How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur: The Qualities You Need

By T. Leigh Buehler  |  08/04/2025

What is the entrepreneurial spirit? It’s the allure of creating a new business venture, being your own boss, and potentially making a positive impact on the world around you. This desire leads many entrepreneurs to take a business idea and run with it.

The entrepreneurial experience is different for everyone and unfortunately, it isn’t for everybody. The early stages of owning your own company require:

• Many long hours and scaling back your personal life for a while
• The development of business skills
• Lots of calculated risks
• Protection of your intellectual property

Overall, entrepreneurship requires a unique skill set and a certain mindset to navigate through challenges and uncertainties.

What Is Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship encompasses creating value, recognizing opportunities, and possessing unique characteristics. At its core, entrepreneurship involves identifying a problem or a need in the market, then developing an innovative solution to address that need. Being an entrepreneur requires a person to use creativity, risk-taking, and business acumen to transform an idea into a viable venture that creates value for customers or society.

The Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Most successful entrepreneurs share similar traits. Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, and Richard Branson are super-successful entrepreneurs who built their empires by pushing boundaries and staying resilient. They relentlessly pursue their visions and embrace risks while continuously evolving with market trends.

One of the greatest traits an entrepreneur can have is passion. But what other traits help to make an entrepreneur successful? They include:

• Risk-taking – Entrepreneurs need to be willing to take calculated risks.  They must step out of their comfort zones to pursue opportunities that others have overlooked or even avoid.
• Innovation – Entrepreneurs should think creatively. Being able to develop novel solutions and a workable business plan is essential to differentiate themselves from other business owners in competitive markets.
• Leadership – Leadership skills are essential when it comes to inspiring others to believe in the mission and goals of your business. Entrepreneurs need to successfully guide their teams to work toward a shared vision when offering a game-changing product or service.
• Resilience – No success story is free from failure or setbacks. Resilience allows entrepreneurs to bounce back from adversity and persist in the face of challenges.
• Self-efficacy – The ability to believe in oneself is incredibly strong. It’s also essential for maintaining motivation and persevering past any obstacles.
• Analytical skills – Today's business decisions are commonly driven by data tools. Entrepreneurs need to know how to use data to make more informed decisions for their own businesses, whether they aspire to run nonprofit organizations or large-scale global businesses.

Not all of these entrepreneurial traits are innate, but they can be developed over time through education, experience, and personal growth. While these characteristics are commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs, any success story reveals unique traits that led to that person’s achievements.

Entrepreneurial Skills

Traits innate to some individuals, such as confidence and passion, play a big role in entrepreneurial success, but certain skills are also key to starting and running a business. These specific skills can be learned or improved upon through experience, personal education, and focused practice.

If you want to become an entrepreneur, the skills you'll need to develop include:

• Strategic thinking
• Financial management
• Networking

Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking is essential for developing business strategies, creating a business plan, setting objectives, and participating in long-term planning. It involves evaluating different approaches, understanding the broader impact of decisions, and aligning your actions with overarching goals.

Entrepreneurs who possess strong strategic thinking and business planning skills can better anticipate market trends and navigate any challenges that come their way. Continuous development of strategic thinking skills is important for professional growth.

Entrepreneurs should always embrace a growth mindset to continue to learn, grow, and keep their strategic thinking skills sharp. Reflecting on past experiences, especially with any co-founders, also helps entrepreneurs improve their strategic capabilities so that they are better situated for long-term success.

The Strategy Institute recommends that business owners increase their strategic thinking skills by focusing on developing a “holistic understanding” of their business and its environment. Consistent learning, critical analysis, and proactively engaging in a business market and industry also helps to improve strategic thinking skills.

Financial Management

In any business, successful entrepreneurship depends on owners who understand a business's finances, such as budgeting, forecasting, and operating costs. Financial management, which helps to ensure company sustainability and growth, is a critical skill for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs should learn to manage their resources wisely and make informed financial decisions to be successful in their business market. Small business owners will need the ability to interpret financial statements, manage their cash flow, and make strategic investment decisions to keep their company afloat, especially in the early stages of growth.

Sometimes, entrepreneurs may need to put their personal finances at risk or seek secure funding from potential investors to get a business started. They may also need to rent their own office space and factor the cost of rent into their operating costs.

There are ample sources available for aspiring business owners to learn financial concepts from industry professionals. Ideally, it is a good idea to consult with business mentors or use online tutorials or courses to fill in knowledge gaps.

Networking

Networking is important for building a strong, professional network of entrepreneurs. This group can help you with resources, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities with others.

When entrepreneurs connect with other successful business leaders and potential customers, they can:

• Test a new business idea
• Find new work opportunities
• Determine new ways to increase productivity
• Enhance their business prospects

Effective networking enables entrepreneurs to grow relationships and potentially learn from other experienced business professionals in their industry.

Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Even if you have hands-on experience, startup funds, and business knowledge, embarking on the entrepreneurial journey comes with several challenges. Knowing the typical obstacles to business development and learning to develop strategies to overcome them can help set you up for long-term victory.

When you become an entrepreneur, some of the most common challenges you'll face as your business grows include:

• Market competition
• Initial failures
• Agility

Market Competition

One of the most difficult things entrepreneurs learn along their journey is just how saturated most markets are. You can pour your heat into building something substantial, only to realize there are dozens of other companies doing similar work in the same target market to solve the same problem.

However, the challenge is not about having a good idea. It is about figuring out how to stand out in the crowd.

How can one entrepreneur stand out from other entrepreneurs? Market research is essential for achieving success.

Get curious about what current options in your area exist and why these options are not cutting it with customers. You can also:

• Stay curious and ask thoughtful business questions
• Talk to potential business clients
• Dig into competitor reviews (this work is helpful when you’re crafting marketing materials)
• Read trade publications to better understand the industry
• Look for the gaps that others have missed

Companies like Airbnb® and Uber® nailed investigating their market research. They didn’t invent something completely new; they just reimagined industries previously considered to be set in stone.

But these companies also paid attention to important business problems when other companies did not. Airbnb noticed that travelers were tired of sterile hotels, and Uber saw that commuters were frustrated with unreliable cab companies. They built customer trust and loyalty by solving problems that their competitors ignored.

Initial Failures

No one really talks about how often businesses fail, especially in the beginning. It is easy to romanticize entrepreneurship, but the reality is that most people face setbacks.

Sometimes, despite all the planning and passion, a product or service that you want to offer just falls flat. For aspiring entrepreneurs, that can be disheartening.

But those initial failures are not always the end; they can be the beginning of the real work when you become an entrepreneur. Failures can improve your self-awareness by forcing you to look hard at what is not working and listen more closely to your customers. Find out what really needs to change, whether it's your business model or your marketing strategy.

Big names like Ford® and Apple® didn’t skyrocket to success on the first try. They hit roadblocks, retooled their ideas, and came back stronger.

That’s the key: resilience. As an entrepreneur, you must learn to pivot, adapt, and reframe failure as feedback rather than defeat. When a business stumbles early on, it’s an opportunity to recalibrate and come back sharper.

Agility

If there’s one quality that any entrepreneur needs, it is agility. The market does not wait for anyone – trends evolve and customer expectations change overnight.

Often, what worked a month ago is now outdated. In that kind of environment, aspiring entrepreneurs must remain flexible. Agility means being willing to test, adapt, and even scrap an idea when it’s no longer serving your goals.

Not everyone thrives in that kind of ambiguity because it can feel disorienting. For entrepreneurs chasing something meaningful, agility gives the permission to evolve without shame or hesitation. It’s what allows small businesses to survive the pressure of bigger competition.

Agility also doesn’t mean changing everything all the time. It’s about staying grounded in your vision but flexible in how you get there.

Whether it’s adopting a new technology, shifting your pricing strategy, or repositioning your messaging based on customer feedback, those business decisions shape your ability to stay relevant.

Agility is less about reacting and more about anticipating. It’s a reminder that entrepreneurship isn’t a straight path; it’s a living process.

Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?

At the end of the day, entrepreneurship isn’t a title, it is a mindset. It’s waking up every day ready to learn, adapt, and keep going, even when the odds feel stacked against you. For people with a great business idea and who are drawn to a challenge, there’s nothing quite like it.

Not everyone is meant to be a successful business owner, and that’s okay. But if you’re someone who’s curious, driven, and willing to grow through both failure and success, then you might become a successful entrepreneur. So, whether you’re still thinking about becoming your own boss or you are already knee-deep in execution, remember that the entrepreneurial journey is as much about who you become as it is about what you create.

The Bachelor’s Degree in Entrepreneurship at APU

For adult learners who have an entrepreneurial mindset and want to start their own businesses, American Public University (APU) provides an online Bachelor of Arts in Entrepreneurship. In this academic program, students will study topics such as accounting for non-accounting majors, idea generation, and the foundations of entrepreneurship. Other courses include innovation design and prototyping, business plan foundations, money management for entrepreneurs, and innovative marketing.

Also, this bachelor’s program has earned specialty accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP®). This accreditation ensures that this academic program has been rigorously examined for high quality by higher educational professionals.

For more information on this bachelor’s degree program, visit APU's business and management degree program page.

Airbnb is a registered trademark of Airbnb, Inc.
Uber is a registered trademark of Uber Technologies, Inc.
Ford is a registered trademark of the Ford Motor Company.
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
ACBSP is a registered trademark of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.