what makes an entrepreneur successful?



Pic credits: Getty & Inc.com
Recently, a friend of mine asked me, what are the skill-sets required for becoming a successful entrepreneur? Having walked in the entrepreneur/start-up journey for few years, I gave him some top-of-mind thoughts on what makes an entrepreneur successful.
However, the question stayed with me and I tried finding few common traits and reasons on what makes some folks successful. I got links to various articles where people wrote about 
passion, resourcefulness, willingness to listen, team work, inspiring leaders, etc. But is there something more than these common actions that these (successful) people have? Something basic but more powerful in shaping their success.

As they teach in many management strategy lessons that there are 2 powerful forces that impacts any outcome - Internal (Strength/Weakness) and External (Opportunities/Threats); with this premise, I started my search for answers to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes that shape up a successful entrepreneur

Intrinsic:

Ambition: Entrepreneurship is a high-risk initiative. Entrepreneurs spend a lot of their time and resources along with lots of sacrifice to make things happen. People who have low to moderate risk appetite will generally avoid this path or will start traditional business. The ambition could either be driven by lower order motivation - wealth creation, or a higher order purpose - societal impact, change the world, etc. What ever be the motive, being ambitious is a crucial trait that drives entrepreneurs

Knowledge: While I know of entrepreneurs who became successful without any knowledge of business they are entering into, most entrepreneurs do have the technical, process, or even marketing knowledge of the business their startup is entering. Most startup ideas stem for an unmet need or opportunity. Only people who are aware of that category of business will be able to grasp and find a solution for it. Else, they need to be intelligent enough to notice the opportunity from outside. That’s why most successful entrepreneur, would be folks whose academic qualifications are of reputed institutes like IIT or IIM….and these are intelligent folks. So, either knowledge gained out of experience or intelligence is what successful entrepreneur possesses


Personality: Any startup founder, in either b2b or b2c space, spends most of their time doing the following activity

Business growth - meeting clients and potential partners
Inspiring employees - keeping the morale high
Seeking funds - meeting investors

All the three activities need someone who is smart, attentive, communicative, pleasing, etc.. An entrepreneur having these traits is hugely advantageous. As some wise investor said, I don’t invest in ideas, I invest in people.



Extrinsic:

Network: While personality will enhance your ability to network, having a network in the first place will give an entrepreneur the edge over others who are working in the same space (remember, startup ideas are easily replicable and once the news goes out, there will be multiple startups in the same space offering similar solutions). A good network is crucial for meeting clients, potential partners/employees, investors, etc. Maybe that’s the reason why old-boys club like academic institutes alumni, where you studied, where you were brought up, etc plays a significant role to success. 
Look around and you’ll see how many successful start-ups in India have founders from IIT/IIM background


Market condition/opportunity: I know of many people, myself including, who started out with a unique or great idea, but did not go far, or see the kind of success, because the market conditions were not right, or the opportunities dried up and the idea did not get the traction it deserved. The knack of having the ear on the future trends and then priming up the idea at the right time is crucial for being successful. As I sometimes say humorously, When it comes to startups, there is usually a second-mover advantage :).. Maybe that’s why Indiaplaza, rediff, Indiatimes shopping lost and Flipkart and Myntra succeeded in India


Culture: Entrepreneurs who comes from a family or a community culture of being enterprising are very likely to succeed. Maybe, the culture hones their skills in risk taking ability, or help them identify business opportunities where it need is unarticulated. Since, one of the core motives for entrepreneur is wealth creation, identifying and taking a plunge to explore the opportunity is a knack that few can get. Across the globe, during different times, we can see examples of how culture plays a role in terms of the business opportunities - the Jews who started banks and advertising agencies in the USA, the Bansals and their like who founded the early tech/internet startups in India, etc


I tried keeping my observations a bit broad and simple; I’m sure there will be many other traits that will define a successful entrepreneur. Let me know your thoughts on the ingredients for the secret sauce of success… I’d love to hear them

Cheers!
Santosh

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