There are many factors that can contribute to the success of an entrepreneur and their enterprises. Most commonly, one might cite passion and drive as these are what helps turn ideas into reality. Entrepreneurs also need to be adaptable, not averse to taking risks, persistent, and creative. All such factors allow them to respond to changing market conditions, to innovate, and to make tough decisions in a timely manner.
An entrepreneur must also have leadership and communication skills to allow them to direct a team to achieve a common goal and encourage financial backing and other kinds of support as needed from third parties. Often a strong work ethic is critical to entrepreneurial success, An entrepreneur that is not willing to put in the hard work and the long hours will rarely build a successful business.
Writing in the Journal for Global Business Advancement, a team from Thailand has looked deeper into what makes for a successful entrepreneur, specifically in Northeast Thailand. The team analysed interviews with 350 successful entrepreneurs from the region using Atlas.ti software, frequency-weighted average scores (FWA), the Pareto method, and Venn diagrams. This allowed them to determine five important categories of characteristics that pointed to success.
Some of the characteristics that emerged were closely related to or overlapped with those mentioned above, including “striving/diligence/energy”, which one might suggest connects passion, drive, and work ethic. The joy of developing the business was also perhaps linked to drive and passion, but also hints at perception of reward and personal mental well-being in becoming successful. Another characteristic revealed by the study is “integrity”. In many ways, integrity must overlap with the more obvious personal traits, without integrity the entrepreneur could be said to be faking it and regardless of the maxim “fake it till you make it”, that’s rarely a tasty recipe for success.
The team found that differences regarding gender, age, level of education, type of business, and length of time in business also all affected the characteristics associated with success.
The bottom line for business students hoping to follow in the footsteps of the successful entrepreneurs discussed in this research is that honesty, hard work, and a love of what you’re doing are the key ingredients that must be baked into the psyche of the budding entrepreneur.
Rangkoon, A., Wongsurawat, W. and Igel, B., (2022) ‘The traits of success according to those who made it: a survey of successful entrepreneurs in northeastern Thailand’, J. Global Business Advancement, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp.196–225.