Recently, I spent some time with a friend and fellow entrepreneur who runs a successful business. We shared our triumphs and challenges and the conversation gave me something to think about regarding the qualities and attributes of a strong entrepreneur.
Our story is a familiar one with many highs and lows. Basically reaching the breakthrough is not an easy task. But for a strong entrepreneur, surviving in business becomes a matter of compulsion.
Honestly speaking, not many people have managed to make in business. Only a select few make it to those breakout moments not because the select few are the chosen ones but because they are strong. So what are the signs of a strong entrepreneur? What separates the winners from the losers? My conclusion:
- Tenacity
- Focus
- Sagacity
The most important thing to remember is that all the three make a combination for a strong entrepreneur. One without the others or two without one would simply not make an ideal entrepreneur. An entrepreneur without focus will fail as much one without wisdom would. So all the three qualities must be present if one truly wants to become a winner.
Tenacity
Tenacity is the stubborn persistence to stick to one path or project until one determines what works.
For an entrepreneur, that means sticking to your guns even in the face of extreme challengers to make sure that your project is done to its logical conclusion because that is the only way to find out if it actually works. Along the way, you might have to make adjustments and tweak things, try new prices, change your marketing strategy and experiment with a lot of variables but the bottom line is that you should not jump ship at the slightest sign of trouble. The number one reason why many entrepreneurs never make it to the top is that they do not have resilience and stubbornness to believe in their idea to the point of insanity. When things go wrong, they look for something else to do instead of finding out what they need to correct.
Focus
Focus is singleness of purpose
When a friend started his online PR consultancy business, he realized that he needed traffic to survive. With very little money to hire a content writer and marketer, he decided to roll his sleeves and did the hard work. He started by doing an in-depth keyword research to determine what users were looking for. He also reached out to the industry professionals to provide credibility and backlinks. After 12 months, he had managed a total of 50,000 visitors per month. He says that during the 12 months, he focused on nothing but driving traffic to his site. He now has more than 100 repeat clients and his business is growing in leaps and bounds. However, he notes, it wasn’t easy to get the traffic. There are days he would login to his Google analytics accounts and would only see dozens of page views. But he never got discouraged. Instead, he focused on making it work. He knew what his goal was and decided to give it the singleness of purpose. He has now achieved his goal and ready to move to the next one.
Sagacity
Sagacity is the wisdom to find the right path.
In business, hard skills alone is not enough to make your successful. Sagacious entrepreneur has the awareness and wisdom to read situations, respond to events and know how to dispense the right medicine in any given situation. In other words, sagacity is the art of being aware of the needs of your target customers and finding the best ways to fulfill those needs. Skills are necessary and are what you need to design or invent a product but sagacity is what you need to successful sell your product and create a cult following.
You have to keep working to get the word out there and ensure that your customers’ needs are well taken care of. That means you must understand your customers inside out. Keep your ears on the ground. Be prepared. Be vigilant. Be tenacious and remain focused on your course.
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