Starting a Company - Take the Risk

Whether I'm out on the speaking circuit, working with startups, back in Ann Arbor teaching MBAs, or just socializing in a coffee shop, I'd say there's one question I'm hit with more than any other. It comes in different forms, but the essence of the question is the same: "What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?” Over the years, my answer has evolved. But I’ve found myself settling on ten traits that are shared in common by virtually every truly successful entrepreneur I’ve met, observed or studied. The true rock stars entrepreneurs are all:

I planned to write about Malcolm Gladwell in this post a couple of days  ago, but I had rambled on long enough, so I deferred it until later. Well, Felix Salmon beat me to the punch, which is all for the best anyway, since the connection was going to be John Paulson, and Felix knows much more about hedge funds than I do.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson hosted the sixth meeting of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) today at the Commerce Department. The Council advises Bryson and the administration on key innovation and entrepreneurship issues and supports President Obama's innovation strategy by helping to develop policies that foster entrepreneurship and identify new ways to take great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to drive economic growth and job creation.

The sluggish economy has prompted many to consider starting their own businesses. But too often, people are still held back by myths about who’s cut out to be an entrepreneur, says Candida Brush, Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division at Babson College and Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship. “If you pick up almost any magazine, the hero is usually a white male figure: you’re either born Bill Gates or you’re not, and that’s off-putting” to many would-be entrepreneurs.

Some statistics from the Kauffman Foundation

Even though two in five entrepreneurs fell into business ownership through redundancy, four in every five say that given the chance they would do it all over again. Asked about the deterrents to setting up a business today, 80 per cent of business owners cite access to credit, followed by red tape and lack of government support. Half believe the state of the economy deters budding entrepreneurs, and market dominance by large corporations is also highlighted as a further barrier.

No two successful people are the same. But Inc's Mehdi Maghsoodnia, who has spent 20 years investing in and starting companies, came up with four common characteristics the best entrepreneurs possess.

Each year June is celebrated as Start-up month and during this time more than any other would-be entrepreneurs inevitably ask me if they can start a venture.?? Stories of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship abound in the popular press today and they nervously ask, "Can I be an entrepreneur?"?? ??They see highly successful entrepreneurs and - despite ...