“Every week I meet young passionate entrepreneurs who come to talk to me about their great innovative projects. The projects look great, they have big teams behind, but more often than not they lack the one, most important thing – a problem. We come up with an idea, become passionate about it, start ideating and adding more and more flashy features to our apps, platforms, online services, while those do not respond to any specific problem and thus, have no clear value, no clear viable market. Starting with problem identification and searching for a viable solution to this specific problem is the way to go. I will give you tools to problem identification and to value proposition generation taking examples of your industries during the workshop.
Be ready to sweat.”
What does it mean to be a successful entrepreneur? What do top entrepreneurs have in common?
It is difficult to find a single characteristic that unite them, there are several traits that can distingue a good entrepreneur and that any of us can cultivate.
Here we are going to list and analyze some of them.
1. Rely on a Motivated Team
Anybody can start a business, but it takes a team to turn it into something that lasts. Elon Musk isn’t going to get to Mars by himself, and Jeff Bezos didn’t grow Amazon into what it is today without the help of thousands of talented professionals.
2. Work Hard And Take Time Off
It is impossible to think to achieve something great without working hard. Although entrepreneurs, even recognizing the value of the hard work, know when to stop. Time off offers both leaders and teams a chance to recharge, refresh and reflect.
The Swedish entrepreneur Johan Attby is CEO of Fishbrain, the company behind a community-based fishing app. He says about the importance of taking time off:
“The right measure is not how many hours you chip in. You need sleep, you need food, you need a healthy relationship if you have a family and friends.”
Most of the biggest entrepreneurs in the world cultivate different practices outside of work, including yoga, strength training, and Brazilian martial arts. Many of them say these practices strengthen their bodies and minds, and that helps them refocus at work. They Reflect, meditation is associated with improved job performance, increased well-being and resilience.
Vishen Lakhiani is the CEO and founder of Mindvalley, a personal development online education company. Like many entrepreneurs, he practices meditation regularly. He says about this practice:
“When you learn meditation, it doesn’t just improve your ability at work, and there are numerous studies that show that now. It improves your marriage, it improves your relationship with your kids, it improves your well-being.”
3. They Focus on What They’re Great At
Effective entrepreneurs focus on what they’re great at and delegate anything else. Some go as far as calculating their rate per hour and avoid activities below it. This approach helps them get meaningful results. Often the skills to develop popular software or start a business differs from the skills of an effective CEO.
Glenn Shoosmith is founder and chief architect of JRNI (formerly known as BookingBug). This company offers a SaaS scheduling platform for enterprises. A few weeks prior to handing over the reins to John Federman as CEO, Shoosmith said:
“I’m a major shareholder of this company, as well as the founder, and I need the best person to be CEO, to always be CEO.”
If self-knowledge is power, then building on your best qualities, can help you become a more effective entrepreneur.
