5 Essential Characteristics Of The Entrepreneurial Mind

Do you hold within you the characteristics of an entrepreneur? These hallmarks of entrepreneurial thinking can help you better understand how the minds of successful entrepreneurs work.

1. Creative

The entrepreneurial mind is characterized with the ability to observe, digest, analyze, and execute on big ideas differently and uniquely. Whether it's with new products or new processes, entrepreneurs are emboldened by the uncanny knack to recognize holes in the marketplace and devise innovations to fill them. Business owners with the characteristics for an entrepreneurial mindset ask the “what ifs” that drive inquisitiveness. These characteristics hold the capacity to let go of what they already know in order to source fresh information and new ways of thinking about an opportunity or problem.

2. Trusting

One of the qualities of an entrepreneurial mindset is the capacity to remain undaunted by the typical predictors that may put off the fainthearted. Many successful business owners never relied on a business plan. These entrepreneurs know that creating something new is truly an evolutionary contest. No one knows the outcome, but those who exemplify an entrepreneurial mindset are gifted with a brand of thinking that frees them so that they can begin to build, test, and refine. 

3. Risk-Taking

Uncertainty is the very essence of entrepreneurship. Turning the idea that risk is a negative into a positive creates healthy skepticism around prediction and analysis. Entrepreneurs with this characteristic are comfortable existing in that space between raw idea and successful product. With it comes determination and solution-based thinking that replaces the fear of failure. Those with an entrepreneurial mindset thrive in the wide middle ground of experimentation, revision, and testing.

4. Experimental

Being comfortable with experimentation means an ability to think big and iteratively test products, processes, and outcomes, all without the weight of worrying about where the results may lead. This nimbleness is a key element of an entrepreneurial mindset. Most people are comfortable testing new products or systems with a range of one or two possible outcomes, but those with this key characteristic can experiment in the unknown. Entrepreneurs bring something new and novel to the marketplace. Experimentation can be truly transformative, revolutionary, and industry disrupting. Removing expectations and letting the results lead you in completely new directions is an attribute that marks a truly entrepreneurial mindset.

5. Humble

Egos can get in the way of and potentially destroy the very best ideas. Business owners who are humble, authentic, and self aware are committed to solving a problem or reinventing a product or service. 

People with this quality understand that their egos are only useful in moving an idea forward, not dictating outcomes or wrestling to make results conform to a preconceived notion. They may constantly generate and promote their own ideas, but they think and act collaboratively and are staunchly solutions-focused.

Can anyone have an entrepreneurial mindset? Perhaps. These characteristics certainly are singularly attainable, but collectively, they pack a powerhouse of characteristics that truly take on what it means to be an entrepreneur. In the meantime, those with entrepreneurial spirit and ambition can start to make subtle shifts into these qualities and move away from old, reflexive thinking which can limit them from exploring new ideas and taking the leap necessary to launch a business.

A version of this article was originally published on December 28, 2011.

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