Shed off these traits if you want to be a successful entrepreneur

Wednesday June 08, 2016 , 3 min Read

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose,” Bill Gates once said. The basic framework for attaining success is having and maintaining habits like setting goals, morning routines and prioritising important tasks. The difference between a successful and an unsuccessful entrepreneur is only that the former sticks to such habits in any given circumstance while the latter doesn’t.

Clay Clark, CEO of small-business resource Thrive15, says, “Its usually two or three traits that cause us to blow up.” However, a proper analysis of the traits of unsuccessful entrepreneurs is listed below.

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Not being organised

It is safe to say that running a business or any venture for that matter is like looking after a newborn. It comes with a myriad of responsibilities. The first and foremost difference between a successful and a not-so-successful entrepreneur is his or her ability to streamline tasks and arrange them in the order of importance. As organisational expert Barbara Hemphill says, “Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.” Ways to do this can range from using Post-Its or making to-do lists or even using apps.

Expectations galore

The prime difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful one is expectations. No successful person in the world has reached their peak without having to lift a finger. Plans have to change. Even if everything aligns perfectly according to plan, it will still take a tremendous amount of work, time and patience to succeed in any industry. As Conrad Hilton, founder of the famous Hilton group of hotels, puts it, “Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.”

Making excuses

Lying has never gotten anyone anywhere and this also applies to a successful entrepreneurship career. As career guru Seth Godin points out, "I didn't have time" actually means a task "wasn't high-priority, fun, distracting, profitable, or urgent enough to make it to the top of the list." Dishonesty is also a trait associated with this. Making excuses can only aggravate one’s contention of you being lazy and that is never a credible characteristic to possess. According to novelist Douglas Coupland, “Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos.”

Not accepting criticism with grace

One of the key ways in which one can continue climbing up the success ladder is by accepting complaints and criticism with grace. The best way to know what you are doing wrong and what you need to do in order to make it even is by listening to feedback and accepting it. A person who has a hard time wrapping their head around reality will have little or no room for improvement. This becomes an important factor when it comes to success.

Succeeding in business is usually the result of good ideas, hard work, right choices, habits and also a bit of luck. But failing at it once doesn’t mean that it is the end of the road. Accepting it and moving on is the way to go about it. As Zig Ziglar said,