Can You Be A Successful Entrepreneur

[skyjoe76]

I gave a talk years ago, and a student asked me, "What do you think makes a successful entrepreneur?" I was wondering, isn't it obvious? On a second thought, I realized that the audience are not entrepreneurs but want to be entrepreneurs. They didn't move forward to become one because of fear. The fear of whether they can make it as an entrepreneur, the fear of do they possess the traits to be an successful entrepreneur.

With that in mind, I understand why that question came out. It was like the Universe present that question for everyone. The Universe wants me to support these people, so I will.

Overcoming fear

Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you don't have fear, in fact you do and have a lot of it. Fear is always there in everyone of us. The difference is the ability to act in spite of fear. In other words having the courage to act.

Entrepreneurs face tremendous amount of fear everyday. Why is that so? Imagine an entrepreneur journey is like a journey into the unknown jungle. The jungle is filled with uncertainties at every corner. Wild, ferocious animals may lurk at you suddenly. You may encounter the man eating plants leaving not even your bones. You may walked right into the muddy swamp that eats you up completely.

With dangers around, entrepreneurs took that leap of faith, trusting that all will be well, only to find out that it's not as bad as it seems. There are no man eating plants, only some animals attacked once in a while. But it's nothing too big that he can't handle.

When he walked past that jungle, he reached a beautiful waterfall, with clear water splashing down. He took off his shirt, dip into the cool water. The reward of overcoming fear is unlimited. Satisfaction from the business, financial rewards, time freedom and the full control of your life.

By having the courage to overcome fear, does that mean it will be all smooth sailing? Of course not. Sometimes you will miss the results that you desire. What can we do then? It comes to our second point - taking responsibility.


Take Responsibility

Responsibility means taking accountability about the results you created. This is extremely difficult to practice since we were taught to lay blame from young. Even in our society now, when something terrible happened, the government or the people will find a scape goat. They will not rest until someone is "hanged".

On the journey of entrepreneurship, you will make mistakes. You will fall, at times fall badly. It's not the fall that kills you, it's your response to the fall that can kills you. When you trip over a rock, you can go blaming the person who placed the rock there, or you can learn to start looking out for rocks in case you trip again.

When you business didn't do well, take responsibility for the result. Going around blaming your customers, the economy, the government is not going to help turn your business around. Instead ask "How can I improve the result?"

Entrepreneurship is a journey. A friend told me building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. What do we need to run a marathon? Y

es, perseverance. That's our third traits.

Perseverance

Winston Churchill famous speech with only nine words. He said, "Never, never, never, never, never, never, never give up!" This is so true in any business. There will be good time in your business, there will also be bad time in your business. Question is, can you hold on during the bad time.

I've been in business since 2003. I've gone through good and bad times in my business. Honestly, there are times where I wanted to let it go. Fortunately for me, the competitive character in me don't allow me to give up. I changed strategy, wait, hold on, it didn't turn out good. I changed again, wait again, hold on again, it didn't turn out well again. I do this process over and over again until one day, results changed.

Most of the time it's just one more bit of effort, one extra call, one extra door, one extra proposal. You may be just one step away from finding success.

Let just stop at three traits for now. There are so many other traits of a successful entrepreneur but if I go on, it will become a book. May these three traits alone can support you in your future endeavor.

[discountedclothing]

If you trust yourself then why should you ask if you're going to be a successful entrepreneur. I believe in all traits mentioned above, just keep on working hard and soon you'll get the results.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful explanation.

[Mega B]

skyjoe76,a very good read the bit about never giving up is some times very hard to do and i am certain that alot of people have given up just before they start hitting the big time a terrible shame but a fact of life i think.

[skyjoe76]

Discounted clothing,

You are right in saying if you trust yourself why should you even ask.

Probably because of the work that I'm doing, I see people who have doubts about themselves, tons of them. They have no confidence in becoming an entrepreneur, yet they are faced with no alternative.

They hated their job, boss. Some are waiting to be laid off. Some wanted more time with the family. But they are scared, and they have this question in them.