Many of us are curious about the achievements of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs. With plenty of documentaries, podcasts and books focusing on growth[NF1]. Both personal and professional – authors, coaches and psychologists alike come up with an array of ingredients that should come together in a perfect recipe for success.
Now, after assessing 2,500 entrepreneurs in the United States, management consulting company Gallup has come out with a study that confirms these suspicions. It found that highly successful entrepreneurs exhibit distinctive behaviours. These behaviours, it says, resulted in the businesses belonging to these entrepreneurs outperforming others by 22 percentage points in year-on-year profit growth. Even more astonishing? You may be able to copy these behaviours.
1. Expertise
Whether their ideas changed the face of tech or the world’s they dreamt up changed ours, every leading entrepreneur and innovator was a subject-matter expert before they launched their enterprise. Just think about Bill Gates: he spent 10 years from late childhood coding in every spare moment he had before founding Microsoft. Or JK Rowling – she started writing at the age of six and spent seven years perfecting Harry Potter before it was published. That said, though, there is a certain amount of talent required for success to follow.
2. Discipline
It’s no secret that the road to success is long and hard. There is plenty of opportunity to get distracted or lose sight of the long-term goal. When struggling or faced with failure, it is important to keep track. It requires an intense amount of discipline, and it’s something that the world’s most famous entrepreneurs have in spades.
3. Persistence
Persistence goes hand-in-hand with discipline. Tenacity means that successful entrepreneurs are able to keep forward momentum, no matter the challenges they face. Although they may not do it knowingly. These business moguls follow advice laid down in a familiar Japanese proverb: “fall down seven times, get up eight”.
4. Passion
It’s tough to be disciplined and persistent enough to make a success out of a business. Especially, you’re not passionate about it. Furthermore, most of the famous entrepreneurs have a real drive to share what they’ve built with the world. Passion is essential for success. Whether you’re building a product like an electric car, or a service like an online shopping platform that creates equity among consumers.
5. A growth mindset
Willingness to fail is the factor that separates the billionaires from the millionaires. This is where the growth mindset takes roots. It drives those who possess it to thrive on challenges and see failure of an opportunity for growth. Accepting that failure is a natural part of innovating ensures that entrepreneurs are able to take the risks necessary to succeed. It also means that they’re more likely to think in unique ways and test unorthodox methods that would usually be avoided by fixed mindset entrepreneurs for fear of failure.
Conclusion
There are thousands of ways to become successful. From waking up early to being business savvy, some of the methods suggested are far more easy to follow than others. However, ensuring that you build expertise in your field and a passion for what you’re doing, are persistent and remain determined can go a long way. Plus, working on a growth mindset will give you an added advantage over other entrepreneurs.
