Evan Carmichael breaks down what successful entrepreneurs actually have in common: they start before they're ready, they're genuinely passionate about the work, they show up daily even when it's hard, and they build teams to cover their weaknesses. Passion is what keeps you going when the grind gets real.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of my newsletter readers who wrote in saying, this is Albert, "What are the qualities for one to become a successful businessman/entrepreneur?" So thanks for the question, Albert. This is a really interesting one. So we have the greatest and largest collection of famous entrepreneur stories of any website online. And if you look at these famous entrepreneurs and how they got started, they have all sorts of different personalities. Some of them are Type A, in-your-face, really outgoing and social, and others are introverts and don't like talking to people. And there's no one common personality that you have to have, which is— which I think is good. A lot of entrepreneurs are I think startup entrepreneurs think they have to be super outgoing or fit a certain mold to be successful, and it's not. There's a lot of guys who are shy and introverted and still go on to build hugely successful companies. So I wouldn't worry so much about personality type, but some of the things, the characteristics that these guys all do have in common— first, they got started. You know, a lot of people don't get started. They have a great idea and they see other people later on capitalize on it, you gotta, you gotta do something about it, right? You can't just sit as an employee at a company, come up with great ideas, and then get angry when somebody else goes out and implements it. You gotta do it yourself. All these successful entrepreneurs had an idea and they got started. They actually did something about it. They may not have jumped into it full-time right away, but they did something every day to grow their business. The next thing is you gotta have a really strong passion for what you're doing. Starting a business is one of the hardest things you're ever going to do in your life. It's going to, it's going to be rough. You know, it's going to test you many times. You're going to think about quitting many times, and if you're just in it for the money, you're going to give up. As soon as it gets really hard, I'm talking really, really hard, you're going to quit because you don't really care that much about it. You're just trying to make extra money, and that's the wrong way to approach it. You want to approach it from the perspective of doing something you're really passionate about and you're helping people with. And that is the approach that, that all the successful entrepreneurs take. And they make money as a result because you're providing a value-added product or service, but it comes from a place of intense passion. It's something that you would do even if you weren't getting paid to do because you love it so much. Those are the things that you'll continue doing when times get really, really, really hard. So that's the second thing I think about. The next thing I think about is Just persistence. A lot of these guys, the successful entrepreneurs, they're persistent. They don't quit, they don't give up. When things get really, really tough, they still do something every day, even if it's small, to grow their business and move it forward. You can't quit. You know, it's, it's again going to take way longer than you think it's going to take and be way harder than you think it's going to be, but you got to keep going. And the successful entrepreneurs keep going until they see the light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of times entrepreneurs don't give it enough time to be successful. They put a ton of energy and effort into it at the beginning. They don't allow for the momentum to grow, and then they quit because they don't see things happening right away. And they didn't allow for that time that it just takes to build the business a lot of times. So you gotta do something every day to keep it going. And the last thing I would say in terms of characteristics of a successful entrepreneur is stepping outside your comfort zone. We're really good at some things. Everybody's different, so, you know, I'm really good at things that you're probably not so good at, and vice versa. And we tend to stick to the things that we're really comfortable with and we're really good at, and not do the things that we're not so good at and we're not so comfortable with. And that's okay, you know, as you build a business, you want to complement yourself and have a team on board who can help you and complement the things that you're bad at. You know, if you're not a programmer, I don't suggest going out and becoming an all-star programmer, but you're gonna have to do things as you grow your business to— that stretch yourself. You know, you have to stretch, you have to push outside your comfort zone, push outside your boundaries, and all the successful entrepreneurs did that. They did things that scared them, they did things that they wouldn't normally do because they really had this strong intense passion that built this business up. And so you're going to have to step outside your comfort zone even if it's in small increments, because as it is, chances are you don't have enough to be able to build that business. So you're going to have to become a better version of you and continue to stretch yourself, continue to grow yourself, especially if you want to build a highly successful company. So hopefully that helped. That's what I would suggest, and that comes from researching a whole bunch of different famous entrepreneurs, and you can read their stories on the website if you like. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It always makes me want to do more of these for you, and I love seeing them come in. And if you have a comment about this video, if you want to share your thoughts, or if you have a question about your own business, feel free to leave it in the comment section below. I always read those. Always makes my day. So thank you. I'd love to hear from you, and we'll see you on the next episode.
