You dream of being an entrepreneur, but do you really have what it takes to succeed? Do you know what qualities you need? Many people want to be small business owners and may even get an enterprise off the ground, but do they have staying power? Below are several of the qualities you will need to enjoy a long and successful career as an entrepreneur.
Follow Through
Can you turn your dreams into action? This is the first hurdle for many people who want to start a small business. They talk a good game, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between them and those who will actually take the necessary steps to get the business underway. You need to be able to figure out what must be done to reach your goals. For example, even if you are still a student, you can start learning about how to write a business plan, apply for loans or attract investors, and build a business from the ground up. Make a list of the steps that you need to take in order to reach your goals and start checking them off.
Knowledge
You should be committed to continually educating yourself. The rate of change in the world is accelerating, and there is always more to learn. The first step is a formal education. If you already have a degree, you may still want to take some classes in business and entrepreneurship. If you do not have a degree or you really have no experience in this area at all, you may want to get a bachelor’s degree in business or a related field. Having Earnest student loans available can help pay for your education along with scholarships, grants and federal aid. Be sure to take a look at what kind of repayment plans private lenders can offer you. Beyond your formal education, you should remain curious about the world and keep reading and engaging as much as possible.
Fearlessness
Fearlessness or, at the very least, the ability to work in spite of fear, is also a crucial quality. One of the greatest fears we all have is failure, yet it is not really failure itself that holds us back. If you read biographies of successful people, one thing you will always see is how many things they tried and failed at before finding success. There was not always a straight path, either. A string of successes could just as easily be followed by a string of failures. You must be willing to take risks sometimes and to try things that may on the face of it seem unlikely to work out to get the big rewards.
Persistence
Are you persistent? Can you keep going even when you have experienced a series of setbacks and people are telling you to give up? Do you tend to work at a problem until you have found the solution? Will you stick with something even when it does not lead to immediate results? There is certainly value in learning when to cut your losses, but staying power when the time is right will matter as well.
