Entrepreneurship is the result of the entrepreneurial quality of entrepreneurs.
What makes entrepreneurs successful is still a debate. Experts have listed a long list of qualities relating to general, mental, economic, social and personal trails of entrepreneurs.
In a workshop held in 1977 on entrepreneurship in Honolulu, USA, experts have identified unanimously some important characteristics and traits that are essential – for entrepreneurial success.
These are generally accepted qualities for an entrepreneur, which are shown, in a table and discussed below:
|1. Self Confidence|
|2. Task or Result Oriented|
5. Needier achievement
9. Hard work
|3. Risk Taker|
14. Risk taking ability
15. Like challenges
16. Leadership behavior
17. Gets along well with others
18. Responsive to suggestions and criticism.
|6. Future Oriented|
Entrepreneurship is a new venture creation process: Only a bend less mind can take the initiative to new ventures under uncertainty. This requires a high state of self-confidence that would be the driving force for going into unforeseen uncertain future with the certainty of success.
Self -confidence is a state of mind that includes confidence, independence, individuality, and optimism.
Confidence is the reliance on self that one could do something. ‘I can do’ or ‘I shall overcome someday’ like mental makeup. It is a belief on own ability. It is really not fiction about self. A critical self-analysis could bring about such confidence.
Independence is the sense of sovereignty that makes a person able to run the self and takes decision independently.
Individuality is a sense of distinctiveness that identifies oneself separately. This forces a person to do something new, distinct and unique that qualifies him/her separately.
Optimism is the driving force of all initiatives. It is the shining ray that energizes people to go into uncertain ventures. Optimism is the state of hope and aspiration that people rest on self to walk in future.
Read more: 9 Importance of Entrepreneurship
Tasks or Result Oriented
Every action of a human is goal-directed. The accomplishment of goals gives the satisfaction that reinforces people to act for new goal achievement. The entrepreneurs are tasks or result-oriented persons and direct all their actions toward achieving that desired result only.
They will never lose their tracks to achieve the predetermined results. They have hyperactive minds to pursue the goal of disregarding every barrier. This unequivocal attempt to results or tasks is a primary characteristic for successful entrepreneurs.
Need for achievement is the strong orientation toward accomplishment, an obsession with success and goal attainment. It’s a desire to excel or to succeed m competitive situation. McClelland (1961) observed that entrepreneurs have got a higher level of need for achievement.
Profit orientation is the commitment to the economic utilization of the resources to ensure a profit. Entrepreneurs take venture for making a material gain.
This gain is the profit that drives them to take ventures. Persistent is the quality of continuing something with determination and in spite of difficulty, opposition, argument or failure. It is a mentality to refuse to give up.
Every entrepreneur has got a bundles mind that does not bow before barriers to achieve the desired target. Perseverance is the continued steady effort to achieve an aim.
This unique quality of entrepreneur keeps him/her tied to the path of the goal. Entrepreneurs never detract from their way of action.
Hard work is the quality of industriousness that shows a strong physical capacity to engage in work without any lethargy. Entrepreneurs are hard-working and energetic persons. They are immensely involved work.
The drive is the inner state of mind that energizes channels or directs a person toward action and to the destination. Entrepreneurs have got a strong drive for action and for the accomplishment of their desired goal.
Energy refers to the mental and physical ability to put effort and enthusiasm into an activity. Entrepreneurs have enormous energy to take the toll of diversified and tedious works required for making a new venture successful.
A determination is a quality of being firmly committed to doing something Entrepreneurs never drop the target for any reason. They are determined to do that as it is set with considerable efforts and justification.
The initiative is the capacity and imagination to do something in a new approach or what needs to be done, together with the courage and willingness to do it, especially without other’s help. Entrepreneurs have that state of an initiative to run their own venture into the uncertain future.
All entrepreneurs are risk takers. They take their ventures in an uncertain environment of future. Every future course contents uncertainty.
An entrepreneur must have a characteristic to take the challenge of uncertainties. He/She has, of course, a mind to segregate risk from uncertainties and a mindset for taking the risk.
Leadership is the process of influencing and directing the task-related activities of group members (Stoner, Freeman and Gilbert, 1995). It is the art of influencing people so that the) wilt strive willingly toward the achievement of group goals.
Entrepreneur organizes resources and engages in uncertain ventures that he will transfer into the certain enterprise. Therefore, he must have leadership quality. It requires leadership behavior, gets along well with others and responsive to suggestions and criticism.
Leadership behavior refers to both people and production-centered behavior. It is also concerned with behavioral equity with the people in the organization.
It is true that leadership behavior is a continuum of autocratic to democratic to laissez-faire behavior. It is a situation that determines the appropriateness of certain behavior.
Leaders should be able to get along well with others. It requires a high level of human relations skill, a cordial personality, an open mind, and sociability.
Responsive to suggestions and criticism is an essential leadership trait of an entrepreneur. He is to listen, discuss and accept the constructive suggestions and criticisms of others. A leader with closed personality is a misfit for entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs see what others could not see. Therefore, entrepreneurs possess a quality to create things of value out of own effort. Originality is composed of innovativeness, creativeness, flexibility, resourcefulness, knowledge and versatility trails.
Innovativeness is the quality of adding or discovering new utility with the old product or process or system. An entrepreneur is an innovator.
Creativeness is the work of an that is the skillful and imaginative use of something to produce. It is the ability to invent or discover things of absolutely new phenomena. Entrepreneur perceives the use of indigenous means and materials in a new phenomenal direction. His creative faculty makes him uncommon in a lot of commoners.
Flexibility is the quality of changing self with the new conditions. Entrepreneurs have an open mind and always ready to adopt new things with adaptability or use in the given situation of an economy.
They are in the flux of change in order to extract the maximum benefits out of the existing opportunities and threats in the environment.
Resourcefulness is the ability to create and use tools and techniques in a useful manner. It is the quality of finding ways of doing things.
Entrepreneurs have the basic resource to find the most beneficial ways of doing things with the tools and techniques appropriately designed and created by them for the purpose.
Versatility is a desired quality of the entrepreneurs. It is the ability of a person to turn easily; or readily from one subject, skill or occupation to another. The entrepreneurs arc the jack-of-all-trades, as they have to handle all necessary functions of the new venture.
Knowledge is the facts, information, understanding, and skills that a person has acquired through experience or education.
The entrepreneurs should have right education and experience in the area of operation in which they try to develop their ventures. Originality is the only distinguishing characteristic that differentiated entrepreneurs from others in the society.
Entrepreneurs are the hunters of fortunes into the future. “Never look back” is the guiding principle for all entrepreneurs. This characteristic consists of two traits- foresightedness and perceptiveness.
Foresightedness is the ability to see what one’s future needs are likely to be. that is. to predict things to happen in future. Entrepreneurs will search into the future environment the opportunities and threats that may be used to their advantage.
Perceptiveness is the ability to see hear or understand things. It is also the way people look at or interpret something. Entrepreneurs see things differently and find things what others cannot.
Therefore, entrepreneurs should be a future-oriented personality who perceives events of success and builds up ventures on it.