Success is determined by a huge amount of factors, nevertheless, most business experts and successful people agree that the most important factor to reach success is oneself.
It isn't necessary to have all of these virtues in order to be a successful entrepreneur, but the more you have, the bigger the chances you'll become one of them.
As a matter of fact, lacking some of these virtues doesn't mean you can't develop them on the go, after all, you'll need to evolve with your business to improve it and to improve yourself.
The following list will show you which are the 13 most common virtues that successful entrepreneurs have. Having said virtues will help you and your business grow in a more effective way.
13. Energy and Enthusiasm
Successful entrepreneurs have enough energy to do all of the tasks they need to do throughout the day and enough enthusiasm to do these tasks with love and passion, thus, requiring less effort.
To reach these virtues they simply enjoy and love what they do. They're conscious of the benefits that success brings and use them as motivation, but don't consider them as the only thing that matters.
As the popular quote says:
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life"
12. Patience
Everyone in the business worlds needs patience, it's not only healthy but also rewarding.
The way of the entrepreneur is long, stressful and full of difficulties where success appears only after a good amount of work and dedication.
Therefore, in order to walk down this path, you need to take the journey step by step, without hurries or despair. If you take the right choices success will eventually be yours, you just need to be patient.
11. Self-Confidence
Successful entrepreneurs have a good amount of self-confidence.
They know their virtues and qualities and try to improve and get the most out of them, but they also know their limitations and flaws, which they try to fix and overcome.
As soon as problems start emerging, people with self-confidence keep going because they trust their virtues and strengths will help them sort all of the difficulties. They also know that their limitations are there, but they will find a way to bypass them in order to succeed.
10. Perseverance
Prosperous entrepreneurs have the perseverance needed to confront any setbacks or difficulties they find along the way.
They are aware that the entrepreneur life is full of setbacks even if they are extremely well prepared and careful. They are not perfect and mistakes will be made, but they see mistakes as the best teachers instead of their worst enemies.
When problems show up, instead of complaining, they take them as challenges and turn them into motivation sources. They value the wisdom they gain from their mistakes, learn quickly, get up and keep going.
9. Adaptability
One of the most important qualities of an entrepreneur is the ability to adapt to change. As Charles Darwin said:
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but rather, that which is most adaptable to change"
Fruitful entrepreneurs are always looking for market changes. (For example, new customer trends, needs or preferences. Being aware of new technologies, products, strategies, and competitors are always important to them.
Once they detect these changes they adapt quickly. For example, they leave behind products that no longer give profit, design new products that meet customer expectations and drop obsolete strategies to adopt better ones.
8. Risk tolerance
The business life is full of risks, every investment is a risk even if it's a small one, this is why as a successful entrepreneur you must have risk tolerance. This doesn't mean that you should spill your money, but to know your risks and invest accordingly.
Successful businessmen know very well that there's no analysis, preparation or planning that will eliminate risk completely. There's always a chance that things won't turn out as planned.
Nevertheless, they do minimize risk, plan, prepare, conduct analysis and act accordingly, creating emergency plans and assuming any risk that may appear. They don't fear risk, they embrace it and fight it responsibly.
7. Creativity
All good entrepreneurs need creativity in order to innovate.
They are well aware that competition nowadays is always widening, consumers are increasingly demanding and product lifespan is getting shorter.
Creativity is fundamental to sell innovative products and services, to escape failure and reach success. This is why outstanding entrepreneurs are constantly creating or redesigning products and services, but also forging more efficient processes and advertising strategies.
6. Business Vision
It may look obvious, but being able to spot business opportunities where others see nothing is one of the most important virtues of any business person.
This is why they are always informed of market changes, consumer preferences, likes, new technologies and trends, that way they can visualize opportunities in every area they can.
What happens when they find an opportunity? They gather information, analyze it and conclude if its real or not, and if it is, they waste no time and quickly gather all the resources they need to capitalize on it.
5. Perception
A business or entrepreneurship isn't constituted by just one person. The ability to identify the right people for the job is extremely helpful.
Smart entrepreneurs don't look for people less knowledgeable than them, instead, they look for trustworthy people knowledgeable in certain areas or that complement their skills.
Identifying this kind of people isn't just about the looks, but also about their gestures, words, and expressions.
Once these individuals are identified, they proceed to hire them and work with them as a team to improve and adapt in order to make the entrepreneurship grow.
4. Leadership
This virtue goes hand in hand with perception since it's useless to have the right team if it's submerged in chaos without leadership.
Fruitful businessmen have the ability to influence, induce and cheer their workers to follow them with enthusiasm by their own will and unconditionally towards the business goals.
Their strong charisma and inspiration make their workers identify and commit to their ideas, projects, and businesses.
3. Planning
Without planning, even the best of ideas can be a victim of chaos.
Being conscious that planning grants a greater efficiency in project execution is fundamental for them because they realize that the benefits include a better task coordination and a lower risk.
This is why every project they commit to is previously studied, analyzed and planned in order to produce the best results possible.
2. Decision Capability
Sometimes a hard virtue to master, but with common sense and capacitation, the best ally any business person can have.
As you may know, in the business world every decision is important, even the small ones can lead to success or failure in a given project.
Before taking a decision they take their time, analyze it and meditate about it, but they are ready to do it quickly when they think it's necessary. They trust their intuition with no regrets, assuming the responsibility for their choices.
- Tough decisions will be constant, but you must not torture yourself.
- Try to focus objectively on your choices and make the smartest move possible.
- Be aware that even the smartest choice can be the wrong one.
- If you made the wrong call, accept it and move on.
1. Self-Growth
Finally but not less important, successful entrepreneurs are always learning, training, and growing with their team.
There's always something to learn and they know this very well. The more informed and trained they are, the bigger the chances to spot opportunities and block threats.
This is why even if they are experts in their areas, they are constantly looking for a way to improve themselves and keep learning by going to seminars, reading books or researching through the internet.
If you keep growing not only will you enjoy the benefits of your improvement, but you'll also motivate everyone around you to do the same, and they will motivate other people around them as well, and this process will unleash a huge improvement in every area of your entrepreneurship.
It isn't a matter of forcing yourself to study when you don't want to but to research and learn about the things you love. As we said earlier, successful entrepreneurs love what they do, this means they love learning in order to improve and do what they love to do even better.