7 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are a different breed. Estimated to make up approximately 14 percent of the population nationwide, the businesses they launch account for, on average, a full 48 percent of jobs.

Not everyone can do what an entrepreneur does, and here again, the statistics prove it. According to Forbes, only half of all new businesses that launch in any given year will still be open for business in five years’ time.

So what do these remarkable people do differently that nets them success where so many experience failure instead? In this article, learn about the top habits of successful entrepreneurs.

They seek out challenges.

In an entrepreneur’s world, change is a good thing. Change is desirable. Change means you are learning and growing and charting a new course. To an entrepreneur, change signals curiosity, not fear. So an idea doesn’t work out. Think up a new one and try it! So the focus group results indicate the target market didn’t like the product. Tweak it until they do!

This is what a day in the life of an entrepreneurial mind is like. It is also why you will often see successful entrepreneurs selling off successful companies just so they can go do something brand new (for proof, witness Amazon’s founder’s entry into the space race with Blue Origin!).

Their goal is to see everybody succeed.

Entrepreneurs don’t need others to fail in order for them to feel they have succeeded. In fact, failure can be a real downer for an entrepreneur, who often feels like giving up is less about having actually “failed” than the simple unwillingness or inability to try something else until success finally arrives.

From this perspective, an entrepreneur typically makes a great boss, because they want you to share in their success. When the company succeeds, the entrepreneur knows they couldn’t have achieved success without the help of their team, and they tend to reward their team members accordingly.

They do not sweat the small stuff – literally.

Entrepreneurs know exactly how exacting their job requirements are. They know it takes courage, stamina, energy and ongoing effort to visualize a path forward where none currently exists.

Some of today’s most famous entrepreneurs have gone on record to share how they make short work of the small stuff that could sap them of energy when they need it most. Simplicity is usually a key facet in this process.

Outsourcing housework, wearing the same outfit every day, pre-planning each day to ensure there is always time for rest and relaxation – this can make the difference between the rare entrepreneur that can go the distance and those who peter out early on in the journey to success.

They continually feed both brain and body.

It is rare to see a successful entrepreneur who is overweight or obese. The health of the body directly impacts the health of the mind, and the successful entrepreneur knows and respects this.

As such, entrepreneurs often fill off-hours with regular exercise as well as fun and recreational fitness activities.

They also fill up on books, friends and family to keep their minds fit and sharp. And they love new adventures, which means vacations can find them matching wits with mountain peaks or earning their pilot’s license.

They give themselves a specific job to do.

The successful entrepreneur doesn’t have to learn the hard way that they aren’t equally good at everything. They know what they do and do well and they assemble a crack team to do the rest.

One of the best examples is Steve Jobs’ long-standing partnership with Steve Wozniak during Jobs’ lifetime. Wozniak did what he did and Jobs did what he did, and together they became unstoppable. If Jobs had tried to do all the heavy lifting himself, Apple computers might never have been born.

And entrepreneurs don’t forget this when they go home, either. They know that facing a weekend of mindless chores won’t do them any favors on Monday morning. They know what an hour of their time is truly worth and are willing to pay to keep that time free to excel at what only they can do.

They are okay with being “different.”

Many entrepreneurs were aware they were “different” from a fairly young age. They may have had an inexhaustible curiosity about the world and an insatiable desire to experiment, create or learn while their friends were loafing or tossing a football around.

They may have struggled in school because their quick mind was quite simply bored. As such, their grades may not have been all that, and they may have even gotten in trouble for acting out or simply checking out.

But where everyone else headed one way, the young entrepreneur couldn’t resist going the other way. And they still can’t. But even if they weren’t okay with it as a youngster, today they know who they are and why that is a good thing and they feel comfortable with being different.

They absolutely don’t avoid the rock or the hard place.

Finally, successful entrepreneurs don’t let money or risk scare them.

Yet, as many as 82 percent of startup companies fail due to funding inadequacies.

But successful entrepreneurs don’t scare easily. They are willing to have the tough conversations, to ask (even if the likely answer is “no”), even to fold up shop and start all over again if that’s what it takes.

The successful entrepreneur may not succeed the first time…or the second or third time, for that matter. But unlike most people, the entrepreneur will not brand themselves or the experience a “failure.” They will not place obstacles to success in their own path.

Rather, they will get up and keep trying, keep thinking, keep creating and keep innovating, because that is who they are.