8 Remarkable Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Spotting success is simple… after the fact. I’ve been privileged to coach over 800 clients – with CEO’s ranging from fresh off the block start-ups to seasoned multimillion pound leaders running decades old corporations. After seeing this many people I would be daft if by now I couldn’t spot the difference early.

A current client, Joseph went from £57k/yr to £243k/yr in 22 months. We can all learn a lot from Joseph and many others like him. I have extrapolated 8 signs of success from such men and women to help myself and you the reader orientate towards and cultivate some important skills and attitudes. Simple, tell-tale markers that let me know, often way in advance if this man or woman is going to take their business from zero to hero or Trump to chump.

Have you got what it takes? Let’s see: (if not don’t worry, it’s all learnable!)

1) Happy to Look Bad Many Times Before They Look Good

All success must come from repeated failure. Your successful ability to walk came from repeatedly falling hundreds of times when you were a 1 year old. The difference is that at that age your ego hadn’t developed so you were perfectly happy to look bad every time. The entrepreneur’s that I’ve worked with who have done the best didn’t give a damn what others thought of them and if they did they suspended that fear using the power of their goals and visions.

‘Little things affect little minds’ said Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), one of the UK’s most influential Prime Ministers. The way to avoid a little mind i.e. worrying about what others think of you is to start each day, week, month and year with your OWN standards of how you want to live. What are your goals and why are they important to YOU not someone else. Now you can take the essential success step of looking bad before looking good.

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” Eleanor Roosevelt

A great example of this is advertising. Businesses often ask me ‘Should we advertise?’ When I ask what’s holding them back the answer is invariably ‘I’m afraid of looking desperate’. Peter Drucker, the greatest business philosopher of all time said business is two things – innovation and marketing. To switch off one of your main two engines because of a fear of looking bad is what holds stupid numbers of entrepreneurs back every day. My answer is always 4 words ‘Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple’. These guys advertise their socks off. It’s the strongest brands that do the most advertising.

2) Prepared to Take Consistent Action

‘Do not wait till the iron is hot to strike but make it hot by striking’ William Butler Yeats

Too often people wait around for inspiration before they take action. What they don’t realise is that action causes inspiration. As Steve Jobs rightly said, ‘the doers are the thinkers’ – the people who come up with the best ideas are those immersed in the field of work already, not those pondering success in their ivory tower. I’ve had clients who loved a pep talk but expected the coaching to do the work itself. Nonsense. The daily habit of consistent action is crucial.

The Two Steve’s in Apple’s Early Days

Clients who have quadrupled their revenue within 18-24 months have been the same clients that fulfilled whatever action step we came up with each week in session and were ready to take on the next action the following week. In most cases they added multiple additional actions once they completed their task because the very act of getting a significant game-changer activity done propelled their motivation levels to new heights – they had made the iron ‘hot by striking’.

3) Willing to listen

The word LISTEN contains the same letters as the word SILENT. Clients who are uncomfortable with staying silent for extended periods of time are usually the same ones who have trouble managing their impulses. As Warren Buffett says “if you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money”

Buffett Mentoring An Eager Student

Not only does silence enable listening which enables learning which enables greater opportunity but a client’s ability to listen also shows the most vital of success skills – self discipline.

4) Take Ownership and Never Blame

Dr. Martin Seligman did a 22 year study of 325,000 people commissioned by a number of large corporates who wanted to find out what was the difference between the thoughts of successful versus unsuccessful people. They found that the top 10% of achievers were always thinking the empowering thought of ‘What do I want and how do I get it?’. They were goal orientated and self empowering. The assumption was that they have the ability to affect their lives.

The bottom 10% however were always thinking, ‘What’s wrong with my life and who’s to blame’. These guys disempowered themselves by being problem focused and shifting ownership of their problems to mysterious outside forces which might change from spouse to boss to the economy to the weather.

I’ve found the entrepreneurs who strike out strongest are those who know deep down that ultimately they are responsibility for everything that manifests in their life.

5) Great Habits

‘We first make our habits and then our habits make us’ John Dryden

One of my business clients first came to me before he had any business. Instead he had two addictions. One was gambling and the other was porn. The breaking of those habits and the replacing of them with productive and powerful new ones like daily goal setting, unleashed an incredible force of energy which resulted in him building a six figure business in 25 months and employing a host of other young achievers to help him along an incredible journey.

Change Your Habits & You Change Your Life

So, the client doesn’t need to come with great habits but they DO need to be prepared to change their habits and guard those changes eagerly until the new lifestyle is automatic. Over 700 years ago the genius philosopher, Maimonidies said new habits take 40 days to establish. Recent studies have shown new habits take between 21 to 66 days to solidify.

6) Team Builders

‘You can do anything but you can’t do everything’ Dave Allen

Some of the most promising entrepreneurs get caught by their own belief in themselves. While it is so important to know deep down that you can affect the world it is crucial to realise that not all this change needs to or should be done directly. Take the 3 to 4 actions which you do best and focus on those each and every day. Everything else e.g. accounts, invoicing, databasing, office cleaning, video editing, graphic design etc. delegate to someone else as soon as it is feasible to do so.

Never before has it become so easy to do this so quickly in the business cycle. Outsourcing through freelance websites such as Peopleperhour or Upwork means you can free up your time from as little as a few pounds an hour.

7) Critical thinking in Good Time and Measure

‘What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.’
Oscar Wilde

Great entrepreneurs have a powerful optimism that drives them forward. In fact optimism was found to be one of the 5 key traits of successful achievers in recent studies. So is there room for the cynic?

Cynic no, critic yes. It is important in every phase of the generation of a new idea that criticism is involved. This critique however should come not too early and not too late. Not too early means there needs to be a stage of unbridled optimism and creativity in the generation of any new idea. This creative phase should not be stunted by any critical thinking or important opportunities might get missed. Once all brainstorming has exhausted itself then a period of reflection and critical trimming will be important to sort the wheat from the chaff. After this trimming phase though it’s time to press on with conviction and action. Someone who continually rocks back and forward with critical analysis in the later stages will suffer from paralysis.

When Quincy Jones and Will Smith had been through the first 2 stages above regarding the idea for the hit series ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ they were bombarded by the cynics who asked them to slow down before production so they could pick holes in the idea once again. ‘No Paralysis through Analysis!!’ Quincy insisted and pushed the show forward despite Will’s lack of acting experience. The rest is history.

It’s worth revisiting attribute 2) Consistent Action, again at this stage and remember ‘the doers are the thinkers’. Over analysis is analysing without experimentation and action to base it on. Make sure you strike the balance right.

8) Show Phenomenal Appreciation

‘The greatest source of happiness is the ability to be grateful at all times’ Zig Ziglar

When we are happy we are 31% more productive according to studies. People think you need to get stuff to be happy but the truth is if you are happy you are more likely to achieve. That’s why people who appreciate what they already have tend to get rewarded with a lot more. I’ve noticed this trait in clients. Those who lavish appreciation on me for any help received tend to be the same ones who take more action and get more results.

Which of the above traits made the biggest impact on you and why?

Please comment below. I learn more from you than you do from me.