25 May Entrepreneur’s Tip of the Week: Are You an Entrepreneur?

The first chapter of my latest book, The Entrepreneur’s Growth Startup Handbook (John Wiley & Sons/Bloomberg Press 2013) asks the question above. In my over 25 years as a lawyer and entrepreneur myself, working with hundreds of business owners and watching them make the same mistakes that smart people made before them, I have concluded there are 9 key personality traits that dramatically increase your chances of being a successful entrepreneur. Here they are, for more detail read the book!

• Big dreamer. You have, as many like to say, that million dollar idea.
• Natural leader and decision maker. People trust and follow you and you relish the opportunity to lead.
• Obsessive passion and drive. Your goals for the day are more important than the clock.
• Macromanager. You delegate day-to-day tasks leaving you to dream, plan and solve major problems.
• Rational optimist. You have enthusiasm for what is to come and quell that with preparation for difficulties ahead.
• Healthy fear of failure. The ringing in my head of “when are they going to take this all away?”
• Little fear of risk. You get that the greatest rewards await those who risk the most.
• Controlling but not freakish. You have a healthy skepticism of the talents and motivations of those around you.
• Disciplined personal and business life. You avoid the dark side of the risk-taking mentality keeping away from less favorable behavior.

I don’t know anyone with all these traits, but great entrepreneurs have most of them in abundance. Is that you? If so maybe you are ready to go for it!