Research suggests that entrepreneurs mostly seem to have 3 key traits:
A strong belief about market opportunities (or an idea about a product or service they can supply). This is an ability to spot a market “gap”.
A willingness to accept high levels of personal, professional and financial risk (something that research suggests that over 80% of people prefer not to do or find extremely difficult).
The possession of a variety of characteristics which provide a skill-set for achieving success. This last one needs more detail but we will be looking at this more fully later in this article.
If we boil the initial decision to become an entrepreneur down to a few key characteristics there seem to be five that are most important-the will, the idea, the means, the support and the self-esteem. Let’s look at these in a little more detail:
The will: The first question a would-be entrepreneur needs to ask is “do I have the will or motivation to do this-the will to walk away from comfort and security and to possibly risk everything I currently have in the pursuit of an idea that I can succeed?” If the answer is an unequivocal yes then an individual may have the will that’s needed.
The idea: The next question is very simply “do I have a a good business idea and not just a good idea in theory but in practice?” If your idea is not sufficiently fresh or different you may never stand out enough from your competition and entrepreneurial life may become frustrating very quickly.
The means: The “means” refers to your physical resources to go into business for yourself. While this always involves lots of time resources, it also involves a very cost hungry process in most cases. If money is insufficient, then success may be unachievable or see a slow decline of all of your assets.
The support: “Support” refers to people you can call upon to help you when the need arises. These people range from family and friends to professional advisors such as bankers, accountants and lawyers for example. It also means drawing of the skill and expertise of people who can help you manage functions and activities in which you have little or n knowledge or skill.
The self-esteem: A start-up business is not place for those of us who so not like themselves very much or are “thin-skinned” when it comes to criticism. In fact this is such an important requirement, we should look at it a little more closely
Why good self-esteem may be the most important characteristic of all
Put very simply, Self esteem is your opinion of yourself. High self esteem is a good opinion of yourself and low self esteem is a bad opinion of yourself.
Low self esteem feeds your negative thinking and causes you to believe the criticism others make of you. Do you take what others say and not speak up? This can cause you to lose confidence so it is vital to end negative thoughts if you want to build your self esteem.
High self esteem is the opposite of the above! If you have a high level of self esteem you will be confident, happy, highly motivated and have the right attitude to succeed.
Self esteem is crucial and is a cornerstone of a positive attitude towards living. It is very important because it affects how you think, act and even how you relate to other people. It allows you to live life to your potential. Low self-esteem means poor confidence and that also causes negative thoughts which means that you are likely to give up easily rather than face challenges. In addition, it has a direct bearing on your happiness and wellbeing.
Given the above, it is relatively easy to see that the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs have high self-esteem (or at least not so low that they can’t manage).
