Are you an entrepreneur? There are certain traits and attitudes that make some people more suited to running a successful small business than others.
In one study where entrepreneurs were given a list of attributes and asked to rate their importance for success, the seven most highly ranked qualities were perseverance, the desire and willingness to take the initiative, competitiveness, self-reliance, a strong need to achieve, self-confidence, and good physical health (William E. Jennings, “A Profile of the Entrepreneur” in Entrepreneurship: A Primer for Canadians).
None of these are particularly surprising; you’d expect a person who was a successful entrepreneur to be self-reliant and self-confident. The qualities that the same group of entrepreneurs ranked as least necessary for success may surprise you, though; a strong desire for money, patience, being well organized, and having a need for power all ranked at the bottom of the list.
Human Resources Development Canada presents a very similar view of the qualities needed for entrepreneurial success in their booklet Minding Your Own Business. Their “Reality Check for Small Business Owners" emphasizes qualities such as persistence, self-confidence, and flexibility. For instance, entrepreneurs “believe that they control their own destiny, they refuse to be at the mercy of others or of events. As a result, they take the initiative in starting projects and getting ideas off the ground.”
If you like interactive checklists, you’ll like “How Entrepreneurial Are You?" Once you’ve answered these questions on your attitudes towards risk-taking and your personal initiative and discipline, and press submit, you’ll see where your personality fits on the entrepreneurial scale. “The Entrepreneur Test” is a similar interactive quiz that lets you assess your entrepreneurial characteristics.
All of these sources equate being a successful small business person with being an entrepreneur. That is, the underlying assumption is that you need to have a sufficient number of “entrepreneurial qualities” to run a successful business. You'll find more quizzes and the like to measure your entrepreneurial qualities in my Are You An Entrepreneur? library.
Feeling better about how your personality fits the entrepreneurial profile? Good! You wouldn't be reading this article if you weren't a self-confident, energetic person who enjoyed challenges. But even if you have every entrepreneurial quality every study has ever listed, you won't get anywhere if you're not equipped to put all those positive traits into action. What are the abilities you need to succeed when you start your own business? Continue on to the next page.
