What makes a good entrepreneur?
In my own opinion, what makes a good entrepreneur is when they enjoy what they are doing, plan everything and manage money wisely.
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Mar 30, 2014
Work ethic - Willingness to sacrifice and work hard to reach one's goal is very important characteristic for a successful entrepreneur.
Having a business savvy finance consultant to prevent one from making critical errors that would affect SBA financing eligibility can't hurt either. For information about funding for projects that are creating jobs in the US check out sproutcde.com
Mar 21, 2014
Someone never give up! The business race never goes to the swift, it goes to the one who endures.
Mar 21, 2014
You might want to check out my blog on Mosaic Hub that helps answer this question.
http://www.mosaichub.com/resource_center/resource/so-you-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur-what-next
Mar 21, 2014
There are two types of people. A leader and a follower. A person who accepts things as they are and the one who creates new ways of doing things. A person who is active and the one who is reactive.
An entrepreneur is a person who gets bored easily, brave, immune to what others say and likes to dive into uncharted waters and come out a winner.
Mar 20, 2014
Exactly I too believe the same as you did. For a proper management I always look out for the better solution and with the experience I have gained in my professional career, I have opted to utilize the cloud based solution from Replicon - http://www.replicon.com/ . The solution comes with different modules making the overall business management a perfect ones.
Mar 20, 2014
gut feeling-but planner
luck- but can handle misfortune
persistant- but get out if it looks wrong-
egoless mind- but passionate
eccentric- but down to earth
in other words being able to handle and act on two or more opposing opinions in your head for a long time.
Mar 20, 2014
I believe what makes an entrepreneur good isn't a single element, but two.
Which are:
1) His idea
2) His faith on his idea with his abilities of execution!
Mar 20, 2014
A good entrepreneur has discipline, is organized and understands his prospects and clients. They also understand delegation and how to create systems to multiply their efforts. Managing money and cost is also an essential quality they must develop quickly. Turning your vision into reality takes time, deication and the ability to motivate the people arround them to buy into the mission.
Most of all, they must care and be sincere. They may not have all the answers, but know where to find them. Sticking to it no matter what. Think about it, how many times did Edison fail before the light bulb lit?
This makes for a good entrepreneur,
Mar 20, 2014
In my mind there are a wonderful list of folks that are great entrepreneur !!! The key is to separate the vision from the execution . Very creative people tend to be just that creative , passionate and aggressive . Great qualities but try and partner with people who have executed or failed to execute so they can help you down the path . Last but far from least never loose sight of your vision just balance the most obvious goals but stay on task Set weekly milestones and do not move on until they are met Good luck make sure it is fun!!! Not just a job Regards , Chuck Green
Mar 20, 2014
I think you have listed some very important aspects of being an entrepreneur, but in the question you mention "good entrepreneur", so I think you are missing a couple of items.
A good entrepreneur is a person that is willing to take risks, not only with their career and money but the career and money of other people that will almost always be involved. A good entrepreneur has to be a great researcher and a person that understands the market in which they hope to infiltrate. Having passion for your idea is one thing, but knowing the addressable market, strategic goals and industry patterns are vital to becoming a good entrepreneur. Some people make an idea and get lucky and are millionaires. Those entrepreneurs find out quickly the importance of risk management, money management and planning for the future as their company won't stand the test of time if they do not. Most people, the ones that have to figure this out before they launch their idea and become an entrepreneur, have to become hardened to scrutiny and be ready to ride the wave of ups and downs that come with starting your own venture. If you are not a strong person emotionally and mentally, being a successful and good entrepreneur can prove to be difficult.
Mar 20, 2014
A high tolerance for ambiguity, the courage to make decisions, the resilience to see them through to execution, and the heart to better others' lives.
Mar 20, 2014
You are right, but I would also include the following:
1. Be passionate about your business - eat, sleep and live it
2. Be prepared for failure and be resilient when it happens
3. Be humble and ask for, and take, advice from others
4. Be courageous and ignore the naysayers
5. Have fun!
Mar 20, 2014
A good entrepreneur fails and fails and fails, but never gives up. They dust the failure off and stand back up and continue forward. It is about what our country was founded on: The American Dream.
Mar 21, 2014
I agree Bill. The experience comes in time and you can't rush time. If you just stick to the plan and never give up you will succeed. The business race never goes to the swift, it goes to the one who endures!
Mar 20, 2014
I expected comments on entrepreneurship to be highly colored and open ended. That is entrepreneurship. In 1999 my business was destroyed by a tornado. In that moment I became engulfed in who I was, what I stood for and where I would go next to survive the disaster. I was described as an entrepreneur by many and expected to recover and reinvent without a hitch. I really did not feel that way in my head or heart. The reason I had been able to succeed against the odds in diverse businesses was not because I was flippant, egocentric or a scheming capitalist and neither was I a genius business person. I worked hard, planned well and engaged people through passion and persistence. Before moving forward I needed to understand better the virtues of entrepreneurs and committed to study the virtues and vices tied to the name. My experience was that good entrepreneurs are leaders with three unique qualities that many of you have addressed. The three headline features of entrepreneurs are PASSION, INTELLIGENCE, AND ACTION. The ten subsets of "good" entrepreneurs include: knowledge, people, excellence, profit, action, service, values, innovation, planning and relentless energy. I created the term LEADERGIZED to describe successful leaders-entrepreneurs. I named my business that and have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs from around the globe for the past fifteen years. From my work I learned that if there was a rule book for business success(entrepreneurship) we all would have read it and would be enjoying our "by the book" lives. Because no such guideline exists it is the entrepreneurs of the world who constantly dream, research, test, analyze, prove and then again disprove the ability to develop and deliver the world's wants, needs, processes and priorities without making a critical mistake and failing. A good entrepreneur is someone cursed by ideas, blessed by energies and challenged by the realities of society and economics who by luck, genius and/or discipline and commitment makes something successful happen in the world of business.
Teddy Roosevelt said it well -
"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
Mar 19, 2014
After 5 start-ups over 30 years and with a fair amount of time working with business owners, I can safely say that success and failure is not due to passion or risk taking or hard work. I have seen passionate, risk taking, work-alcoholics fail and conservative, 9-5ers succeed. I have also seen the opposite.
Like Steve Chapman below I dislike the term. There are over 6 million startups each year. Many of them are hard working and passionate and smart. Most will fail and a very few will succeed. Those that do will claim they were brilliant. In fact there is a randomness to success that can not be accounted for. (see Fooled by Randomness) Given two identical hard working smart startups. One grows and prospers, the other goes out of business. Yet we want to ascribe the positive qualities to the successful and denigrate the work of the other.
The keys to startup success are still elusive and may well remain so.
Mar 19, 2014
One that I usually point out in this sort of discussion is the ability to delegate, let others on the team do what they are good at doing. One person does not have all the answers nor does he or she know it all.
Thanks Dennis for your information shared, I like what you mention about "willingness to sacrifice."