28 July 2020 15:27:12

What sets successful entrepreneurs apart from rat racers

What makes really successful entrepreneurs stand out from their peers? It’s not money; this is merely a by-product of their success.

Many people today claim to be entrepreneurs. Yet successful entrepreneurs – those who take what many consider to be a harebrained idea and build it into a viable and scalable business – are a much rarer breed.

Think of the resistance that the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Australia’s own Janine Allis faced in the early days of their now iconic business ventures.
What sets them and other successful entrepreneurs apart from the rest? They’re obvious but rarely touched on.

If you fail at any of these traits, you can rest assured you’ll remain in the rat race indefinitely.

You need to be unashamedly different

Businesses are like buses; there’s another one coming just around the corner. Getting customers to board your bus means standing out in some way. Whether that’s a better value offering, superior service, unique product mix, an innovative solution or simply knowing how to get in front of them at the right time. You’ve got to be different and stand out from the crowd.

Easy in theory, but in practice, being different will slowly isolate you from the things and people you know. That can make for a lonely journey to the top. Successful entrepreneurs know this, and so they actively manage this social separation to mitigate the negative impacts of isolation.

You need to be relentlessly brazen

We all know that business involves risk. It’s a risk to start out, and an ongoing risk each and every day we continue to trade. But it’s big risks that have the potential to pay big dividends.
In fact, for successful entrepreneurs, risk-taking is sometimes just as important as the reward. For them, the thrill is not in reaching the destination; it’s the journey towards getting there.

That’s why we see many entrepreneurs selling their business as soon as it is viable. This is because they have taken the risk and built something to a sustainable position. Selling means they can cash out and reinvest the proceeds in embarking on their next venture.

You need to know exactly what you want

Once you know this, it’s about continually demanding it from both yourself and from others: employees, partners, investors and suppliers. In fact, anyone and everyone associated with your business.

It requires clarity of vision to fully know and understand what it is that you want, and then ruthlessness to pursue that vision at all cost.

Hard work alone isn’t enough to be successful as an entrepreneur. But hard work and an exacting nature are a sweet recipe for entrepreneurial success.

Sheer will to survive at all costs

No-one goes into business with the aim of failing, but only a portion of people starting out really understand that staying alive is crucial.

And to this end, nothing is too much trouble or too humbling for them.

Talk to anyone you look up to in business, and they can tell you about how they cleaned toilets, made home deliveries, hit the phones, packed boxes – whatever it took to keep their business going when times got tough.

The current situation under COVID-19 is undeniably challenging for many, many businesses. But there’s plenty of survivalists at work who are adapting, changing, renewing and pivoting their operations in order to survive.

Believing that winning is everything

It’s not just a passing thought, an Instagram quote or a nice phrase that hangs in a frame on walls; successful entrepreneurs truly believe in their bones that winning is everything.

They must succeed no matter what. Even if that means changing their mind, changing their business, or even changing the people around them. Everything they do has to put them on the path to victory.