The Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs - Paper Example

Introduction

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Bernard Arnault, Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega and Carlos Slim Helu are some of the richest and successful entrepreneurs that do not owe their success to family wealth but their creativity and innovation. While some think the entrepreneurs were just lucky people with lofty dreams, they were people who dreamed and worked hard at attaining the lofty dream- pure grit. Most tech entrepreneurs have shown discipline, resilience and their society because they believed that social problems are a most pressing problem that can be solved by looking at each situation from a different angle. They have managed to develop a solution to problems both existing and those they foresee in the near future. Accordion to Snyder (2018), the most common traits shared by most of the successful entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos include intellect, immoderation, cautiousness, emotionality, and altruism.

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Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur

The entrepreneurs show immoderation by obsessing over their innovation and creation. Some of them do not show restraints when developing their innovative products. Jeff Bezos started very many busies that failed until the day he started breaking through, Most of the projects failed just like the projects undertaken by Google (now Alphabet) retired most of the multibillion-dollar projects failed but these entrepreneurs obsessed and never gave up. Their persistence saw them develop solutions that were never imagined. Some of Elon Musk's innovations have seen him extend the boundaries and break many laws that people ever imagined could be broken. From Tesla self-driving car, PayPal the micropayment platform the spaceship that many never imagined could be developed by individuals but a government with adequate funding. Elon Musk has demonstrated that entrepreneurship is the most lonely journey for the focused, determine, persevering people who do not compromise on their dreams.

Passion and Motivation is probably the most important trait of a successful entrepreneur in spite of the existence of other traits. On this note, an entrepreneur should be able to identify a business idea and be willing to work on it over and over again without feeling boredom after experiencing a few cases of failures. Passion and motivation also ensure that an entrepreneur is always focused and never feels satisfied before achieving his or her goals on the same. Moreover, according to Nuvolari, Toninelli, and Vasta (2017), such an entrepreneur should be able to identify what he or he has once built in the business context and would wish to work on it for the rest of one's life.

Entrepreneurs are those who do not fear diving into future which rather presents uncertainties, therefore, accept to be risk takers. However, it is important to note that being a risk taker does not guarantee a successful entrepreneurship. A smart way to approach taking risk is focusing on one's plans as much an entrepreneur is willing to risk his or her money and any other resource involved (Nuvolari, Toninelli &Vasta, 2017). Therefore, the level of the risk a businessperson takes should be compared to the cost of one's time, career and money. A risk taker should afford to risk after evaluating the outcomes of the whole process.

Successful entrepreneurs are those who believe in themselves and demonstrate considerable confidence in their entrepreneurial project. As much they are ready to borrow and apply others' ideas, they are not easily influenced to adopt a given approach that they do not desire. They have focus and faith based on their initial business idea. The ultimate success in the same can be traced with the willingness to defy others' odds and work hard on what they had established and set out to accomplish.

Traits/Characteristics Leading Downfall of an Entrepreneur and How to Transform Them

Lack of inflexible skills with regard to market needs is a potential cause f failure for an entrepreneur. This implies that however much being dedicated and passionate, one still fails provided he or she is unable to adapt to the emerging entrepreneurial trends. On this note, failure can easily occur when an entrepreneur believes that he or she should only do what they consider the best. Staniewski and Awruk (2018) argued that transforming this problem requires that an entrepreneur should demonstrate his or her willingness to incorporate all the suggestions targeted towards optimization and customization for enhancing their projects. Being open to what others suggest, will enable an entrepreneur to satisfy their market and client needs.

The other significant cause of entrepreneurial failure is insufficient market knowledge. The businesspersons who failed at one point must have had not known their products properly. It, therefore, follows that the inability to know one's market. This implies that insistence on what already exists is the great enemy of achieving the best in one's ideas. The business issue can be solved by being able to create what had never already existed to significantly promote the business activities around the product involved (Staniewski & Awruk, 2018). Encouraging creativity and innovation can, therefore, be used to ensure that great products will always be associated with success in entrepreneurship.

Conclusion

Successful entrepreneurs have passion and motivation, for their work, and immoderation for their goals. They are also creative and innovative in their approach to problems. Their low emotionality is their main driver as they easily cope with the stressful moment and outcomes in the processes of their world. They can also cope with the pressures but are less likely to overreact when they cannot achieve their goals as they are willing to try and fail many more times. Elon Musk is confident and self-assured even if when he is failing and would always show calm and laid back demeanor because of his high self-esteem. Entrepreneurs also use their intellect and altruism as he has a logical view of most things. They understand the causes and effect relationship in all undertaking and that is why they are always willing to try out new ideas known that the outcomes may or may not be pleasant. They are also cautious because they understand that resources are scarce. Personally, I would like to work more on altruism. I would like to improve on my concern for other's wellbeing because most of the successful entrepreneurs have become successful in solving other people's problems and success came as part of the package of helping other people. Never the less, with my ambition and passion for technology, I believe that I can leverage my industriousness and persistence to develop a successful business whether it's in the microfinance, technology or social entrepreneurship.

References

Nuvolari, A., Toninelli, P., & Vasta, M. (2017). What makes a successful (and famous) entrepreneur? Historical evidence from Italy (XIX-XX centuries). Industrial And Corporate Change, 27(3), 425-447. doi: 10.1093/icc/dtx033

Staniewski, M., & Awruk, K. (2018). Questionnaire of entrepreneurial success - Report on the initial stage of method construction. Journal Of Business Research, 88, 437-442. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.041

Snyder, B. (2018). Elon Musk's top 5 personality traits, according to an IBM supercomputer. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/ibm-Watson-Elon-musks-personality-traits-are-summed-up-by-this-image.html