The following is a guest post by Carol Montrose.
Don’t you wish that you could bottle that seemingly magical element that turns other entrepreneurs into effective business leaders, so that you could realize the same successes? Well, it turns out there’s no magic formula used to create the Donald Trumps, Mark Zuckerbergs, and Richard Bransons of the world. In truth, anyone could be a fantastic success with the right combination of personality traits. So if you’re looking to start your own professional venture and you want to make it a wild success, then try taking on some of the traits that are common to the successful entrepreneurs you’d like to emulate. Here are a few that every business-person should have.
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Business sense. Luckily, this one can be taught. If you don’t think you have a head for business, you can work on getting one by taking business courses. You might say that business sense is something a person simply has or doesn’t have, but the truth is that anyone can learn their way around the inner workings of economics, marketing, and sales in order to make their own business successful. Of course, an education that takes place outside the classroom may be just as valuable (if not more). So if the collegiate path really isn’t your thing, you may want to jump into a business at the ground level and work your way up as a learning experience before you tackle your own company.
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Inspiration. Knowing how to run a business and having a great idea to launch it with are two different things. You need to start out with something amazing. This means finding a niche, coming up with a product or service that people want (that isn’t already out there) or modifying an existing idea in a way that makes it much better than before. Having passion for your project is just as important as being an expert in your field.
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Daring. Nobody ever got ahead in business by playing it safe. With big risk comes the potential for big reward. It’s true that you could also fail, but many wildly successful entrepreneurs have had more misses than hits. As long as you learn from your mistakes, pick up the pieces, and move onto bigger and better things, you’ll eventually get that big brass ring you’ve been reaching for.
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Charisma. So, there is a little matter of funding to consider, and in this regard you will need to turn on the charm big time. Since it’s unlikely that you have the personal wealth to get your operation off the ground you’re going to need some investors. Having the ability to talk people into giving you money is absolutely invaluable in business. And again, it can be learned. If you’re a nervous speaker or you have some confidence issues, think about taking speech lessons and get yourself a daily affirmations calendar. Charisma comes naturally to some, but the rest of us have to practice.
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Stamina. All successful entrepreneurs have had to work hard to get where they are, even the young ones. Styling yourself as a business mogul takes buckets of stamina. So if you think you’re really not up to devoting your entire life to the pursuit of success in business, then perhaps you should throw in the towel now and settle down to a quiet life of mediocrity and middle management potential. Because successful entrepreneurs tend to share this common trait: they’re all married to business.
Carol Montrose writes for SeaReach (Asset Tags UK), a manufacturer of labels, tags, and security documents.