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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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