27 Ingredients To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that most of our content is aimed at helping you find digital marketing success.

However, all of the great advice and tips in the world won’t make up for one slightly-esoteric trait: Do you have what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.

Imagine for a second that you are a successful entrepreneur and great leader like Steve Jobs.

What traits do you think he had in making Apple a household name and in creating one of the greatest entrepreneurial success stories in the last century?

We learn by doing, and this is true. However, we also learn by modeling ourselves and molding ourselves in the image of others who have found great success.

So, what makes a successful entrepreneur? You’re about to find out.

The 27 traits and actions below are the ingredients needed to become a successful entrepreneur.

Think of it like baking a cake, in that you need every ingredient to be successful. If you leave out some of these ingredients, your chances of success will probably fall as flat as a cake without some of its ingredients.

How To Be A Successful Entrepreneur

1. It Starts With Determination

Do you think success comes easily? Or do you think grit and perseverance will be required?

How many times did Alexander Graham Bell fail in inventing the telephone? He failed so often that he coined one of the great failure quotes of all time:

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Before beginning any business venture, you must make a promise to yourself that you will not give up without a fight. If you’re going, you’re going down swinging. You also must realize that to become a successful entrepreneur, you will encounter challenges along the way.

2. Passion = Perseverance

If you have a passion for what it is you are doing, you are far more likely to approach it with grit and determination. Whereas, if you don’t love what you do, you’re far more likely to give up.

It really is that simple, and it doesn’t matter what you are doing. If your goal is to get your business on the first page of Google search results for your main keyword and you approach that goal with passion, you’ll bring the effort required and the grit that’s necessary to get there.

Long hours may be required to achieve your business goals. If you love what you do, it won’t seem like work. You’re more likely to get into a creative flow state where time flies and great ideas blossom.

But if every day and each hour feels like a slugfest, how long will it take before you give up?

3. Good Things Happen Outside Your Comfort Zone

You have to challenge yourself if you’re going to become a successful entrepreneur. And one way to do that is by getting outside of your comfort zone.

No good comes from being too comfortable. There are ingredients on this list that will no doubt be difficult for you. That’s OK.

According to entrepreneur, Dave Asprey, “Getting out of your comfort zone from time to time creates just enough good stress to ramp up your focus, creativity, pace, and drive, and it helps you respond to life stress when unexpected things happen.”

Doesn’t that sound like a recipe for success?

Your brain wants to be lazy. It doesn’t want to be challenged. But just like stress on your muscles builds larger muscles, stress on your brain builds greater intellect.

If none of the ingredients in this article qualify as stepping outside your comfort zone, then ask yourself, what am I afraid to do? What makes me feel uncomfortable? Then challenge yourself to do those things, and watch your creativity and perseverance grow.

4. Accept the Possibility of Failure

Fear can be a powerful motivator or it can cripple us. And the one thing we fear more than anything else is failure.

Michael Jordan famously was left off of his high school varsity basketball team as a freshman. Do you think his failure got the best of him? Well, obviously not, as he is without a doubt the GOAT (sorry, Lebron fans, it’s true). MJ even went so far as to invite his high school coach to his Hall of Fame induction so he could tell him how wrong he was.

Of course, Micheal Jordan isn’t human, but you can learn to live with the prospect of failure and use it as a motivator rather than a crutch that holds you back. The best pro athletes that come through in the clutch aren’t thinking about failure in those moments. They’re thinking about past success.

Fear of failure is common, but it’s also just a matter of perspective. Think like Alexander Graham Bell and learn from your little failures so that you find big-picture success. And if you’re having trouble with your confidence, find some confidence building activities and get to work on that.

Without confidence, it’s going to be much more difficult to become a successful entrepreneur.

5. Take and Manage Risk

There’s a fine line between not being risky enough and being too risky. But that’s a line you’re going to have to tow if you want to become a successful entrepreneur.

We humans are a risk-averse bunch. There can be dangers in taking risks and there can be opportunities. You’ll have to learn the difference between the risks you should take as an entrepreneur and those that you should not.

Hey, no one said this was going to be easy.

6. Trust in Yourself

This relates to having confidence. Whatever you’re doing you must learn to trust your abilities, whether you’re learning how to write a great blog post or marketing your business on Twitter. Know without a doubt that you can learn to do the things that are necessary to achieve success and meet your larger goals.

Learn to trust in your intuition. Learn to rely on your wisdom and talents that have gotten you this far in life. If you can do these things, failure will begin to seem less likely. Some of the air will be taken out of the risks you have to take in order to be a great entrepreneur. And you can focus on the steps needed to get there, rather than constantly contemplating the pitfalls.

7. Visualize Success

In your quest to become a successful entrepreneur, define what success looks like. And then visualize it.

You may think that visualization is some abstract new-age nonsense, but it’s not. The power of visualization comes from the universal law of attraction. Just as there is a law of gravity, there are also laws that govern our lives that are less obvious and often go unseen and unfelt.

The best time to do this is before bedtime, as your mind will then play with those ideas and be in a state of creation while you sleep. But first, you have to define what success looks like to you and the reasons why you are seeking it.

Maybe it’s so that one day you can tell off your high school basketball coach in front of the whole world. But whatever it is for you, quantify it and learn to visualize it, and then make it a daily practice.

8. Action is Required

This may seem obvious, but you can’t spend all of your time relying on the universal law of attraction. You will need to put forth effort.

There’s a strange phenomenon that happens. People plan and organize and prepare, then just before launching their new endeavor, they quit. That’s the fear winning. If you feel that way just before the moment of truth, just know that it’s normal, then crush it. And the way we crush is with action.

9. Seek Out Win-Win Partnerships

Unless you’re Leonardo da Vinci, you’re probably not great at everything. Finding specialists to help you become a successful entrepreneur is ideal, but you’ll need to make it worth their while as well as your own.

Just as the saying, behind every great man there is a great woman, the same can be said of the team you assemble around you. Make sure it’s a team worthy of the success you’re aiming for.

10. Effort + Time = Success

This feels a little too on-the-nose, but I’m sure you can think of someone who tried to be successful without putting in the time and effort to get there.

There is no such thing as an overnight success story. You’re just walking into the movie theatre at the end of the movie. You’re missing everything that needed to happen before the success. And nothing great happens without dedicating your time and effort.

11. Budget Your Time and Money Better

While you are attempting to promote your website successfully after launching your business, do you really need office space that is five times the size of your team? Do you need to spend months learning about SEO when you can hire an SEO expert instead?

Plan for both: time and money. Create a budget for how best you can spend your money and your time in the here and now, and then adapt that plan as you progress toward your goal to become a successful entrepreneur.

You can lease that office in a year or two, when you really need it.

12. Define Your Target Audience

Unless you’re Sam Walton, the entire world cannot be your target audience. Not defining your audience is akin to trying to swim across the English Channel before learning how to swim.

You cannot market your product or service if you don’t know who you’re marketing to. How far do you think your new venture will get without traffic and customers?

Try and whittle it down as narrowly as you can. You can broaden your market later, but who are the people you really should be targeting from the jump?

You answer that question correctly and you’re far more likely to become a successful entrepreneur.

13. Listen to Your Target Audience

Your customers are always giving you clues: what they like, what they don’t like, what they wish you offered, when they want those offers, and so forth. Tune into them and adapt your business plan accordingly.

We both know the customer isn’t always right. But when they complain, you still have to listen.

Learn to separate the reasonable complaints from the superfluous ones. Then learn to adapt on the fly to address the reasonable complaints. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself with a business that has no customers, and from there it’s just a short leap to punching a clock for someone else again… oh, the horror.

14. Exceed Expectations

Your target audience expects things from your company. The way you stay in business is by meeting those expectations. But the way you excel is by exceeding them.

First, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Secondly, go above and beyond what you promised, and set the bar a little lower if you have to. It’s far better to promise less and deliver more than the other way around. Just make sure you are correct in assessing what your customers really expect of you.

15. Find Successful Mentors

If you don’t know anyone personally who has achieved great things, this doesn’t let you off the hook.

Is there anything stopping you from finding great autobiographies of successful people? Couldn’t you listen to those books on your commute or read a little at night instead of rewatching Game of Thrones for the third time?

You can find the time to do this if you set your mind to it. And it really is like having a successful mentor if you frame it that way to yourself.

16. The Art of Self Promotion

There is a fine line between being a braggart and being outwardly confident. Learn to walk that line.

Prepare an elevator pitch and use it whenever someone asks about your business. Pay attention to customer feedback and let others know how your business is going based on that feedback.

If you are not prepared to promote your business, who is? Just make sure what you tell people is factual. And if that means mentioning the bad with the good, so be it; it’ll give you something to focus on reversing.

17. Create a Culture of Success

If you watched The Last Dance, the Chicago Bulls documentary about their historic run through the 90’s and particularly the last year the MJ Bulls were together, then you may remember this.

The Bulls were a horrible franchise before Jordan arrived. Talking about consistently making the playoffs would be like you and I talking about learning to fly. However, that was Jordan’s focus and he wasn’t shy about vocalizing it.

However, it did take a culture shift. From top to bottom, everyone had to adapt to his vision of what the Bulls could become. And if they didn’t adapt to that new culture, they weren’t around long.

If you’re in charge, it starts with you. Set the tone and establish the vision and beliefs that will make your business great and allow you to become a successful entrepreneur. And then make sure everyone adapts to it.

18. Network Like Your Success Depends On It

Chances are very good that people you know can either help you succeed or they know others who can.

Always be networking. Not to the detriment of your business and other important tasks. But you should and can find the time and the opportunities to reach out to others.

If you’re a fan of Mad Men, you may recall Don Draper meeting Conrad Hilton at a wedding reception, who then became a client. You never know who you’re talking to or what they might be able to do for you.

19. A Learning Mindset

In our digital world, rarely do you learn something once and call it a day. Things move quickly in our modern era and if you don’t keep up, you still may become a successful entrepreneur, but you’re less likely to remain one.

If you are a true entrepreneur, then you already have a learning mindset and you know the difference between actions that improve your chances of success and those that are time wasters.

In general, shy away from those time wasters (TV, social media, etc.) and include more activities that teach you something or spur your creativity. Anything that will help you reach your goals. There are some things on this list that you can pencil into your schedule that fit that bill.

20. Deliver the Goods

This may sound a little like exceeding customer expectations. So, think of it this way: show, don’t tell.

Show, don’t tell is common in writer circles. It means creating a picture with words. For you, it could be as simple as providing your customers with a free trial or a sample product. Perhaps give away a free domain name, if that’s your business.

The point is to sell less and deliver more. Selling puts people into a defensive position where they become closed off. Giving opens them up. Plus, if your product or service is any good, that small investment should pay off.

21. Adopt the Kaizen Strategy

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that means small incremental change to produce large and successful results. This is the philosophy that built Toyota into one of the most successful car manufacturers in the world.

Think of it like baby steps. Each day you move a little closer toward your goal, and don’t worry if you can’t see the entire path in front of you. Just like driving at night with your headlights on, you only have to see a little ways down the road. It’s far more important that you’re able to adapt to roadblocks as they come.

Small steps can lead to great things.

22. Manage Your Time

If you’re not sure how to be productive, get the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Even though it was written 30 years ago (that’s shocking), it’s still just as apt today as it was then.

Successful people know how best to spend their time and very little of it is wasted. Yes, wasting time can be fun and it’s certainly easy. But it won’t get you where you want to go. It won’t help you improve your conversion rates. It won’t pay your staff.

You probably have a calendar app that you use. Just make sure that you use it! Plan each day the night before and schedule only those things that will help you become a successful entrepreneur. Then follow through.

23. Don’t Ignore Your Health

Do you ever have people complain to you about not having any energy? Those are unhealthy people and that can be avoided.

Give your body what it needs to thrive: proper nutrition, exercise, and quality sleep. Then make these good habits routine. If you’re thinking, yes, but I don’t have time to exercise, this is a copout.

Try HIIT ― High Intensity Interval Training. There are some variations that you can do in just a few minutes that still give you a great workout. You can probably find a way to multitask, like listening to Steve Jobs’ autobiography while running on a treadmill at the gym.

24. Increase Your Focus

When you’re including the last ingredient in your success jambalaya, you probably have plenty of focus already. If it’s a matter of nutrition, there are some great cognitive herbs like rhodiola and lion’s mane that can help.

And if it’s a matter of trying to multitask too much (beyond the example above), you should know that multitasking has been proven ineffective. Instead, do one task at a time until it’s completed and always make your first task the most important task.

You’ll be far more successful this way.

25. All Work and No Play

We all need time off. And you can probably judge when you need it and when you don’t; when you should take time off and when you shouldn’t.

The good news is that if you improve your focus and stop multitasking and have plenty of energy each day, you’re going to get more done in less time. So, earn it, then take it.

Everyone can use a little recharging and reenergizing from time to time. Whether that means a 15-minute break in a busy day or 15 days touring France, make sure you take time off away from work. You’ll be better off for it.

26. Find Inspiration

The nice thing about these ingredients to become a successful entrepreneur is that you can strategically combine a few of them. For instance, running on the treadmill while listening to Steve Jobs’ autobiography can be for your health, mentorship, and inspiration.

As an entrepreneur and a creator, you probably don’t lack inspiration. But if you do, recognize that and brainstorm ways you can get inspired. Maybe you just need 15 days touring France. Or a few steps outside of your comfort zone. Be proactive, whatever you do.

27. Pay it Forward

Everything on this ingredients list to become a successful entrepreneur has focused on what you can get. But let’s discuss what you can give.

Are there ways you can help others? Surely, there are people you know who aren’t as accomplished as you. Helping someone else can be inspiring. It may lead to a fortuitous connection. And it can produce some good karma.

When we give of ourselves we always get something back in return. Whether we recognize it or not is a story for another time.

Are Successful Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Perhaps you don’t consider yourself a natural entrepreneur and you wonder sometimes whether successful entrepreneurs are born or made. That is likely the fear of failure talking and not you.

The ingredients on this list are things well within your scope of doing and learning. We’re not recommending that you learn to play basketball like Michael Jordan. We can all improve in these key areas. And we all have it within ourselves to become a successful entrepreneur.