truly is. To illustrate my point, consider the following question.

Which of these is the MOST successful entrepreneur?

1. The 60 year-old small business owner who has owned a local hardware store for 30 years, makes just enough to get by, but loves what he’s doing, and calls everyone in the town a friend.
2. The 35 year-old CEO of a software firm who works 70 hours a week, stays stressed, never sees his family, but makes over one million dollars in revenue per year.
3. The 40 year-old single mom who makes money online with several blogs, and gets to spend all the time she wants with her kids.
4. The 23 year-old college dropout who created a few websites that he manages a few hours per week and now makes enough to travel the world, spend time with friends and family, and pursue his favorite hobbies.

Chances are, each person that reads this will have a different point of view of who is the most successful entrepreneur. It doesn’t really matter. What matters, is that you know what success means to you.

It doesn’t matter if you want to create a giant corporation or write for a blog that makes just enough to pay your monthly bills. If that’s what fulfills your vision of purpose and success, go for it.

I still wanted to know what characteristics and qualities link successful entrepreneurs. So I turned to the book The Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley . In his book, Stanley interviews and surveys hundreds of millionaires in order to understand their success. Most of the millionaires in his book are Entrepreneurs and other self-employed individuals. This post is inspired by the data in his section on Success Factors.

In this article, Top 10 Characteristics and Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur, you’ll learn which factors influenced these millionaires the most. I’ll also share a couple of factors that, you’ll be shocked to learn, influenced them very little.

1. Integrity

Someone once said, “Right is right even if no one is doing it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it”. We all hear the news stories about corporate greed and corruption. However, the truth is, successful entrepreneurs and millionaires rated “being honest with everyone” the number one factor of their success.

2. Self-discipline

To become a successful entrepreneur you have to be highly disciplined. If you are trying to build a business from the ground up, a lot of times you’ll be faced with doing all the job functions of a company, such as accounting, marketing, web design, and customer service. You have to develop the ability to get things done, even when you don’t feel like it. Luckily, you can learn self-discipline with the right information and conscious effort.

3. People skills

Another critical factor among successful entrepreneurs is having good people skills. You should make an effort to genuinely like, respect, and appreciate other people. The ability to win people over will carry you far in all walks of life, especially your own business. If you have a blog, you might want to check out my tips to have better people skills online.

4. Supportive spouse

Don’t worry all you singles; I’m not suggesting that you get married before becoming an entrepreneur. But you should know that having a supportive spouse is another big success factor for entrepreneurs. Many times as a business owner, you’ll face tough and risky decisions.

My wife is amazingly supportive and I don’t know what I’d do without her. I’ve made enough business mistakes over the course of the last two years to fill up a book, and she still stands behind me 100%. Having a spouse that truly believes in your goals, dreams, and abilities is priceless.

5. Strong work ethic

There’s no substitute for hard work when it comes to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Most people want to do the fastest and easiest solution when it comes to work. If you want to be a success, dedicate yourself to persistent, productive, old fashioned hard work.

6. Passion

It almost goes without saying that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, you need to be passionate about your business. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to build a business around something you love. You can (and should) identify a profitable market and then build your business.

Ed dale talked about this in the 30 Day Challenge when he brought up the niche market of trout fishing. He pursued it because of its profit potential. He admits that he didn’t know anything about trout fishing prior to starting a website about it. He became passionate about his niche and learned all he could. Now it’s one of his most profitable businesses.

Loving your business will also make it easier to get through the start-up phase, and other future obstacles.

7. Strong leadership qualities

Being able to communicate effectively, motivate others, sell your ideas, and be decisive, are just a few of the qualities of a good leader. In order to become a successful entrepreneur you must dedicate yourself to improving your leadership skills and abilities.

8. Competitiveness

Competition is everywhere. In business, it’s the survival of the fittest. If you can out-market and outperform your competitors, your chance of being a successful entrepreneur will be much greater. Play to win, but never sacrifice your integrity for the sake of a few bucks.

9. Well-organized

I struggle with this one myself. But I’m constantly trying to improve my organizational skills. One of the main reasons small businesses fail is a lack of organization. If you too are unorganized, don’t worry too much. Everyone can learn organization skills with enough hard work, practice, and persistence.

10. Sales ability

The ability to convince others to make a conscious buying decision is a key becoming a successful entrepreneur. Sales guru Zig Ziglar says, “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons”. Being able to appeal to other people’s emotions is the key to selling your ideas, products, or services.

Characteristics and qualities of millionaire entrepreneurs that had the LEAST impact on success

Here are a couple of surprising factors that ranked among the lowest in regards to, the success of entrepreneurs.

Luck

Some people look at those with money, fame, or a successful business and say “they were just lucky” or “they were in the right place at the right time”. The truth is, most self-made millionaires and successful entrepreneurs don’t depend on the lottery, gambling, or other people to make them a success.

People see actors and musicians who suddenly become the next big thing and say, “wow they were lucky to be such an overnight success”. When in actuality, most actors and musicians work diligently for years in order to achieve such fame.

There’s a good quote that says, “The harder I work the luckier I get”. I also like the quote “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Don’t make the mistake of believing that luck determines how successful an entrepreneur you can be.

Education

Another surprise revealed in this survey was that education (including the choices “attending a top rated school” and “graduating at/near the top of my class”) was ranked near the bottom as a factor of success. The lack of a formal degree should not keep you from pursuing your own business.

This doesn’t mean you won’t have to learn. On the contrary, successful entrepreneurs and millionaires are good at gathering the knowledge they need in order to apply it to their business. The average millionaire reads one non-fiction book per month. Education is important in life, but getting bad grades in high school is not going to keep you from becoming a successful entrepreneur.

To wrap things up

As you can see, the most significant factors that will determine your success as an entrepreneur deal with how well you deal with other people and your own personal behaviors. Our society tells us that we have to get good grades, to get into a good college, to get a good “secure” job. Instead of teaching us to innovate, think creatively, and dream big, we’re taught to fear failure, wait until age 70 to retire, and to depend on the government for our needs . I hope you won’t fall into the same pattern of thinking.

Instead, I hope you’ll take this bit of wisdom on your journey to become a successful entrepreneur.“Whatever you mind can conceive, you can achieve”

Have you been inspired to become an entrepreneur? What do you think it takes to become a successful entrepreneur?

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