

Are You An Entrepreneur? My five traits of an entrepreneur. - spencerfry
http://spencerfry.com/are-you-an-entrepreneur

======
ryanwaggoner
I used to love posts like this, but now I see them for what they are:
something to read so you feel good about being an entrepreneur, instead of
actually starting or building your business.

Here's my own version:

Are you an entrepreneur? Do you have a business? Then congratulations, you're
an entrepreneur. Don't have a business? Start one, and then you'll be an
entrepreneur.

------
gruseom
Do entrepreneurs really ponder lists of traits of entrepreneurs in order to
decide whether they are one?

------
spencerfry
They are:

Self-Motivation

Persistence

Plays Well With Others

Attention To Detail

Quick Thinking

~~~
jacquesm
Self motivation could simply be greed or envy.

You can be an entrepreneur just fine when you think slowly, are sloppy and do
not play well with others.

I don't even think it is a measure of success.

For me that leaves persistence.

Another one that is hard to define is 'start-up', I've seen it used here from
one end of the spectrum (where I would use 'hobby project', 'trial balloon' or
something like that) all the way to million dollar+ in turnover, funded and
now self-sustaining entity (something that I would call a mid size company).

~~~
spencerfry
In no way can you be greedy, sloppy, slow, and not play well with others.
Those are all traits that are going to lead to your eventual downfall. They're
all negative traits that will prohibit your company from growing and
ultimately being a success.

~~~
jacquesm
I can cite you off-hand at least 10 examples of not-so-nice people that made
it big in business, I have a real problem finding more than 3 that I think are
or were successful and that are very nice people.

It may be just my experience. But the Dilbert series has to ring true to so
many people for a reason.

~~~
araneae
Being not-so-nice can definitely be a symptom of playing well with others. The
stereotype of the "popular" kids in high school is that they're jerks. And
yet, they're considered the ones with the best social skills!

~~~
spencerfry
That is a really interesting comment. I hadn't really considered the "popular"
kids theory. I think you've hit the nail on the head with that one.

------
EGF
This is a great roundup of what traits you need. One other I will add is the
ability to give and get feedback. This is slightly different than "plays well
with others" because it is the ability to take and iterate on feedback from 1.
your market, 2. your potential users 3. your friends and family and 4.
everyone else.

This is helpful in the early stages for product justification but also later
on when larger decisions come up. You have to know how to seperate the advice
from those that just don't believe you can achieve what you set out to do.

This is turning into its own blog post so ill stop there...

------
jacquesm
\- somewhat independent

\- money earned outside of employment forms the basis for day to day life

\- looks towards creating value in equity or goodwill rather than take-home
pay

\- long term view

\- re-invests a substantial portion of proceeds of previous successes in to
future projects

There are probably as many definitions of entrepreneur as there are
entrepreneurs!

------
edw519
I love posts like this and can never get enough of the good ones. Even if they
say a lot of the same things, they are so important that they bear repeating.

The more I read them, though, the more I realize that these "traits" are not
really the cause of anything. They are the _result_ of something bigger,
something I describe like, "when you absolutely, positively must get that
thing done".

Once you adopt the attitude that you _have_ to do something, you change.
Sometimes you even surprise yourself. You find yourself doing things you
couldn't previously imagine. You find yourself with much more energy when you
least expect it, becoming the person you have to be to get done what _must_ be
done.

The sentence that best describes this attitude is, "I am willing to do
whatever it takes to get what I want."

And the metaphor I love is, "At what point do you give up trying to teach your
child to walk?"

I believe we get Self-Motivation, Persistence, Plays Well With Others,
Attention to Detail, Quick Thinking, and whatever else we need as soon as we
decide that we _have_ to do something. Then these character traits help us get
it done.

Personally, I can't imagine _not_ doing my start-up. It's that important to
me.

Others have criticized this attitude by saying that you won't know when to
quit when you should. Fine. I can live with that.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't get it though, why does 'plays well with others' make one an
entrepreneur ? Jack asses routinely score big. Sometimes bigger than their
'nice' counterparts.

What about attention to detail ? The perfect is the enemy of the good, if you
spend lots of attention to detail you'll never ship product. There is such a
thing as 'too good'. I would say that there is an optimum level of attention
to detail. More and it won't pay off, less and you will give the customer a
less than good experience.

Quick thinking ? I'd rather have 'good' thinking than 'quick' any day.

Persistence is an absolute must, I can see that one. To keep going, especially
in the face of disappointment or adversarial circumstances.

~~~
spencerfry
"Playing well with others" is very important if you're trying to build a large
scale business with lots of employees. From my article: "If you want to build
something large and successful, you'll need to know how to delegate tasks,
step aside for others that know more than you, and generally be more of a
leader and less of a know-it-all." Basically, I could have more crudely
phrased it as "Don't Be An Asshole". Nobody likes working for one and it'll
lead you down a path to failure.

~~~
jacquesm
People don't choose who to work for based on whether or not the 'boss' is an
asshole, in fact I would put forward that most bosses are less than nice, even
(or maybe especially) the successful ones.

The biggest deciding factor for most people to choose where to work is the
size of the paycheck and the benefits, a nice boss is 'nice to have' but not
an absolute must. And that is why people are frequently frustrated about their
workplace environment. Some will burn out or even get ill.

But quitting because the boss is a jerk and taking a paycut to work for a
nicer person is not common, even though it definitely does happen.

I think it is idealistic to put these things forward as traits of
entrepreneurs. In an ideal world they would be, in the world we live in the
reverse seems to be the case more often than not. I'd rather live in your
world though :)

I've been a boss, and I've tried hard to be one of the nicer ones. The
downside of that is that your employees will find that they do not really know
how to deal with that, so their interpret 'the boss is nice' as 'we can do
what we want'. It is very hard to be both a 'nice' boss and to stay
productive, that is why I think that most experienced managers adopt a less
than 'nice' stance to keep the wheels turning. They don't much care if people
think they are jerks, as long as the trains run on time and the bottom line is
going up.

~~~
potatolicious
I disagree - what you're describing are "cogs", people who have no choices
when it comes to employment. For people further up the ladder in skill, they
are in enough demand that they can easily afford to pass up the opportunity of
working under an asshole.

I've passed up job offers where they refused to let me speak with my future
boss. I'm going to be spending the majority of my waking hours working, and I
have enough options that I am in no way compelled to work with someone who
drives me up the wall all day. This includes being nice.

------
moron4hire
only 5, huh?

