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Essential qualities to be a successful entrepreneur

Are there specific qualities attributed to an entrepreneur? Yes, to a large extent. Every
individual who is successful in his life can’t make a successful entrepreneur whereas an
individual who is yet to create a success mark in his life may achieve big in his business venture.

Following are some of the essential qualities and traits that help an entrepreneur successful in his
venture.

At a personal level and as an individual he should be a:

Dreamer: Should dream about the big picture to become an established entrepreneur,
creator of employment, if possible creator of a change through his innovation. Whether
he goes walking to achieve it or goes leaping, it is all contextual and situational. He may
approach either way. But without the dream for a big picture he will not be able to scale-
up his activity and end up in smaller returns. His dreams should always surround on the
common benefits to his stakeholders without being self-centered.
Committed: This is the foremost trait that makes him achieve things without being
defocused or deviated.
Leader: Should be able to lead people, understand the means to achieve collective
productivity, and achieve collective growth. Should believe in empowerment and accord
individual freedom to the team who are rightly identified and aligned to the cause of the
organization. As a leader it would be his first responsibility to reach to the core issues of
his team with clarity and without holding any inhibitions. I call my team as Human
Intellect to denote the value they extend to the venture. For me, they are not Human
Resources or Human Capital.
Hardworking: Devoting focused mind and time to the needs of business. It could be
coordination, review, CRM, performance measurement or any day-to-day activities, he
should not go procrastinating things.
Sincere: His expressions, his admissions, his assurances and his promises to stakeholders
should be made with sincere mind followed by the required actions.
Honest: This helps him in reaching right message to his team and other stakeholders
without leaving higher aspirations or expectations.
Integrate: Integrity is an all-time requirement. This is the foundation to achieve
stakeholders’ acceptance.

To be relevant to his entrepreneurship, he should be:

A Visionary: Visionary is the person who is able to see virtually what he is going to do,
where he is going to reach in his business. He could envision to be a change maker to a
key player in his chosen business area or so. He is like a talented movie director who
will have the imaginary view of his picture before he make it.
Passionate: This will act like an accelerator when he slows down or when things look
otherwise. He should ensure that he keeps his passion and temperament at required
levels to run the show smooth.
Ethical: Helps him in receiving continuing and compounding acceptance in the market.
Innovator: Not a replicator or imitator. Innovation could be a for a new product, a new
approach, a new strategy, a new presentation of his business. It is just a new way of
attracting customers. Not that he should always be an Einstein.
Planned: This is must as he will not know as to how he could reach his short-term and
long-term goals to make his dreams real or achieve envisioned growth and goal.
Comprehensive: Without being detailed it is not possible to have a right approach. It is
always dangerous to stride into unknown paths without holding a map and with just
knowing one straight route. Without being detailed he will not be able to comprehend the
way out, should he get stuck somewhere in his business plan.
Attentive: To his people, stakeholders, operations, performance, goals, growth, profits,
and his personal growth. Comprehensiveness without being attentive later for required
review, correction and monitoring will not help him in true sense.
Team oriented: This goes without saying that he should view every thing from his
teams’ perspective before he reach his other stakeholders. Not that he listens them
without caring his goals. He should motivate them, empower them, align them, and let
them enjoy the fruits of growth. He should be emotional, empathetic and realistic in
managing the team for collective productivity and common goal.
Collaborative: The world itself is a collaborative entity. No single entrepreneur will be
able to do every thing on his own. He should never feel about loosing control of his
business through collaborations. Strategic alignment of collaborations will help achieve
the growth sooner than envisaged. Collaboration could be in the areas of technical
expertise, marketing, branding, team sharing, research sharing or expansion to new
markets and so..
Service conscious: There is no business where there is no effective service delivery.
This is the core thing to sustain and grow.
Quality conscious: There is no point of reaching customer where we can’t deliver the
quality at first instance. Quality should be the core of product, service or whatever
business we are engaged in. Quality compromise leads to every other failures in course
of time.
Sportive: To the feed back, to the feelings of team, stakeholders and to the market
dynamics. Nothing and never is addressed some thing personal to an entrepreneur unless
he goes himself unethical in his approach.
Resilient: To every thing even to failure. Why? Without this you will be left with only
an exit path at times. Temporary setbacks are common in business, market recession,
aggressive competition, product failure, team related issues, insufficient cash flows …..
many more things including the personal problems. Unless an entrepreneur reminds
himself his Dream and Vision, he would not be able to address the temporary setbacks.
There is no business that doesn’t suffer setbacks. This is a very common phenomena.
Professional: In every aspect. In his approach, communication, systems, processes,
service delivery, customer support. Being professional is just meeting the required
elements in every context with transparency, speed, commitment, and integrity.
 Social: Man is a social animal. Entrepreneur is a socially wild-animal. He should be
more visible. He should be more reachable. He should be more vigorous in creating his
network, maintaining his network and satisfying his stakeholders not as an entrepreneur
but like a friendly family member.
Flexible to change: Could be any change. Technology, product portfolio, role,
marketing…. Should be decisive in accepting and implementing the change. Otherwise
an important change that occurs late will not bring in envisaged results.
Welfare: Ensure proper growth prospects, welfare and well-being of employees. I
personally prefer even to consider or counsel the employees about their post-exit
sustenance wherever relevant.
Empathetic, Philanthropic: An entrepreneur should integrally indicate his reciprocal
approach to the society. It is a give-and-take policy. When you sustain on the society’s
patronage, extend some thing back to the society out of what you achieve.

It is definitely possible that I have left certain aspects. Because as per me entrepreneurship is a
lifetime effort. One must not take-up it with the motive ‘just profit-at-any-cost’. It is just
unacceptable to the society.