Which of the following is not a personality trait or characteristic common among entrepreneurs?

What does it mean to be a successful entrepreneur? Is it being a born go-getter? Is it having an extroverted personality? Is it being charismatic enough to persuade customers?

While some entrepreneurs hold these traits, they rarely define the characteristics of every successful entrepreneur. Not everyone is born with a drive to change the world. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs today are people who you may have underestimated in high school or college.

A living example of this is Bill Gates, who famously said, “If I had a dollar for every time someone made fun of me in high school—oh, wait. I do!”

Anyone can become a successful entrepreneur. However, there are a few key personality traits that all (or almost all) successful entrepreneurs have in common.

1. Robust Work Ethic

Successful entrepreneurs know a thing or two about work ethic. Most of the time, they’ll be the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave. If there’s unfinished business, they’ll show up at the office on weekends and holidays and work until the job is complete. These are the people who always have work on their mind, even if they’re enjoying personal time.

2. Deep Passion

Work ethic and passion go hand in hand. It takes work ethic to keep the business strong, and it takes passion to feel motivated enough to maintain a good worth ethic.

I believe passion is easily the most significant personality trait any successful entrepreneur has, and for obvious reasons. They’re successful because they choose to do what they love.

Did you ever feel so passionate about a school project that you ended up getting an A? That feeling of success is priceless, and it’s how entrepreneurs feel when they see great outcomes from the effort they put into their work.

3. Creativity

Companies that thrive are often built from the wild creativity of their creators. With aggressive competition these days, entrepreneurs are forced to come up with original ideas that differentiate their companies from others.

Creativity can mean thinking of unique business ideas. It can also come into play when finding a relationship between two unrelated things to solve a problem. Creative entrepreneurs consider the possibility that the traditional solution isn’t good enough.

4. Motivated Self-Starters

A self-starter doesn’t settle for a draining 9-to-5 job. A self-starter doesn’t give up at the first sign of struggle. A self-starter doesn’t hold things off until it’s too late.

A self-starter is someone who does what needs to be done without being asked or encouraged to do so. They take the initiative on their own projects and lead themselves. They recognize that when things get hard, it’s a challenge that helps them grow as an entrepreneur and make the business stronger.

Entrepreneurs have to be self-starters to help their businesses scale rapidly in today’s cutthroat business world.

5. Easygoing Attitude

Change of plans? Do you need to redo an entire project? A successful entrepreneur will shake off any inconveniencies and start from scratch without getting into a huge rut. In fact, many entrepreneurs will tell you that their businesses turned out much differently from what they had originally envisioned. They’ll also likely tell you that they wouldn’t want their business to have turned out any other way.

Being easygoing is all about going with the flow, taking new opportunities as they come, not getting stuck in a certain mindset and being receptive to changes and even criticism. Successful entrepreneurs can take a bad situation and spin it around to their advantage.

6. Eager to Learn

No one knows everything. A new business doesn’t often have staff in every department due to lack of funding. It takes time and resources to build a team. That means entrepreneurs need to learn everything from accounting to marketing from the get-go.

This kind of experience is what makes accomplished entrepreneurs so well rounded. They’ve seen it, been through it and learned it all before.

Whether you hope to become an entrepreneur, are fairly new in the game or are now a seasoned entrepreneur, you can become successful. Although adopting these personality traits will help you in the long run, it’s likely you already possess them if you’re following the entrepreneurial path.

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? Is it being born a prodigy? Is it having a Type-A personality? Is it being an extrovert who spends all their time tinkering around on projects?

While some entrepreneurs have those traits, they rarely define the characteristics that make a majority of entrepreneurs. Not everyone is born with an intellect that will change the world. That student who couldn’t make it through college, like Bill Gates, is more likely to succeed than the lifelong overachiever.

So, if you’re not a born genius or overachiever, what personalities actually make-up entrepreneurs? Here are our five common personality traits that entrepreneurs possess.

1. Passion

For those uninitiated, entrepreneurs are not in it for the money. While there have been some icons who have made more cash than most of us we’ll dream of, think Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, the reality is that most entrepreneurs work an insane amount of hours for little or nothing. Why would they put themselves through this? Because they are driven to either solve a problem or make easier.

How passionate are entrepreneurs? According to research conducted by Tony Tjan and co-authors Richard Harrington and Tsun-Yan Hsieh, 65% of founders have been identified as driven by “heart.” Tjan also added that most entrepreneurs are fueled “by an unshakable sense of purpose.”

Throughout all the trials and tribulations, entrepreneurs reward themselves internally by realizing that they’re on a mission for the greater good. No matter how bad it gets, it’s their passion that motivates them between paydays and during all the times when everyone else tells them to quit.

2. Resilience

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” As an entrepreneur, you’re going to fail. That’s just an unfortunate fact. While something that drastic would be too much for most people to handle, an entrepreneur has the uncanny ability to get up and dust themselves off. Instead of giving up, an entrepreneur will learn from their failures. What went wrong? How can I long from my mistakes? How can I succeed next time? These are the type of questions an entrepreneur will ask themselves. An entrepreneur doesn’t stay down when times get rough. They’re resilient and thrive off of the negativity.

If you need proof on the resilience of entrepreneurs, just look into the stories of successful entrepreneurs like Walt Disney, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Food or Thomas Edison. They all experienced setbacks during at some point to only become some of the most well-known and successful entrepreneurs in history.

3. Strong Sense of Self

Any entrepreneur will tell that there are numerous problems to overcome. Whether it be not securing enough funding, proving the naysayers wrong or facing the competition head on, it’s not easy being an entrepreneur. And, being passionate and resilient can only go so far. Which is why entrepreneurs also have an extremely strong sense of self.

For example, being self-confident and self-motivated are also key traits for most entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs don’t think that their idea could be good. They know it’s good. And, they’re going to be motivated enough to illustrate to others that it’s worth the time and money to go forward. While they also understand that they can’t do everything on their own, they realize that they are the only ones to make their idea a reality.

And, just how confident are entrepreneurs? According to a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on behalf of LegalZoom, “91% of entrepreneurs are confident that their businesses will be more profitable in the next 12 months.”

4. Flexibility

Being able to adapt to changes and challenges is crucial for any business. In fact, most entrepreneurs will inform you that their idea or business plan is drastically different than when it began. An idea may be brilliant, but in reality it isn’t effective. Entrepreneurs are flexible enough to make the adjustments to make that idea feasible. Furthermore, entrepreneurs are prepared and willing to modify their plan when new information arrives and when there are changes in circumstances.

A great example of being flexible would be the recent story behind Hyungsoo Kim and his company Eone, which is short for Everyone. Kim initially develop a wristwatch that featured braille. He quickly discovered that people want to be included and not have attention brought to their disability. So, he trashed the original plan and came up with a watch that would not only be worn by the blind, but even people with sight.

5. Vision

Entrepreneurs see opportunity everywhere. They’re innovators who are always on the lookout to either develop a new idea or improve an existing product or service. And, chances are that’s the main reason why they became an entrepreneur in the first place. At some point in their lives they noticed something that could be better. But, instead of just saying that something could be better wasn’t enough. They actually put a plan in motion. In other words, entrepreneurs have the ability to see the future before it happens.

I always say Entrepreneurs are inspired by things that have never been seen before, things yet to be discovered.  You must have the vision that nobody else does.  Then the vision to see it through.

Jeff Bezos had a vision to tap into the new-world of electronic retelling in 1994 and become “the world's most consumer-centric company.” His little virtual bookstore was Amazon, which today is the model for all e-commerce businesses.

Which of the following is not personality trait or characteristic common among entrepreneurs?

Which of the following is the personality trait or characteristic common among the entrepreneurs?

Which of the following is not a personality trait or characteristic?

Which of the following is not an entrepreneurial characteristics?