Do You Have the Top 7 Traits for Entrepreneurial Success?

Photo: Create & Cultivate

Are you cut out for the crazy, hectic, and yet super fulfilling life of being an entrepreneur? We’ve worked with countless business owners over the years, and thanks to our conferences and digital summits, we spend a lot of time with startup owners, owners of growing companies, even people juggling four or five companies at once. Unfortunately, not every business owner will make it for the long haul, but I’ve definitely noticed seven traits that are common threads among those who do well.

Do these traits sound like you? Read on to find out if you have all of the elements required to be a successful entrepreneur.

1. You’re Curious.

You don’t ever think you know it all, and you’re always learning, experimenting, and hungry for more, no matter how long you’ve been in the business. Your vision and passion inspire others to action and your curiosity keeps your business innovative. 

2. You’re Highly Engaged.

You always know what’s going on with every aspect of your business. When there’s something you should know but don’t understand, you talk to the experts on your team until you get it (whether that’s your manufacturing team, your CFO, your company’s attorney, etc.). 

You’re also actively engaged with your employees. You understand that the success or failure of your business ultimately relies on you.

3. You Have a Big-Picture Vision.

You understand why you’re in business and you’re able to take a step back and see your company for what it is. You understand that entrepreneurs tend to be serial business launchers and you aren’t overly attached to your current projects. 

You also have an end desire in mind, whether that’s where you’d like your business to be in 20 years or when and how you’d like to sell it.

4. You Have an Even Temperament.

You maintain a calm, even-tempered demeanor at work no matter what’s going on. You don’t take out your stress on others or let the urge for control of the call of anxiety get the best of you. You can be relied on to always keep your cool. This trait helps you make clearer and more balanced business decisions. It also sets the tone for a healthy-functioning work environment. 

5. You Have Excellent Negotiation Skills. 

You walk into every negotiation situation knowing what it is you want and what you’re willing to give up to the other side. You work on improving your negotiation skills every time. Negotiating is a huge part of business— from negotiating with vendors to everyday smaller negotiations with the members of your team.

6. You Surround Yourself With Top Talent.

You aren’t threatened by the prospect of not being the smartest person in the room. You know that you don’t know everything and that there’s always more to learn. As such, you make it a point to surround yourself with people who excel in different disciplines and areas of business. This extends to your social groups but also the members of your team and your consultants. 

7. You’re Willing to Work on Any Area of Your Business.

You don’t reserve your efforts for CEO or co-founder activities. You take care of whatever needs taking care of and don’t make a big deal of it. 

About the Author: Syama Meagher is the CEO and founder of Scaling Retail, which has launched brands around the world using a combination of expert advice and creative marketing strategy. We believe in the power of hard work to grow and build your businesses. Discover Scaling Retail at www.ScalingRetail.com.

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This story was originally published on August 25, 2019, and has since been updated.

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Why It's OK If Your Passion Is Your Part-Time Job RN

Photo: Retha Ferguson for Pexels

While we wish it were otherwise, most of us don’t have the luxury of pursuing our creative passion as a full-time job. Whether we love painting or pouring candles, writing or dancing, event planning, or photography, the truth is that we don’t often make a living from those passions. Instead, we find pockets of time to shadow those desires on the weekends, the evenings, and often when we could be sleeping. We read articles and books about our hobbies and spend our money on the passion we love so dearly. But we aren’t waking up every morning to head to a studio or the craft room or the keyboard. Instead, we get up and work at jobs that don’t set our hearts aflame.

There were a lot of years where I bemoaned my lack of time to pursue my passion. I’m a writer at heart, a woman who comes alive with the tap of keys on the keyboard, a woman who could spend hours each day whittling down a paragraph until it sings with the vibrancy of power and precision. But for most of my adult life, I’ve been a writer in the margins, pulling out my laptop in the evenings or on the weekends, taking twenty minutes over lunch or an hour after work to finish an article or pen a chapter.

And for a while, I thought I was missing out. I spent my best hours, I believed, working as an administrative assistant, and later as a teacher—for ten years. I gave those “normal” work hours to jobs that I deeply valued but that didn’t necessarily hit the sweet spot of all of my dreams and passions. I supposed that because I wasn’t a full-time writer—a full-time creative—I wasn’t doing the beautiful, meaningful work that I could be doing if only I had the time.

I was wrong.

I can say that because, in many ways, I’m on the other side of the proverbial fence now; I work as a writer and writing coach. I’m a full-time creative—well, as full-time as I can be while also being a wife and mother, and being primarily at home with my toddler. But I’m making a living as a writer, and when I’m working at my job, it’s (mostly) in my creative sweet spot.

And I have learned that I’m not more creative because I have more time. I’m not even convinced that I’m producing “better” work because I have more hours to work in.

In fact, what I’m realizing now is that the necessary boundaries that most of us live in—our jobs, our responsibilities, the hours we give to mothering and laundry-folding and meal-making and grocery shopping—those boundaries are actually gifts to us if we will receive them that way. Having to squeeze our passions into the margins of our lives is a good, good thing.

Because when we don’t have endless amounts of time to do what we deeply love, the hours that we do have become more precious. We see that time to chase our creativity as the gift that it is—as an opportunity and not as a right. And so those hours in the margins are often charged with the electricity of a soul on fire, a soul finally getting to release her passion onto the canvas, or on the page, or into the dance. Deep creativity is born in that place.

When the margin for our deepest passions is small, then the pull and stretch of time and longing can actually birth something new in us—an urgency and ingenuity that might not be found otherwise. It is the tension of wanting to do more of what we love and simultaneously not being able to always do it that often stokes the fires of passion for our craft.

So let us re-frame how we see our responsibilities and our jobs throughout the day. The time away from the explicitly creative side of our brain—at our jobs or in the daily tasks at home—these “normal” routines give our imagination time to rest and bubble in other ways. Let us see that our responsibilities aren’t necessarily keeping us from our creative work. Instead, they might actually be helping us by stretching our skills of analysis and interpretation and repetition, things that will also help us as we pursue our “passion in the margins.”

Ultimately, the amount of time that we have to do our creative work isn’t the most important part of any formula for being productive and inventive. It’s the heart behind it that matters.

Because if we can faithfully live well in our other jobs and roles, then when we come back to our creative endeavors we can attend to those desires with the intensity of a mind working to pour all of its energies into a small space. Because, for the creative spirit, ideas and insights are always churning beneath the surface, and they will spark beautifully in whatever time we can offer them.

What are you working on “in the margins” right now?

An original version of this article appeared on Darling and has been reposted with permission. Written by Ann Swindell.

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This story was originally published on April 25, 2016, and has since been updated.

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