4 Traits that will probably make you successful

The business world is brimming with success stories and entrepreneurial achievements of varying degrees, from the successful local restaurant owner to the tech startup pioneer. Whilst there is no blueprint to success, there are a number of qualities that the people who achieve a respectable or even monumental degree of success share.

There are reasons as to why these individuals have achieved their individual levels of success and there are traits that have helped these people get to where they are.

It’s often said that success is the result of good habits, so I summarised a few of the good ‘habits’ that I believe make a great entrepreneur.

Resilience

The capacity to recover quickly through difficulties is perhaps the greatest trait that an entrepreneur or indeed a human being can possess. The road to mastery in any discipline and especially in business is filled with challenges, difficulty and struggle. There will most certainly be times when things seem impossible to overcome.

Take Elon Musk for example, for those not aware of the incredible resilience of this entrepreneur I strongly recommend you read this article. Just days away from bankruptcy, after the death of his own son and in the midst of a divorce, Musk still battled on to follow his passion and build his businesses, Space X and Tesla – two of the most successful and innovative businesses in their respective markets.

Colonel Saunders himself was rejected 1009 times before hitting his big break at 65 years old before finding success for a company you may be familiar with – KFC.

The fact is that business, entrepreneurialism and life is not smooth sailing, yet those with the ability to endure and battle through challenges will reap the benefits at the end.

Curiosity

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it made the entrepreneur rich. Curiosity can be defined as the desire to learn or know about anything. One thing that the vast majority of great business people and entrepreneurs share is an overwhelming passion and thirst for learning.

When Warren Buffett was asked for the key behind his success, he pointed to a stash of books and said:

“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

In fact Warren Buffett admitted to spending 8 hours reading 600-1000 words every single day.

None of us are born with the knowledge required to be the best at what we do, the truth is that it takes thousands of hours of reading, learning and experiencing to achieve mastery.

It’s no coincidence that those with an innate desire to make use of the almost infinite amount of knowledge the world has to offer are the same ones who make billions and reach the pinnacle of success. I’m not saying that reading books will make you a multi –billionaire like Buffett, but it will undoubtedly improve your chances.

Passion

Without a genuine love and passion for what you do, you will never become a great entrepreneur. In his book ‘Crush It’ – Gary Vaynerchuk expressed:

“There no longer has to be a difference who you are and what you do”.

True, deep-rooted passion for what you do, can only be achieved by following your gut instinct. When you do what you love, the work doesn’t seem like work.

Passion is perhaps the key driver behind putting in the consistent hard work that is necessary to be successful.

Salesmanship

Salesman have gotten bad press over the years; the typical stereotype of a pushy car salesman type individual with an obtrusive demeanour is most probably the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word ‘salesman’.

In times of information asymmetry these salesman had the advantage, their pushy tactics and know it all attitude had no opposition. However the Internet came along and completely rendered the ‘original salesman’ ineffective. These days, people know what they are buying and have access to thousands of reviews, comparisons and options at the touch of a button – there is no room for manipulative sales tactics in this day and age.

Instead those with the ability to turn the salesman stereotype on its head, and sell the benefits of their product or service in a way that is human, natural and seamlessly integrated into a normal interaction is a must have skill for the modern day entrepreneur.

What do these traits have in common?

The key thing that these traits have in common is that they can be learned and developed. We can train ourselves to be more resilient, more curious, more passionate and even to become better salespeople. This means that those willing to invest in themselves and put in the hard work necessary to develop their skill set, will undoubtedly achieve success in the long run.

Author: Cameron Scott