If you want success, you must plan for success rather than failure. You don’t set out for Los Angeles from New York by walking eastward, do you? Of course not! You have to be walking in the right direction to get where you’re going.
Grasping
the reality of this current hard-hitting full-blown economic downturn, and
all-out crisis in your life is not an easy task. How you deal with it will determine your ultimate success.
Each
moment can change the rest of your life and the course of your direction. If you are not intentional with your
actions, you will plan to fail. Successful people operate from the beat of their own drum, but they are
intentional. Successful people don’t
become successful by accident—it’s sheer, practical application of their
talents and traits.
1. Hard
Working: running a business requires a lot of energy and drive. This involves the ability to work for
long hours when necessary, to work intensely in spurts and to cope with less
than a normal amount of sleep.
2.
Self-Confident: to succeed, entrepreneurs have to believe in themselves and in
their ability to achieve the goals they have set for themselves. This is often shown by a belief that “if
you want something badly enough and are prepared to work at it, you’ll usually
get it”.
3. Builds
for the Future: the goal for most successful business people is to build a
secure job and income for themselves which is based on their own
abilities. This means
entrepreneurs understand that it may take several years to build up business
income to a reasonable standard.
4.
Profit-Oriented: interest in generating money is a clear indicator of an
entrepreneur’s suitability for being a business owner. This means recognizing that the
business comes first.
5.
Goal-Oriented: success in business depends upon being able to set realistic
goals or targets and to work with determination to achieve them. This ability to set goals (for things
the person thinks are worthwhile) and to work to achieve them is fundamental to
being an entrepreneur.
6.
Persistent: all businesses have their problems and disappointments. Being persistent in solving a problem
is one of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur.
7. Copes
with Failure: all business ventures inevitably contain disappointments and
failures as well as successes. Coping with failures involves recognizing these failures, learning from
them and seeking new opportunities. Without this characteristic, early failures may end a person’s attempt
at self-employment.
8.
Responds to Feedback: entrepreneurs are concerned to know how well they are
doing and to keep track of their performance. Obtaining useful feedback and advice from others is another
important characteristic of entrepreneurs.
9.
Demonstrates Initiative: research shows that successful entrepreneurs take the
initiative
and put
themselves in positions where they are personally responsible for success or
failure.
10.
Willing to Listen: the successful entrepreneur is not an inward looking person
that never uses outside resources. Self-reliance does not exclude the ability to ask for help when needed
from such people as bank officials, accountants and business advisers. Being able to listen to the advice of
others is a key characteristic of an entrepreneur.
11. Sets
Own Standards: setting standards of performance and then working to achieve
them is another indicator of a successful entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs want to do better
each year, to set and achieve higher standards from year to year.
12. Copes
with Uncertainty: being an entrepreneur is much more uncertain than
employment. An ability to cope
with this uncertainty without becoming too stressed is a necessary trait of
being an entrepreneur.
13.
Committed: starting and running an enterprise demands total commitment by the
entrepreneur in terms of time, money and lifestyle. I t has to be a major
priority in the entrepreneur’s life.
14.
Builds on Strengths: successful business people base their work upon the
strength(s) they have, such as manual skills, interpersonal skills, selling
skills, organizational skills, writing skills, knowledge of a particular
product or service, knowledge of people in a trade and ability to make and use
a network of contacts.
15.
Reliable and Has Integrity: the qualities of honesty, fair dealing and
reliability in terms of doing what one has promised to do are essential traits
of an entrepreneur.
16.
Risk-Taker: being an entrepreneur involves some risks. Entrepreneurs have the ability to take
measured or calculated risks. Such
risks involve working out the likely costs and gains, the chance of success and
the belief in oneself to make the risk pay off.
Dr.
Farrah Gray is the author of The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to
Radical Prosperity, Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You from
Success and the international best-seller Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming
Rich from the Inside Out. He is chairman of the Farrah Gray Foundation. Dr.
Gray can be reached via email at fg@drfarrahgray.com or his website at http://www.drfarrahgray.com/.
