I’m sorry but natural-born entrepreneurs don’t just sit around waiting for things to happen. Genuine entrepreneurs identify a need that no existing businesses address and determine a solution for that need. They’re daily in the trenches, hustling or working hard to create their own fate. Certainly, they are always ready for opportunities, often generating them where others can’t see the possibilities or realize too late.
Walt Disney once said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Accordingly, many folks have lofty dreams about escaping the 9-5 grind and launching new businesses. Yep, some succeed while others fail. The primary reason for that is that those who fail either venture into industries they aren’t passionate about or simply possess a different calling.
So, if you really want to start your own small business venture but aren’t sure whether it’s what you’re meant to do, read on. This article covers 20 characteristics that every entrepreneur should have and helps you determine whether or not entrepreneurship is right for you.
Use it to determine whether you were born to be an entrepreneur or not. Let’s dive in!
1) You Understand the Magic of Thinking BIG
Wildly successful entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to think big. They are determined to control their own destiny and are not fazed by what’s happening around them or what they haven’t achieved. They know that they deserve the life they want and have what it takes to reach any goal.
Therefore, if you are not afraid to dream big and believe you are meant for something bigger and greater, then you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Yes, whatever your mind can conceive you can surely achieve.
Perhaps you’re unsatisfied with where you are and long to do and be more. I firmly believe that you are born to be an entrepreneur. You may find yourself constantly searching for ways to advance and move to a higher stage in your life. You know you can achieve more than what you’ve attained and see yourself becoming all you’ve ever wanted.
2) You Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Do you push the boundaries? Are you an initiator – don’t mind doing something no one asked you to do? How often do you volunteer – respond when someone asks for help? Are you opposed to change or do you aggressively pursue new opportunities?
One thing that sets entrepreneurs apart is that they always go beyond what they see. You are not controlled by what’s happening in your life, what you see, or what others think about you.
Once you set your mind on something, you do everything in your power to make it happen. You don’t let failure or negative comments stop you from working towards your vision.
If you encounter setbacks, challenges, or obstacles you keep moving forward. You refuse to be held back by the mistakes you make and aren’t limited by what you can’t do.
If what you want to achieve is beyond your skill level, you acquire the necessary skills because you understand that anything is possible. All you need to do is find effective ways to accomplish what you want, upskill, and believe you can make it happen.
You believe you can do anything and go for all you want.
3) You Believe in Yourself
By learning how to believe in yourself, you will find the courage to take massive action on your goals. And this, as you may know, is the key to success!
You trust in your abilities and know you are capable of bringing your vision to life. Also, you understand that the only way to turn your life around is by having confidence in what you can do and never doubting yourself.
You embrace who you are, look forward to who you can become, and use past accomplishments to stay motivated.
When you experience failure, you reflect on what you’ve accomplished in the past and keep moving forward. You keep your eyes on your goal and focus more on what you’re good at.
Wisely, you don’t worry about what you can’t do or what you haven’t achieved yet. You are competitive but never compare yourself to anyone because you understand that everyone has their destiny to reach and purpose to fulfill.
4) You Take Massive Action
Some ambitious entrepreneurs have a tendency to see the end result, get excited about it, and then fizzle out with talking — no action taken. However, successful entrepreneurs take massive action. They just don’t dream big. They envision their successes and take the necessary action.
This means a clear, hard-headed focus on achieving the desired ends. It also means making a decision, not agonizing over it or putting it off.
So, if you are the kind of person who dreams and takes the necessary steps to bring your dream to life, you are born to be an entrepreneur.
You don’t just wish for things to happen; you do all you can to bring them to pass.
Being goal-oriented, you envision where you’ll be years from now and come up with a plan to ensure you get there. You look for the best way to reach your goal and clearly define your steps. Every day, you take the necessary steps and get a step closer to your goal.
Once you set your goals, you work on them without seeking approval. You don’t wait for anyone to tell you to go ahead and build your dream because you trust in your abilities.
5) You’re the Quintessential Learner
One thing that shows you are born to be an entrepreneur is that you are passionate about learning new things. Primarily, you are always looking for ways to advance and improve.
You surround yourself with the right people because you understand that your relationships can make or break you. Naturally, you stay away from toxic relationships and seek to form relations with people who motivate you to think big, dream bigger, and improve your life.
You learn from those who have already achieved what you are aiming for and ask for their guidance. You are not self-centered in relationships but seek to add value to other people’s lives as well. Additionally, you share your knowledge, lend a helping hand, and encourage others to go after their dreams.
6) You Are a Bookaholic
Reading the right books has the power to change your life in ways you often don’t expect. Yet, non-readers live only one life: their own. Readers have access to many more lives through biographies and fiction. Therefore, if you’re an avid reader, it means you read as much as you can, whenever you can.
It’s a proven fact that most highly successful entrepreneurs are avid readers. They understand that the best way to get ahead is to read as many books as you can because someone has already shared secrets to what you want to accomplish.
Someone has already achieved what you want to accomplish and shared their knowledge and experience to help you reach your goal. If you enjoy reading and researching, you are born to be an entrepreneur.
Perhaps you are always searching for and buying business books or self-improvement books. You want to create something or wish to build your own business. You want more control over your work and feel trapped by your 9-5 job.
Definitely, if you are like me, you feel you need more flexibility in your life and the ability to choose when and how you work.
7) You Continuously Develop Your Skills
If anything, this is when you realize that, if you want to enhance your professional life, learning has to become a constant. You are not satisfied with your skill level because you believe you can do more. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you are happy with what you can do but aren’t satisfied. You feel you can do more with your abilities and achieve more.
So, you look for ways to cultivate your personal development skills and advance, which can help you maximize your potential both personally and professionally.
You are conscious of what you can do, grateful for it but wish you could do more. So, you look for opportunities to grow and aren’t afraid to invest the required resources. That means if you have to buy an online course to advance your skills, you do it. You commit and invest more time in it because you know what you want to achieve.
You leverage the benefits of mentorship and follow blogs or people who have more experience than you because you understand that it’s one of the most effective ways to learn and grow.
8) You Make Seizing Opportunities a Priority
Great opportunities don’t come every day — recognize and seize them with every chance you get. It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs who have successful businesses look for opportunities and seize them. You don’t let opportunities pass you by because you realize there’s growth in every opportunity you get.
Surely, you also understand that the best way to bring your vision to life and reach your goals is to know the difference between a good opportunity and a bad one. You evaluate every opportunity you get to determine whether it’s right for you or not.
If it’s in line with your goal or takes you a step closer toward achieving what you want, you grab it. You don’t waste it because you know that it may not come again. If it delays you or keeps you from your goal, you let it go because you know where you are going and understand that when the time is right, your big break is going to come.
9) You Master Self-Evaluations
Have you asked yourself the tough questions? At each stage of life, we should take a moment to take stock, to do a self-evaluation.
The only way to keep advancing, improve, and reach every goal you set is by self-evaluating. Successful business owners understand that. That is why they are not afraid to weigh their performance and criticize their work. They understand that self-evaluating helps you identify your weaknesses and strengths and makes it easy to improve where you are lacking.
If you always evaluate your work, monitor progress, and measure your performance, then you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Firstly, you are not afraid to criticize your work and be honest with yourself because it helps you improve and grow.
You monitor your performance to recognize your shortcomings and understand your strong points. Lastly, you do all you can to improve and also celebrate your strengths and make the most of them.
10) You Recognize the Value of Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is essential to guide and inform your decision-making and influence innovations and changes to your product or service. It’s also essential for measuring customer satisfaction among your current customers. Getting a handle on how customers view your product, support, and the company is invaluable.
Certainly, you seek a second opinion because you understand you may be biased if you are to evaluate your work 100 percent of the time.
You ask other people to evaluate your work and share their feedback. Not afraid of criticism, you don’t get upset when someone says something you didn’t expect because you know that’s how we learn.
You appreciate constructive criticism, value the feedback you get, and use it to improve and become a better version of yourself.
Whether positive or negative, feedback gives you valuable information that you can use to make important decisions about your business. It is an effective way to get a sense of what your market and important stakeholders truly feel about your products and services.
11) You Bounce Back Quickly
Challenges Don’t Weigh You Down! Setbacks, disappointments, discouragements, uncertainties, and failure are the main reasons why most people quit working on their dreams and settle for a life that’s below the one they’re meant to live.
However, entrepreneurs understand that challenges are simply a part of life. They are there to help you grow and pave the way to success.
So, when you encounter setbacks, you don’t flinch and quit. Instead, you bounce back, renew your vision and become even more determined to reach your dream.
You are always motivated by the challenges you face because you realize they are there to remind you that you’re on track.
12) You Strive to Build Resilience
Resilience is “the ability to navigate through adversity, to effectively adapt to change and thrive.” It means having to cultivate a sense of calm, clarity, and stability, even when things are stressful and overwhelming.
Resilience helps you get back up after every failure. All entrepreneurs understand that and are always looking for ways to cultivate and build resilience.
If you always get back up after failure and try again, you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. That’s because entrepreneurship requires persistence.
Things will not always turn out the way you want them to. You will experience failure time and again and you will make mistakes that will delay progress. So, you have to embrace change, learn from your mistakes, get back up, and keep moving forward.
13) You’re Not Afraid of Hard Work
Our work contributes to the good of society. It serves others, it enriches peoples’ lives, and it moves everyone forward. Hard work is a fundamental part of life if you want to be successful in any field. There is no getting away from this. Work isn’t always fun, but it is necessary.
You cannot get anywhere without working hard. The trouble is that hard work is, hard! This stops a lot of us from doing it. We are not willing to put in the hours required, because it is difficult.
However, if you work hard, never give in to distractions, and never waste time on things that hinder your growth, you can venture into entrepreneurship and succeed.
Entrepreneurs work hard because they understand that their successes depend on what they do, their level of commitment, and the choices they make.
You work hard and smart because you recognize that your actions influence the outcome. You get to work on time, find effective ways to carry out tasks, put in the hours, and work to the best of your abilities.
14) You Desire Future Financial Freedom
Financial freedom usually means having enough savings, financial investments, and cash on hand to afford the kind of life we desire for ourselves and our families. It means growing savings that enable us to retire or pursue the career we want without being driven by earning a set salary each year.
Like so many others. you want to provide for your own needs and become self-sufficient. You want to be independent in every area of your life and have more control over your life. You look for ways to gain the independence you desire and do all you can to become financially stable.
To be an entrepreneur, you must remain committed to whatever you do whether you enjoy it or not because you know that it will help you get closer to your financial goals.
You have two or more income streams and constantly pursue multiple streams of income. If you have one source of income, you wish you had more and are always looking for side jobs.
15) You Realize Optimism Helps Entrepreneurs Succeed
Optimism is a lucrative investment beyond one’s finances. Optimism helps entrepreneurs succeed because it means they are more likely to invest, act, and put effort into achieving what they want to get done. Optimists do better over the course of their careers as well. They make more money and are more likely to be promoted.
You are optimistic and always seek the good in every situation. When the unexpected happens, you don’t give up. Rather, you simply trust that things are going to turn around and hope for the best.
You stay encouraged through tough situations and encourage those around you. You know that nothing lasts forever and believe your situation is going to change. Being focused, you keep your eyes on what you will achieve and never focus on the bad things happening in your life.
You remain optimistic even in hopeless situations because you reflect on what you’ve overcome and use it to remind yourself that you can weather any storm.
16) You’re a Calculated Risk Taker
When it comes to taking risks in business, this doesn’t mean going into things blindly and then expecting results. Risk-taking in entrepreneurship involves careful planning, effort, and perseverance.
You enjoy taking bold calculated risks. Being a risk-taker gives you big returns if you succeed. You are not afraid to take risks because you understand that in them lay great opportunities waiting to be discovered.
When a great opportunity comes or one that seems too good to be true, you do your research and leap. You don’t think about what you’ll lose if things don’t turn out as expected, instead, you focus on what you stand to gain.
You weigh the associated risks and compare them to what you’ll benefit from the opportunity presented to you. If the rewards outweigh the risks, you don’t think twice. You seize the opportunity, learn as you go, and expect the best.
17) You Understand the Power of Vision
Entrepreneurs have a clear picture of where they are going and what they want to achieve.
A vision provides motivation – Every mundane task we do to fulfill our vision begins to take shape and we find meaning that spurs us on to the next step in the process. People with a vision are motivated and this is one of the true powers of having a clear vision, clarity as to your purpose in life.
If you believe in your vision, understand where you want to go, and act on it without seeking approval, you have what it takes to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in your industry.
If you believe you can bring your dream to life and act on your goals daily without trying to convince naysayers to see your vision the way you see it, you were born to be an entrepreneur.
When you experience failure and obstacles, you keep moving forward because you know you are going to arrive at your destination.
18) You Are an Effective Problem Solver
Problem-solving is a skill that pays handsomely. Your ability to make money is directly proportionate to how well you solve problems for your customers. Yet, to become a great problem solver requires a little more than a set of effective problem-solving strategies.
I truly believe that problem solving is one of the most highly valued characteristics you can have as an entrepreneur. Hone this skill and you reap the benefits of saving time, making money, and finding the next big idea for your business.
Surely you realize that a problem solver’s attitude determines how they consistently tackle problems on a daily basis. This attitude is evident in their thoughts, behaviors, and actions, and it is this attitude that helps build their resolve and shapes their character.
An effective problem solver intuitively understands that any problem can and will be solved, given enough time, patience, and meticulous careful attention. Therefore, if you always look for solutions to whatever problems you face, then you have an entrepreneurial spirit. You approach problems with the right attitude and never allow them to veer you off course.
When you encounter setbacks, you don’t think you’ve reached the end of the road and quit. Instead, you focus on coming up with the best solution and get back on track.
You have a possibility mindset that keeps you looking for a solution and always seeing a way out. No matter what situation you’re in.
If the first solution doesn’t work, you don’t throw in the towel. Instead, you retrace your steps, look for a different solution, and give it another shot.
19) You’re Always Brainstorming Creative Ideas
Brainstorming is defined as “the mulling over of ideas by one or more individuals in an attempt to devise or find a solution to a problem”. With just this definition, it’s easy to see that brainstorming, and brainstorming successfully, is vital to the success of a business.
Entrepreneurs or creatives are always brainstorming and coming up with new ideas. They are always looking for the next best thing and keep their eyes on advancing, trying new things, and executing the best ideas they have.
Know you have an entrepreneurial spirit if you have a lot of goals to achieve and ideas to execute. Maybe you have a 9-5 job but want to start a side hustle. Maybe you are currently unemployed but always reading business books and envisioning yourself launching your startup.
You easily get bored when you focus on one thing for too long. So, you diversify and venture into different businesses. That doesn’t mean you lack discipline or focus. It simply means you realize that you have more to give, more to live for, and more to accomplish.
20) You Celebrate Other People’s Success
When you learn to celebrate other people’s accomplishments in a sincere way, you will stand out from the pack of people who only superficially support them. You are naturally happy when other people reach their goals and celebrate their wins. Even when you haven’t reached yours.
You encourage those around you to work towards their dreams and motivate them to get back up and try again when they fail.
You understand that celebrating other people and being genuinely happy for them when they reach their goals strengthens relations and ensures you have people to celebrate with when you fulfill your aims.
When you stop feeling jealous and actually start celebrating other people’s victories, you will start to recognize patterns of behavior that lead to success. By internalizing what different people do to achieve their goals and remembering which strategies work and which don’t, you will gain a better understanding of what is required to move forward.
Become an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship provides you the ability to control your own life and do what you are passionate about. It provides freedom, flexibility, and personal satisfaction. In addition, entrepreneurship allows you to be more creative and offers more to your community.
Not only that, but the high innovation needed also makes technology easier and more convenient and adds more powerful and beneficial jobs to any country’s labor market.
While transitioning from employee to entrepreneur may seem like an overwhelming task, hopefully, you have learned throughout this article that it’s not. That it is something you are fully capable of doing as long as you believe in yourself and your idea and its ability to benefit those around you.
