Q1 2012 is done and what a busy quarter it was. Whatever was holding people back seems to have gone away and folks appear to be returning to the business of building their future. I hope that you have been seeing the same type of positive momentum in your life and business.
Over the past decade, I have been honored to work with a large variety of people who are interested in becoming business owners. What a joy to work with so many unique and interesting people. Every individual comes to business ownership from a different place. They each have different skill sets, different ages, different personal histories, different financial resources and differing levels of expertise.
I am often asked, ‘What kind of person is most likely to start a business and be successful?’ People are looking for the secret. They want to know if there is a specific profile of skills and experience that tends to lead to business ownership and success. The answer is clearly ‘No’. I have seen people with many different backgrounds successfully move into business ownership.
The propensity to become a business owner has little to do with the above mentioned structural or historical realities. The characteristics of business ownership and success are far more personal in nature. It has more to do with how the person sees the world and their role within it.
The kind of person that ends up starting a business tends to have the following characteristics –
‘Directed‘. People with a strong sense of personal direction are more likely to become business owners. These folks don’t always have everything figured out but they know what is important and they are directed toward discovering ways to move in the chosen direction.
‘Doers‘. They are the kind of people that tend to ‘do’ things. The world is divided between ‘talkers’ or ‘doers’. People that get into business for themselves are almost always ‘doers’.
‘Success‘. They generally have a track record of success. If they had a paper route, they were successful delivering papers. If they are in sales, they did well. Engineering, the same story. Their past success tends to breed future success.
‘Pleasant‘. The people that I work with that become business owners are almost always pleasant people that you would like to have over for dinner. They are never Eeyore’s. They are curious, pleasant and are able to find joy in others success.
‘Comfortable‘. People who become business owners tend to be comfortable within their own skin. They trust themselves to make good decisions and believe in their own ability to achieve.
A healthy dose of the five items on this list will clearly lead you toward greater success in life and make you far more likely to, one day, own your own business.
If you know people like this that are interested in exploring business ownership, send them to me. I would love to get to know them.
Have a great April.
