What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur?
Two of our Business Doctors discuss how long it takes to become a successful entrepreneur
Vanessa Peters – Sussex East
Clearly it’s preferable if the big idea is successful first time around but entrepreneurs can become “better” by failing at least once.
They need the agility and flexibility to adapt the big idea if it didn’t work first time round, or the confidence to drop it completely if experience has shown that it will never work.
Entrepreneurs are natural risk takers, but successful ones identify and manage risks; they analyse the reasons for failure and they learn from them.
Apparent failure isn’t the end of the line because strong entrepreneurs have self-belief, resilience and the ability to see every failure as a challenge to be overcome on the way to future success, rather than the end of the road for their dream.
David O’Brien – Lincolnshire & Rutland
Business books and websites are full of the stories of entrepreneurs who failed before they succeeded. Some failed once or twice, many had multiple failures (Sir James Dyson created over 5,000 prototypes for his bagless vacuum).
In addition to the obvious qualities of determination and resilience, a successful entrepreneur needs the ability to quickly abandon an idea or business which isn’t going to work, coupled with a strong self-belief and the judgement to know who is giving valuable feedback – and who to ignore (Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas Star newspaper because he “lacked imagination and ideas”).
It’s a difficult balancing act which requires the entrepreneur to show an iterative approach, learning from mistakes and feedback before moving quickly to the next version of their business or product without spending time feeling sorry for themselves.
Are you a budding entrepreneur embarking on a new business venture?
If you need any additional advice or sounding board for your new idea, why not give us a call.
Vanessa Peters – Sussex East David O’Brien – Lincolnshire & Rutland