The entrepreneurial journey is undoubtedly challenging, where your personality traits get tested. Awareness of your personality with all your strengths and weaknesses is an essential factor in entrepreneurial success. But what makes an entrepreneur? Is it a feature they are born with? Is it a skill they learned and enriched growing up? What are their elements and attributes? What characteristics best describe them?
The modern and scientific Big five personality tests has been recently used to examine entrepreneurs' personalities. In addition, the genetic factor is an element that should be considered in who becomes an entrepreneur, where certain people have a higher chance of developing certain traits because of the different variants of their specific genes.
It is great to be a dreamer and have ideas, but entrepreneurship needs action.
Starting a new business requires creativity, perseverance and curiosity, measured by an individual's openness. Being open-minded is a characteristic that gives the edge to create a new project, lead it, and solve its issues. The infamous author and speaker Simon Sinek thinks that business owners are problem solvers.
It is great to be a dreamer and have ideas, but entrepreneurship needs action, so you must be cautious and prefer the routine to handle the startup's unstable working style. Successful business people and founders need willpower and the ability to manage the to-do list and not give up on the projects when the excitement fades and move on and forward when facing difficulties and, at certain times, failures.
Some research suggests that entrepreneurs are not friendly people.
Being persuasive and having the edge of a salesperson to convince and sell your ideas to people is one of the best traits an entrepreneur can have. In contrast, speaking to people and invading a market with a large audience, stakeholders, partners, investors, and clients is more accessible.
Some research suggests that entrepreneurs are not friendly people, yet there are a lot of mixed views on that since entrepreneurs are very diverse. Starting a project where an invention or a new idea is being implemented means taking a step that no one else is and, sometimes, even resisting; this is why sticking to the main idea and not being affected is critical. Emotional stability will be constructive for overcoming stressful situations. The lows that a business may bring where it would be hard for anxious people naturally result in high-stress levels.
Finally, passion is the most vital aspect to consider when pursuing the dream of starting a business. The entrepreneur needs to be passionate about his vision and stubborn to make their idea work to sell to the investor. As Sachin Sandhir, founder and CEO of GENLEAP, explained, "Passion isn't just a trait – it's the drive behind multiple characteristics like creativity, flexibility, and salesmanship."