Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Entrepreneur? - Raheem Dad
Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Successful Entrepreneur?
Suppose you have a wonderful business idea no one else has even dreamt of, what now?
You cannot call yourself an entrepreneur unless and until you succeed in establishing yourself based on this idea.
15 years ago, somebody told me that the real challenge for entrepreneurs isn’t getting started; it's about staying in business and proving their mettle.
Unfortunately, there is no blueprint for successful entrepreneurship. In my view, if you believe in the “get it done” notion (I thoroughly believe in it), you are unstoppable. Entrepreneurs never complain about anything; they just get it done.
Arthur Ashe sums it up like this, “Start from where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
One thing is for sure that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. It takes, commitment, sheer hard work, courage, never give up attitude, 100% commitment and the undeterred resolve to succeed come what may.
If you don’t believe in the things mentioned above, I'm afraid this piece of writing isn’t for you.
In this blog, I have compiled a few traits of successful entrepreneurs, and the best thing is that these can be learned and perfected with time.
Are you ready to achieve entrepreneurial success? Here are the qualities you ought to have.
- Passion to succeed
- Grit
- Confident to pull off anything.
- Vision
All the globally recognised entrepreneurs know how to stand out from the rest. They think differently as compared to others. If you put a group of successful people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc. in a room, you will know that they all possess the same traits.
Lucky for you that these notable traits emphasised by these people can be learnt and developed over time. Let me take you through these traits that I consider as the short cuts to entrepreneurial success.
Passion to Succeed
Passion is what keeps you going.
It’s that characteristic of successful people that helps them achieve the ultimate; the glory. Take the example of people like Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai etc. who work untiringly hour after hour despite not having to work at all.
You know why they do it?
They are passionate about their work.
A research conducted by Tony Tjan, and two other venture capitalists Richard Harrington and leadership advisor Tsun-Yan Hsieh, says that a staggering “65% of founders have been identified as driven by heart”.
Remember one thing, being an entrepreneur is no easy task. You have to play out of your skin. As far as I’m concerned, the mantra of entrepreneurship is simple, “do what you want and love what you do”. If you don’t love what you do, you don’t deserve to be successful.
Grit
If you want to be successful, you need to be gritty. Also, known as sheer determination to succeed, grit gives the power to get up no matter how many times you fall.
Angela Duckworth, in her book: The Power of Passion and Perseverance writes that grit is a trait that all leaders possess. It separates the winners from losers, successful from failures. If you quit too early and don’t want to learn the hard way, your competitors will take over and kick you out of this competition.
Personal Example
It took me a number of years, sheer hard work and determination to set up my first business in the UK. At first, I got scammed by a partner, leaving me short of money and resources plus the fact I wasn’t experienced at all.
No one partnered me in times of turmoil, but I didn’t give up in turmoil. It was only me and myself. I had to conquer everything on my own. My aim was to do it come what may. I kept on going and thank God I own a number of businesses in the UK, right now including Lia.Training, LondonLaser, FindanExpert and ITblurb.
Confidence
Another thing that is common amongst all business leaders is their unwavering confidence. Doubts and uncertainties never leave you. You can easily feel de-motivated, frustrated or doubtful due to one negative thought or a small setback. However, if you want to enjoy success, just like leading entrepreneurs are doing, you need to be confident.
Simply saying, you are the face of your brand (if you own it) if you are not confident in your ideas and leading abilities, then how would you lead the team?
They won’t consider you as a role model. Become one if you want to reach for the skies.
As Samuel Johnson said, “Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” Whatever I do or want the team to do, I feel confident about my approach. My strong will, confidence and do it attitude then gets transferred to my team of professionals which can be seen from their attitude and body language.
Vision
All entrepreneurs, who have made a name for themselves in the world, are always motivated by strong will power and clear vision that enables them to foresee things, others can’t. They are always clear in their minds like what they want to achieve, how are they gonna do it, and what’s gonna happen.
Just ask yourself, what do you want to do in life, what’s your vision for a business, what accomplishments you have planned for yourself? If you haven’t done anything like this, I suggest you write your vision statement now; not even today or tomorrow, right now. I don’t care whether you read the blog completely or not!
Conclusion
I know you must be thinking that there are so many other qualities that make a person a successful entrepreneur, but these were the 4 most important ones, in my view. They may not make you a sure shot success in a matter of a few days, but learning these traits will allow you to leave a solid mark of yourself in the business world. You may become someone’s inspiration.
Leaving you with a Richard Branson’s motivational saying, “Successful entrepreneurs don't wait for the perfect moment – they create it.”
Till next time, take care!