Whether you’re thinking about launching a business or currently have a business, there are some personality traits and qualities that will make you successful in what you do.
In this article, you’ll learn about the important traits that every successful business person needs. As you look through the list, think about what areas you need to improve.
Here are the personal qualities and traits that can make or break you as an entrepreneur.
1. Self-Discipline:
Setting aside time to do something consistently takes discipline. This is an important trait for a successful entrepreneur because it requires focus to achieve the goals you set for your business.
2. Confidence:
A successful entrepreneur isn’t worrying about whether they will fail, or what others think about them, instead, they’re thinking about their end goal and how to get there.
The way you build confidence is by consistently practicing your skill, being a self-starter and finding ways to improve. Strengthen your confidence by learning from your mistakes.
Strengthen your confidence by learning from your mistakes.
3. Organized:
Set up workflows and systems to help increase productivity and efficiency for your business.
Organizational skills include administrative tasks, delegating work, strategic planning, collaborating, analyzing issues, problem-solving, and making decisions.
Be decisive and action-oriented to produce successful outcomes.
4. Communication:
Whether you’re communicating to customers, employees or peers—effective communication skills is a characteristic of a successful entrepreneur.
Communication skills will help you provide feedback, clarity or demonstrate that you understand a customer’s pain point.
Sometimes you may have to over-communicate to ensure that all deliverables and expectations are understood by you and your client.
Your communication skills will be at the core of most of what you do: your elevator pitch, communicating an idea or marketing your product.
5. Curiosity:
Entrepreneurs are lifelong learners. They find ways to incorporate new ideas and perspectives into their lives by reading, listening to podcasts and learning new things.
It’s no wonder that a characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is that they stay open-minded and curious; they embrace novelty into their lives.
Stay open-minded and curious and embrace novelty into your life.
Successful entrepreneurs expose themselves to new topics to broaden their minds and use this to expand their scope of information.
Doing these things helps successful entrepreneurs thrive and stay on top of any new changes.
6. Creativity:
At its basic practice, successful entrepreneurship is the ability to explore new ideas and create a new product or process.
A trait of a successful entrepreneur is their creativity and how they explore new ideas. Your creativity can make you successful and give you a competitive advantage.
When you combine the elements of creativity and efficiency, it gives you a competitive edge.
Remember that at its core, a true entrepreneurial spirit is rooted in the creative process and exploration.
7. Adaptability:
An important quality of an entrepreneur is their ability to respond to change.
Your business could be influenced by political, social, economical or legal factors, including technological advances—all of which can change or evolve over time.
As an entrepreneur, it’s important for you to be able to respond to changing trends and business environments.
Your ability to look ahead and pivot can help you be innovative and introduce new products that help meet your customers’ needs. Having a future-oriented mindset will help you stay ahead of your game.
8. Patience:
You may deal with rejection, frustration or disappointment as an entrepreneur.
A quality of a successful entrepreneur is their ability to redirect their emotions to better cope with setbacks. Perhaps you may deal with a client or employee where a decision or action isn’t immediately made—practicing patience will come in handy.
Patience is a form of self control: it helps you avoid acting impulsively out of frustration, helps you stay calm and gives you the ability to make a choice about how you respond to a situation.
9. Persistence:
Persistence and patience will go hand-in-hand because you may not always see immediate results from your efforts.
Persistence is an important trait for an entrepreneur. Starting anything from scratch takes time and having the determination to continue even when the outcome is unclear is an important trait for a successful entrepreneur.
Building a business, launching a podcast, writing a book takes time and patience and it may take longer than you expected.
Being persistent and not giving up on your vision, goals or plan comes in handy for any entrepreneur.
10. Integrity:
Staying true to yourself, your brand promise and your company’s mission will serve as a strong foundation for your business.
A characteristic of an entrepreneur is their ability to remain authentic. It’s what sets a company apart from one another.
Can you stand by your promise? Do your statements and actions align with your business?
Remaining authentic, acting with integrity, upholding your ethics and values will serve as strong foundation for you and your business.
11. Self-awareness
Running a business will quickly show you what you’re good and not good at. A successful business person is able to reflect and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Entrepreneurship pushes your limits and you’ll become more self-aware of your energy, skills and judgement. This trait allows a successful entrepreneur to delegate work to others, enables you to cultivate your authentic brand and helps you be more perceptive in your decision-making.
12. Self-management
Practicing self-management means taking responsibility for your own behavior and well-being. Self-management includes making time for what’s important like your health, personal relationships, goals or hobbies.
A successful entrepreneur takes their well-being seriously to avoid crashing and burning. Eating well, sleeping enough hours and getting enough physical activity helps with coping with stress and anxiety.
Many entrepreneurs start their mornings with a set routine that often includes a self-care regimen such as meditation, gratefulness practice, exercise or self-reflection.
So, if you’re planning to launch a business or have already launched a business, asses where you are on this list.
Which of these traits come naturally to you and where is there room for growth?
