What’s the first thing you do if you want to climb Mount Everest? While you might jokingly respond that the first thing you would do is get yourself a CAT scan the fact is that climbing Mount Everest – or any other difficult feat of physical endurance – can easily be compared with entrepreneurial success. If you’re going to scale Mount Everest the first thing that you would do is take inventory and find out if you had the tools to climb it.
You would need food, climbing gear, water, medical supplies and many other things. With striving toward entrepreneurial success (which can seem as insurmountable as climbing Mount Everest) you are also going to take inventory of your assets. What are your current strengths and how can they help you reach your goals?
Do You Think You’re Better than Everybody Else?
The first thing that we are going to do is make a list of things that you do better than anybody else. This is not a list of things you do better than anybody else in the entire world, this is a list of things that you do better than the people that you know or the people you’re surrounded by. Also, we are not going to include things that aren’t actually going to help you on your road to success.
For example, you might be the best sous chef in three counties but unless you’re planning on opening a restaurant it’s not
going to help you with your entrepreneurial goals. However, it is going to include things that might not be directly related to being an entrepreneur or to being successful, but are strengths that will still help you get where you’re going. An example of this would be if you are good at inspiring people.
This might not seem to directly relate to your success as an entrepreneur but if you are trying to launch a successful e-commerce website, the fact that you are good at inspiring people could be used in all kinds of ways. You can inspire people to share your products on social media.
You can inspire people to participate in and spread the word about contests that you run. As you are making your list, if you come across anything that you think might even be slightly related, err on the side of caution and write it down anyway.
You’re also going to be careful about adding things to your list that might be thought of as strengths at first glance but are actually reasons that you have failed in the past. One example of this might be an attribute like flying by the seat of your pants instead of planning out in advance. This could go on your list as a self-starter or ready to jump in at a moment’s notice but if it hasn’t served you well in the past, it probably isn’t going to do you any favours in the future and you should avoid putting it on your list of strengths.
You are also going to want to include technical or artistic skills that might not seem to directly relate but could come in handy later on. For example, you might be really great at graphic design. You might simply be a natural technical wizard. You might even be a writer. Think about some of these strengths as they relate to your goals of being successful, including the earlier example of a sous chef. While culinary arts might not help you start an e-commerce website, the patience that you have cultivated as a sous chef could definitely help.
What Are the Attributes of Success?
The next thing that you’re going to do is determine what sort of attributes the most successful people in the world have, or especially, the people that you admire. Especially, you’re going to make a list of things the entrepreneurs have to have in order to be successful.
These can be both wide and specific depending on what your particular goals are. For example, they need to be good at whatever industry they are in and they are probably also going to want to be skilled in things like social networks, choosing products, building business relationships and marketing.
You’re going to want to be as specific as you possibly can because at the end we’re going to compare the two lists and try to find how many strengths you have already that can help you be successful. The more things you list, the more things that you’re going to discover are actually true about yourself.
This exercise isn’t actually about finding all of the qualities that entrepreneurs need to succeed; it is about realizing that you already have the attributes that it takes to be successful. You do have the attributes that it takes to be successful. This is readily apparent because you’re reading this article.
People that are interested in success or aren’t motivated to better themselves and reach their goals don’t read books on success. In fact, they tend to avoid the subject as much as possible because it reminds them of their failures.
Here are some of the more apparent attributes just to get you started:
- Determination: you have the idea or attitude that you are going to succeed no matter what, no matter who stands in your way and no matter what obstacles you encounter.
- A Passion for Entrepreneurship: if you aren’t passionate about working for yourself and owning your own business, it can be almost impossible for you to be successful at it.
- Optimism: you are optimistic about the future. You believe that good things are in store for you and your outlook is almost always a glass-half-full kind of mindset.
- Patience: you are willing to work over a long period of time to get the results that you want. You’re not going to give up if it doesn’t happen quickly.
- Reliable: you will be able to handle the responsibility of being an entrepreneur. You have a reputation for being reliable so people are willing to work with you.
