Entrepreneurs are a standout species. It takes more than the average person’s approach to risk, opportunities, and creativity to thrive in the sometimes turbulent world of business; those who dare to take the entrepreneurial path and make something noteworthy out of it possess traits that not many people have.
Maybe you’ve been wondering whether you have what it takes to start your own business and build it up. You might be cut out to be an entrepreneur if you recognize the following characteristics as describing you.
- You have a knack for spotting opportunities
Seun Abolaji,
cofounder of beverage company Wilson’s Juice, says he’s always had an eye for finding out supply gaps. While he was in school, he made money by buying candy from stores and selling them at a marked-up price to his classmates. The fact that he went on to build a multi-million naira juice business years later was a consequence of his ability to spot opportunities that most people didn’t. This is why many successful entrepreneurs are serial founders- they’re always finding new market needs to explore and profit from.
- You love solving problems
When you look at a problem- whether it’s yours or someone else’s -you see a challenge. You immediately go into ‘solution seeking mode’, and think up whole approaches and systems that could be used to deal with it. This isn’t something you have to will yourself to do; you just do it without being prompted, and you even enjoy the process.
If this describes you, then you have something that could make you a fine entrepreneur.
- You love talking about business
Look out for this when examining the likelihood that you’re made for entrepreneurship. If you’re quite keen on reading material related to business- from success stories of famous CEOs to how-to articles on starting businesses -then you may very well be the sort of person to found a startup. If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you fit into this category too.
- You’re not afraid to take risks
Entrepreneurship is about taking risks. It’s never absolutely certain that a venture will live up to the expectation that its founders have for it. There’s a possibility that it could be a smash hit, but it might just as well end up as an absolute fiasco. Entrepreneurs have a characteristically positive view of risk-taking, partly because they realize that the extent of risk involved is usually proportional to the amount of reward that could be reaped if it works out well for them.
This doesn’t imply that entrepreneurs are reckless. They are also able to tell when risks outweigh possible benefits.
- You’re a dreamer
People who have dreams that are ‘larger than life’ and believe that those dreams are achievable are more likely to accomplish astounding feats than those who work with ‘conservative’ goals. This makes perfect sense: the higher you aim, the farther up you’re likely to go.
- You value hard work
If you don’t have this, you’re not going to get anywhere with entrepreneurship.
- You’re dissatisfied with the existing state of things
Dissatisfaction with the status quo and a desire to improve or disrupt existing systems is a well-known character trait of entrepreneurs. They set up new businesses that challenge established processes and products, and provide goods and services that contribute to greater consumer choice and comfort. If you often feel that certain individual and public needs could be met in better ways than are presently available, you might consider solving this problem by setting up something that tackles it.
If you realize that you have these characteristics, but aren’t sure that you’ll ever get the chance to start up, don’t be discouraged. Just get yourself ready; when the opportunity comes for you to go the entrepreneurial way, you’ll spot it, like good entrepreneurs do.
