Though there is no hard and fast rule to success it can be achieved through hard work and simply following the common habits, characteristics, and qualities of the successful entrepreneurs.
There are generally six common habits or qualities that I have sorted out here. With every quality, I am going to give you an example of who and how it has benefited others to be the best they can be.
1.Persistence
Arianna Huffington is one the biggest examples of persistence, who after repeated rejections didn’t stop trying to get her second book, ‘After Reason’, published.
She had been rejected by almost 36 publishers at the age of 23 before she finally got it published. She didn’t stop here and ran for governor of California in 2003 but dropped out of the race soon after seeing only 2% support in her favor.
But she learned from this incident how vital the power of the internet is while running the fundraising campaign. As a result, she launched HuffingtonPost.com, 2 years later, which she sold to AOL.com for $315 million ultimately in 2011.
A successful entrepreneur understands the importance of failure. Rejections and failures are the signs to keep pushing forwards instead of stopping due to failure.
They provide you with learning experiences and serve as steppingstones towards success. Being persistent despite the hurdles is the most rewarding experience for entrepreneurs.
2.Forever Learning and Self-Improvement
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, is famous for being a fast learner.
He declared in an interview that before starting the corporation, he spent a lot of time in reading as many books as he can about rocketry and propulsion to learn about building rockets. In an interview on Reddit, he compared knowledge to a semantic tree.
He stressed that it is important to understand the fundamental principles of the tree like the trunk and big branches before going into the details like leaves, otherwise without basics or the branches, there will be nothing for leaves to hang on to.
Even after all the success with PayPal and Tesla, Elon knew that he would have to learn all about the rockets and rocket propulsion system to become the competent leader of a space flight company.
A feedback loop is very important for constant success. It allows you to think about what you have done, how you have done, and how you could have done it.
Constantly question yourself and get the chance to become better. A successful entrepreneur always strives for knowledge. They know that no matter how successful they are, or how much knowledge they have gathered, there is still room for more success and personal growth.
3.Risk Taking
One of the greatest risk-takers of all times is Bill Gates, who risked his future at the age of 20 by dropping out of Harvard to co-found his software company, Microsoft.
Bill Gates writes that in business and even in real life, you need to take big risks to achieve great success. A big risk can either mean big success or a big failure. Now if we look back, the success of Microsoft seems inevitable, but it wasn’t the case at that time.
At that time, it was the biggest risk of all to start the first personal computer software firm, and everyone thought it is going to be a huge failure.
To be a successful entrepreneur you need to look the potential to take your business to rise heights. What are the potential risks that you are afraid of? What could they benefit you and your business?
The best way to overcome these fears is to get exposure. Surround yourself with other risk-takers and people who encourage you to move forward, rather the ones who discourage and think you would fail.
4.Leadership
During 2008’s massive recession, when Starbucks was at the brink of failure, Howards Schultz’s leadership helped them to get out of the crisis.
Talking about his leadership techniques and what helped him to revive Starbucks, he mentioned that according to his views, leadership is something which has to be decisive, where you need to be ready to take decisions without having perfect information.
The core of leadership is transparency and truthfulness. You don’t need to be vulnerable all the time but there are times when you have to share your mind with people to tell them what you are and what you think, without being afraid.
Leadership is about being decisive and implementing things that will lead to the betterment and success of our business.
If you also have other people as employees, then being a leader you also have to explain to them the logic of your decisions. Taking initiative and responsibility are two main things that you can start with to develop leadership skills.
5.Hustle and Incredible Work Ethic
Oprah Winfrey, the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, while working hard for the show was not afraid to take on other projects. She worked in about 12 movies and cameos, many other TV shows, documentaries, and even movies.
She kept on appearing in and working on several other projects while keeping her main TV show among the top-rated and winning various awards for it.
Even after the end of the show in 2011, she continued to be a media tycoon by owning her own television network, a channel, a website, a magazine, an XM satellite radio channel and various movies and TV show cameos.
There is no big secret to success. It only comes to you when you are willing to go for it and work hard to get successful. Oprah worked hard to build up her personal brand. She managed to appear at every channel without compromising the quality of her work.
It is up to you how you manage to expand your brand on business and can put it on how many platforms. It is time to get activated and bring awareness to your business and brand.
Do not be passive and wait for opportunities to come towards you. Work proactively in the market for your product and make a name there. No one can help you to be successful but you.
6.Focus
In 1996, when Steve Jobs came back to the declining corporation of Apple, what he noticed was that the organization had lost its main focus. By the next year, he reduced the product line from 350 to 10 key products.
Apple’s poor management had caused the company to spread a lot but became too thin. I was very tough for Steve Jobs to focus and kill off various products and projects of the organization. In a conference in 1997, Steve Jobs stated that focusing is no about saying yes, rather about saying no.
A successful entrepreneur knows that the business must not be spread to limits that would make the corporate so thin and feeble that it will lose focus from the originality of the brand.
Keep yourself focused on the original vision of your organization. The only way to do that is to keep things simple. Try to make fewer but quality products, rather making dozens of okay products.
Conclusion
You don’t need to focus on all of these qualities altogether. Adopt one or more that applies to you and start working to improve your business today.
Harrison Global Capital 