

What makes a great entrepreneur? - webtickle
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/09/03/ask-the-readers-what-makes-a-great-entrepreneur/

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iamwil
Isn't this an example of a halo effect? Because they made successful
companies, we attribute to them traits that support the conclusion.

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apsurd
I feel like writing today!

It seems that there is actually no way to get around the halo effect or
winner's bias etc. We all look at the winners, we say "how have they _done_
it" and we think "well we can do that too". The problem is in the details.
They _have done_ it, we have yet to do it. What worked in the past may not be
true in the future. Most of us just slap the LUCK sticker on their series of
events and call it a day.

I actually fell in love with "Good To Great" (Jim Collins) because the book
tried to make a science out of success. However, reading the Amazon reviews
enlightened me to the very real statistics flaw in the entire book's analysis.
Something about how there will always be top ranked companies by the simple
fact that they are ranked. You have 10 companies. They will fall in rank. Does
that really mean anything?

So I think there is indeed a problem in soliciting "how to succeed advice" on
the general plane. What works for one person may not work for you, simple as
that.

However, rather than get depressed and attribute our happenings to the stars,
I think its smarter to believe in and invest in _principles_.

The richest Man in Babylon is a book of principles. Think and Grow Rich is a
book of principles.

I am not saying we should read these books as the gospel, rather acknowledge
that there is a real difference between the principle of "saving 10% of your
income" and "use google adwords to grow your fb app 1million percent"

So, here's a change: some advice on how to be successful from a guy that is
not yet successful:

1\. Be a scientist.

Science does not lie.

Sure, things change, sure people get lucky, but all you have to do is _test
things_ and keep on _testing_ things. And learn from your tests.

All this advice is just icing on the cake of science.

Be disciplined, be agile, be scrappy, network, manage risk, evolve, blah -
what is the actual _method_ you'd use to acquire and optimize these things...?

TEST IT.

Being a part of HN over the last year has been very beneficial for me. If any
group of people can understand and embrace the idea of being a scientist
relative to EVERYTHING we do, it's HN.

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puredemo
Almost all of these examples go back to one major attribute: persistence.

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adityakothadiya
I've written extensively about this topic on my blog under title "What Makes
Them Entrepreneurial?" - [http://adityakothadiya.com/category/what-makes-them-
entrepre...](http://adityakothadiya.com/category/what-makes-them-
entrepreneurial/)

Sorry for the shameless plug, but thought this is a relevant discussion.

I've almost covered 35 different traits of entrepreneurial people. I hope you
will find them useful.

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jaddison
Drive. Persistence. Focus.

Knowing what needs to be done now and what can be put off (or never done).

Analyzing and knowing what the user wants - and then building something to
meet that want.

Knowing one's own limits; if you can develop the best product ever but have no
idea how to market it - then finding someone (and trusting them) who can do it
for you.

Finding solutions where other people only see problems.

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idlewords
Same thing that makes a great lottery winner - luck.

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topbanana
Successful entrepreneurs believe that they make their own luck

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nico
Not true. Wenceslao Casares a very successful entrepreneur, says luck is
essential in being successful. He is also known for having said that whenever
he interviews people for a job, he asks them if they think they've been lucky
in their lives, if they say no, he doesn't hire them.

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wpb
loving the examples

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kingkongrevenge
Large profits, duh.

