I’ve consulted, mentored and am friends with a lot of successful entrepreneurs. Here are the skills that I’ve observed in them that unsuccessful entrepreneurs usually lack. Please note, while there are always exceptions, these are the skills I generally see.
expertise In your field
sales and traditional networking (i.e. Going out, finding customers)
networking. But not traditional networking (which is more like sales). The most successful people I know are able to create great personal friendships. And from those friendships all types of opportunities arise. Go over my old posts for “How to Network like the Rich and Powerful” for clarification.
Knowing your numbers/being able to read and decipher financial statements. From what I’ve seen, a lot of businesses fail because the founder can’t or won’t understand their numbers. Every self-made multimillionaire I know, knows their numbers. You don’t have to be a financial whiz or expert. In fact, there are quick cheats when it comes to your financial statements (basically: it’s all about the ratios). You need to be able to do small calculations. I was thinking of doing a post about this sometime.
Ability to handle failure. The most successful people I know fail multiple times a day. They fail more times a day than some people do in their lifetimes. I never see it stop them. They either learn from it, pivot, or just start up another company with the lessons learned from this one.
Humility. One thing I find funny is how a lot of my friends do normal things: going to bookstores, coffee shops and they love talking to strangers. If these people actually knew who my friends were who was talking to them a lot of these people would be intimidated. I did tell one kid who one of my friends was (who was with me at the place). The kid spent the next 20 mins thanking my friend. But all of my friends just think of themselves as regular people. They never get a big head.
Constant learning and an open mind. The most successful people I know are always curious about new things. They’ll always be op n to new things because they know that opportunities can come from anywhere and anyone.
Hope this helps.
