Profiling An Entrepreneur? Use a Mirror

You aren't interested in profiling an entrepreneur, at least not as a theoretical exercise. You're profiling an entrepreneur because you want to know if you have what it takes. You're looking for the characteristics of an entrepreneur because you're looking in the mirror and you're wondering if you fit the profile of an entrepreneur.

Can you be an entrepreneur? Many people think the question has a "yes or no" answer. That entrepreneur characteristics are innate like an artist's talent, and success comes from brilliant "flashes of genius" that lead to new products and markets.

What Is An Entrepreneur?

Innovation is essential to successful entrepreneurship, but it doesn't come from flashes of genius. Leonardo Da Vinci was definitely a genius, and "invented" the submarine, the helicopter and many other machines we use today.

But if we were profiling an entrepreneur, Da Vinci wouldn't fit the mold. None of his "flashes of genius" could become successful business in the 1500's. The technology just didn't exist. As an innovator, he was extraordinary. As an entrepreneur, he was a bust.

Successful entrepreneurship is a discipline, not a talent. You can develop your entrepreneur skills. You don't need to have been born with them. Peter Drucker, the first "management guru," called this the "cult of the entrepreneur."

Entrepreneur Characteristics

He explains that it's not talent that's needed. When Peter Drucker is profiling an entrepreneur he says, "What is needed is willingness to learn, willingness to work hard and persistently, willingness to exercise self-discipline, willingness to adapt and to apply the right policies and practices."

If you fall for the cult of the entrepreneur, your business is almost as likely to fail as if you don't start it because you think you don't have what it takes, that magic "something" you think true entrepreneurs must have.

You remember Thomas Edison as the inventor of the light bulb. But he didn't want to be an inventor, he wanted to be a successful entrepreneur and the owner of a large company. He started many businesses and six of them actually grew rapidly but then floundered. These businesses we're only saved by kicking Thomas Edison out and replacing him with a professional management team.

Edison fell for the cult of the entrepreneur. He thought that as an entrepreneur, he had to do everything. Of course, in any successful business, there is no single person who can make, or break, the enterprise.

Entrepreneur Test

Was Edison successful? You'd think so, but he felt like a failure. He never systemized his businesses. His "brilliant" plan was to control everything himself; a plan that worked right up until the business failed or the shareholders threw him out! Since he did this repeatedly, we can guess he didn't learn from his mistakes very well either.

In profiling an entrepreneur, there may not be a definitive answer. If there were an entrepreneur test, would Edison or Da Vinci have passed? Would you? There are entrepreneur personality traits that may make it easier for someone to start their own business. There are also certain characteristics of an entrepreneur that make you more likely to become an entrepreneur (though they rarely determine success), such as having parents who were self-employed.

But the real entrepreneur test that determines if you have the profile of an entrepreneur comes daily as you work to build your own business. And the real secret to success comes from your own decision and your own desire. Will you need help? Of course. Will it be easy? Of course not. But that's never stopped you before, has it?

So when you're profiling an entrepreneur, can you look in the mirror? Yes, you can. Peter Drucker, and more recently Jim Collins (Good to Great) , Michael Gerber (The E-Myth), Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) and the list goes on, say you can be an entrepreneur if you choose to. Each of these respected and admired management gurus says you can if you are willing to do two things; you must work on yourself, and you must work on your business.

You want to fit the profile of an entrepreneur, at least one that is successful and want help improving the odds of your success, learn how coaching can help.