The Most Important Traits for Entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur takes more than just a keen eye for business.
So today we asked The Experts: What are the three most important traits of successful entrepreneurs?
This discussion relates to a recent Journal Report article on
the new face of American franchisees
and formed the basis of a discussion on The Experts blog on Aug. 19.
James Schrager: Take a Cue from Steve Jobs's Playbook
Being
brutally honest with themselves, possessing the ability to think
strategically and having a high energy level. When Steve Jobs returned
to Apple after having been ousted, he was shocked by the proliferation
of computer models and the resulting customer confusion. While he did
reduce the number of models offered, he also set out to "find the next
big thing." This reply showed all three traits. First, he faced up to
the realization that Apple was in big trouble. He didn't try to make the
best of it or put on a happy face. Next, he understood that a simple
cleanup of the product line wasn't enough. Apple was a success because
it was always about something new, something exciting, something
different. He knew this path was the way forward. Rather than just clean
up the product line, he searched for what would supersede the current
offerings instead of simply making incremental adjustments. Finally, he
was willing to spend the tremendous amount of energy to search for the
next powerful idea. Far easier to pare down the product line and make
the best of a tough situation than start anew. He didn't flinch from the
unrelenting reality of the situation, charted a clear strategy going
forward, and was willing to commit to huge amounts of energy to reach
the goal.
James Schrager is a clinical professor of
entrepreneurship and strategic management at the University of Chicago
Booth School of Business.
Carol Ostrow: Inspire, Perspire and Keep Your Eyes Peeled
1.
Inspiration, i.e. Passion: You got to have that vision and you got to
believe it. This is the most important trait of a successful
entrepreneur.
2. Perspiration, i.e. Persistence: OK, you have a vision. Now what?
You have to work…hard. That means sweat it out, even on the days when
nothing goes right, the days when you lose—a play, an actor or you get a
bad review in the Times. You can't give up or give in.
3. Double Vision: Keep your nose to the grindstone and your eye on
the horizon. You have to pay attention to details while also maintaining
the vision for the organization. You have to play on the team but also
lead the team. It's hard but pays off.
Carol Ostrow is the producing director of The Flea Theater in New York City.
Joanne Chang: Have a Vision, Make Quick Decisions and Be Passionate
First,
the ability to wildly inspire those around you with your vision. Unless
you are a one-person operation, the success of what you are doing will
rest in the hands of people other than you. If they aren't fully
committed to your mission, you won't succeed.
Second, you have to have the ability to make decisions. Don't act
rashly, but especially in this day, when information is flying around
and people are moving faster than bullets, if you don't make changes and
act quickly you'll be left behind.
Finally you have to have an "if I don't do this I will die" passion
for what you do. When things get rough, what will keep you going is the
feeling that you can't imagine doing anything else. Then you'll keep
going and survive and come out the other end stronger. It's those who
choose not to continue and do something else that end up not being
successful in their endeavor. Successful entrepreneurs are simply those
who stay with their vision and make it grow and grow and grow regardless
of speed bumps and obstacles along the way.
Joanne Chang (@jbchang) is the owner of and chef at Flour Bakery + Café and Myers + Chang in Boston.
John Jordan: Be a Maverick
The willingness to
challenge conventional wisdom, a stubborn belief that obstacles that
seem insurmountable to others can be overcome and an all-consuming
passion for their business.
John Jordan is chief executive officer of Sonoma
County's Jordan Winery, a digital wine list entrepreneur and founder of
the John Jordan Foundation.
Mary Liz Curtin: Invest Courageously—Yet Cautiously—In Your Idea
Creativity, courage, and careful cash control.
First, there is an idea, a thought of a need that hasn't been filled,
a great new product or a service that will change peoples' lives.
Having the imagination to invent something brand new or the insight to
see a need that we can fill is what starts most of us entrepreneurs. We
really believe in the dream and have the optimism to imagine a
successful future, often against the odds.
Courage is essential. Can you face possible failure? Some startups
require small investments, but many entrepreneurs have mortgaged their
homes, tapped their families and friends for cash and left the security
of their jobs (and the benefits they may have provided), maxed out the
credit cards and put everything they have, emotionally as well as
financially, into their ventures. If everything works, the payoff can be
huge, but most startups fail, leaving the owners to begin again, or
return to more traditional employment. Failing is more than losing the
money to a startup: It becomes very emotional for many.
Lots of people think they have great ideas (and some of them do), but
very few people have the courage to take that idea, to jump in and
commit completely.
When a business is starting, watching the cash outlay is essential.
The golden days of big VC money and wild spending are over: A successful
startup needs to achieve profitability as soon as possible, and careful
cash management is the first step. Another important point is that the
more money you save the less you have to borrow and the less vulnerable
you will be to losing control of your business to investors.
Mary Liz Curtin (@marylizcurtin) is the owner of Leon & Lulu, a destination lifestyle store in Detroit.
Sharon Hadary: Take Charge, Stay Positive and Remain Open
The
three traits that differentiate the most successful entrepreneurs are:
They take charge of their destiny, they create positive energy and they
are open to serendipity.
Top entrepreneurs take charge of their destiny. Successful
entrepreneurs have a personal vision that defines who they are and what
impact they want to have on the world. This plays out in a compelling
vision for their business. They are confident in their ability to
fulfill this vision and are articulate evangelists for it. They are
motivated by passion, but never lose sight of the importance of profit
to enable them to achieve their business goals. They set high goals,
move out of their comfort zone and are both persistent and resilient.
Successful entrepreneurs create positive energy. Research shows that
focusing on the positive rather than the negative generates success. Top
entrepreneurs focus on the possibilities, not problems; they create
shared values, vision and goals and they inspire by example. They devote
more time to analyzing and celebrating the successes than bemoaning the
failures. They accept that risk-taking may result in failure, use
failure as a learning opportunity, and move on. The result is an
environment that energizes and engages others and creates high
performing teams.
The best entrepreneurs are open to serendipity. Serendipity is the
delightful word Mary Poppins used to tell the children to believe in the
unexpected. Successful entrepreneurs consciously take time to reflect,
think, muse and explore. They are open to new ideas and opportunities
that weren't part of their original plan. One business leader I
interviewed put it this way: "Never underestimate the importance of
happy accidents."
Sharon Hadary (@hadaryco)
is the founding and former executive director of the Center for Women's
Business Research, an adjunct professor in the Doctorate of Management
Program at the University of Maryland University College and has
co-written a new book, "How Women Lead: The 8 Essential Strategies
Successful Women Know."
Rosanne Haggerty: You Have to Be a Jack-of-All-Trades
Successful
entrepreneurs reflect the world they live in, and that world has
changed dramatically in the past 10 years. In the past, all you needed
was a good idea and a working knowledge of your field or industry.
Today, there's virtually no such thing as a single-industry innovation.
New entrepreneurs have to be fluent in a variety of fields, and more
specifically, they need to be able to see the points of overlap clearly
and move among them seamlessly. The places where traditional fields and
sectors interface are now the key leverage points for any kind of
large-scale change.
This inherently involves a certain amount of risk and failure.
Today's entrepreneurs are redrawing the boundaries and rewriting the
rules, and no one does that perfectly on the first try. We've got to
encourage a higher tolerance for risk taking and the audacity to
contradict conventional wisdom and try something completely new. You can
learn a lot from failure—it's the single common factor in most
breakthrough innovations—but if we don't encourage people to take major
risks because we're too afraid they might fail, then we're stuck in a
game of inches when we could be moving miles.
These elements have been the key factors in our success working with
communities to end homelessness. We've leveraged social media,
smartphone technology, public health strategies, big data and GE-style
process-improvement techniques to help communities get the job done. Ten
years ago, nobody in human services thought any of those things had
much to do with expanding permanent housing options, and to be sure, we
had to invest in our own learning and growth to figure them out. Still,
today, I can't imagine our work without them. Many iterations later,
these tools and techniques have helped the communities we work with to
house nearly 60,000 chronically homeless Americans in record time.
Rosanne Haggerty is the president and chief
executive officer of Community Solutions, a not-for-profit organization
whose mission is to strengthen communities to end homelessness.
Richard Duncan: Be as Fast as a Bull
Successful
entrepreneurs must be willing to "take the bull by the horns." An
entrepreneur willing to take on great new ideas or adjust to changes as
fast as a bull will charge will prove successful in his or her business.
As there is often a fine line between success and failure, an
entrepreneur must manage the fear of failure, as well as balance it with
the excitement of success; finding the correct balance to fight the
fear and bravely take on the challenges will have great reward. The most
successful entrepreneurs think independently, being certain "that I can
do it better." This independent and confident thinking is crucial to
your success. It will motivate you and maneuver your company to success
by allowing adaptability to flourish. Being nimble and allowing change
when and where it's needed goes hand in hand with success; independent
thinking accomplishes this required mind-set.
Richard Duncan is the president of Rich Duncan Construction in Salem, Ore.
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