Just read this article on rd.com (Readers Digest) and it listed 5 habits of successful entrepreneurs. Ofcourse, in hindsight, it seems obvious, and you say to yourself,  that’s just common sense. However, how many of those traits do you actually possess?

1. Set your sights on where you’re going: They give example of Jeff Harris, who was broke, and one day met a stockbroker at a party, and that led to him learning about stocks and eventually becoming a stockbroker himself. Reminds me of my story about meeting someone at a pool hall, who was in the paging business, and that led to my life in the cellular business. A little close to my heart on that point.

2. Educate yourself On this point they give example of a Steve Maxwell, who was an engineer, who educated himself through books to learn about investing. Now he owns investments of over $30 million. That sounds great. Most of us do that already. You are reading this blog, and other blogs, websites, books, and are constantly educating yourselves.

3. Passion pays off Here they tell us about Jill Blashack Strahan, who was broke, behind on her house payments, and the food basket business that she had was not quite as successful as she had hoped. But, she kept with it, didn’t give up, and was eventually successful enough to be named one of the Top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine. So, are we persistent enough? Maybe I shouldn’t give up on my blog.

4. Grow your money Rick Sikorski, who is now the owner of Fitness Together, with over 360 locations worldwide, started with a 400 sq ft studio, and the money he made from it, he put it back in the business. This sounds fair, but does not always is the wisest option. I am a believer of diversification. If I am making money with one business, I will not put all my profits back into the same business. I would put back enough to grow, and use the rest to start a new venture. Maybe thats just my ADD, or maybe I just want to see what else is there on the other side of the fence. I also learnt my lesson with one of the wholesale businesses that I had, where, it was like a fat cow. It didn’t matter how much money I put back into it, my returns remained constant.

5. No guts, no glory At age 29, Dave Lindahl decided to take control of his life and gave up his rock band ambitions. He started a landscaping company, which led to renovating foreclosed homes and reselling them (flipping), and now he is worth over $143 million. This is probably something that many lack. But, that is such a poor example of NO GUTS, NO GLORY.

Reading that article made sense, however, here is what I think:

• One usually does not posses all the traits listed above.
• Luck usually plays a big part in all the successes
• Many times, success of that nature comes at a price - be it a broken relationship or broken friendships, or just not walking the straight line (you know what I mean).

I would also like to add a few more traits that many successful entrepreneurs possess:

1. Faith: I am not talking about being a religious fanatic. I am talking about faith. Be it faith in a superior being, or faith in yourself. You have to believe in something.
2. Charisma or Charm: Most successful people are good salespeople, and a good salesperson has the charm or the gift of gab to make you believe him/her. They have the ability to charm you, and finesse their way into getting things done.
3. Confidence: This one is just too obvious. You have to have the confidence in yourself to know that you can achieve something that you are setting out to do.
4. Dreamers: All (yes I said ALL) successful entrepreneurs are dreamers. You have to dream big to achieve big. Its just like when you were in school, and for an exam you studied just enough to pass, you probably failed by a point or two. But, if you had studied enough so that you were trying to get 95, you may have gotten atleast a 90, which is pretty good.
5. Adapt To Failure: We all fail. Yes, we ALL FAIL. If you want to be successful, you have to fail atleast once. You have to know what failure feels like, and to get back up, dust yourself off, and take care of business again. Someone who hasn’t failed hasn’t taken a risk in his life.
6. ALL (Yes I said ALL again) successful entrepreneurs are SOBs. Many are hated, but most are loved.

What do you think? Have I missed any point or am I wrong in my assumptions? Please let me know via your comments.

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