Do You Have What it Takes to be Successful?

Larry Kim
Larry Kim
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

14 Characteristics of an Entrepreneur Bound for Success

Check out this visual list of character traits common among successful entrepreneurs.

Nine out of ten startups will fail. Do you have what it takes to succeed?

It might seem like the founders who succeed have some inherent edge — some intangible and elusive quality that sets them apart from the pack. But the truth is, the most successful entrepreneurs have a well rounded and developed set of skills that complement a specific set of traits.

Understanding the skills and traits of successful entrepreneurs helps sharpen your own focus, guiding which areas you’ll need to focus on to improve your own chances of success.

For example, basic coding skills have become incredibly important for entrepreneurs, who need to understand the technology even if they’re not actually doing the coding work themselves. Thankfully, the barriers to building those skills are low, and you can easily take coding courses for free online.

It might be more difficult to develop the characteristics of an entrepreneur most likely to succeed, like persistence and the ability to accept failure, but it can be done. Often, these personality traits are learned over time and only through experience, which is why you may see founders succeeding only after they’ve failed many times!

Other skills to focus on in order to increase your startup’s chance of success include developing your ability to make data-driven decisions, marketing savvy and accounting or bookkeeping. These are universal skills that will serve you well in any venture you attempt, whether you’re actually having to do much of the legwork yourself in your early days, or simply needing to understand how the different parts of your business work in order to hire the best talent and make the most informed decisions.

This recent infographic from open university Udacity serves as a visual list of character traits and skills most critical to entrepreneurial success. Its creators interviewed experts including Eventbrite’s Julia Hartz, Mark Cuban, and Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky and shared their best advice for entrepreneurs as part of the infographic.

Check it out:

Image credit: Udacity

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About The Author

Larry Kim is the CEO of Mobile Monkey and founder of WordStream. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Larry Kim

Written by

Larry Kim

CEO of MobileMonkey. Founder of WordStream. Top columnist @Inc ❤️ AdWords, Facebook Advertising, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Start-ups & Venture Capital 🦄

Mission.org

A network of business & tech podcasts designed to accelerate learning. Selected as “Best of 2018” by Apple. Mission.org

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