Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
One of the key qualities that a successful entrepreneur has is self-belief. They have immense faith in their own ideas and a tremendous zeal to translate their ideas into practical realizations.
Successful Entrepreneurs are visionaries. While the rest of the humanity is caught up in a struggle over trivial concerns of everyday life, these entrepreneurs ignore the noise around them and look steadfastly into the future and invest in themselves, preparing for the big opportunities.
While most people are into everything, having a faint idea in many subjects, successful entrepreneurs however, are experts in their niche. Thus while the vision of most people is blurred when they look into the future, the entrepreneurs, because they are so focused, their field of vision is as intense as it is narrow. Because of this they are very successful in penetrating the foggy mists of the future and are in a position to foresee the market trends much before the rest. It is this key factor which brings success to them.
Is it not for nothing that the famed US investor Warren Buffet, never invested in those technologies which he could not understand. Likewise, Bill Gates, the software tycoon, focused on building only software in his early days, working sometimes 3 days in a row without sleep.
Another thing that separates these entrepreneurs from the rest is that they were never motivated solely by money making. They only wanted to implement their ideas. These guys were so passionate about what they did, that, money was just a by product of their efforts. A mere index of their success.
A Case in point: Mark Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire ever to be featured in the Forbes List for the Richest People. When he first launched his online social networking software, FaceBook, he never had an inkling of what it would eventually accomplish. The work behind developing the software was an end in itself for him. In fact he loved what he was doing so much that he refused to sell the software despite being offered a very hefty amount. Work and not money was his number one priority.
To end this discussion let me paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Entrepreneurs must be sacrificed to their ideas,
Like bees, they must be prepared to put their lives into the sting they give.”
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March 8th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I just started writing an article on the same subject for putting up on this site, when I saw Kartik’s article. However, must admit that Kartik has done a much better job than I would have done. Thanks Kartik!
One suggestion: While it is good to have articles on entrepreneur and entrepreneurship in general, demands from the site will probably increase rapidly with time. People would possibly want to ask specific questions to a forum and expect expert advice for the same. For instance, I would like to pose some questions on starting a consulting practice. Can we think of such forums?
March 9th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Well written article, though I cannot agree on everything.
“While most people are into everything, having a faint idea in many subjects, successful entrepreneurs however, are experts in their niche”
A successful entrepreneur does not necessarily have to be an expert in a niche. Most problems that entrepreneurs are trying to solve don’t always fall into “niches” but span many subjects. What is required in such instances is a good breadth of knowledge in related fields and knowing which expert to approach/hire to solve specific subset of problems.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:59 am
This is the height of Geekiness. And u see? Geekiness pays too.
I have been reading a lot about this fella Zuckerberg since the first time I read about Facebook.
And there’s also this fact. During the initial days of the company (Facebook), Zuckerberg (a Harvard dropout) went around the Harvard campus giving away visiting cards that read “I am CEO… bitch”.
Thats bad, but nice to have adventures like that (don’t do it in India).
March 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Bill Gates worked 3 days in a row without sleep!!!
Wow thats great! From the past three days I have been trying to do such a feat to complete my site and also go to college to write my internal tests. And I endup sleeping more than I ever sleep everyday!
Warren Buffet! Great man! I have read somewhere that he used to deliver newspapers house-to-house when he was young. And a couple of days back I read in Times of India that he’s the richest in the world now. Carlos Slim Helu (German telecom Czar) comes 2nd and Gates comes 3rd.
Warren Buffet is just an investor. He invests his money wisely and sits at home happily. Many other investors are still wondering how he managed to amass such huge wealth. And the reason he gives everytime: invest wisely, not blindly. He doesn’t take risk buying stock/stake of new companies. He invests in companies that have proved by succeeding the test of time. Thats ofcourse playing safe.
Once there was a very good company whose stock prices went down. And many sold the stock to play safe and not incur more losses. Whereas Buffet used a bit of logic. The company was producing utility products. So the stock price was just an annual-seasonal dip. He went out and bought those shares. And the stock price rose again after a few days. He made his money wisely
July 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
eloowwwwww…hi!!!!
July 16th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
can you be my chatmate and txtmate