I spend a good deal of my time trying to understand what is unusual about successful start-ups founders and product creators, that is, what is special about their way of doing things. Hence we can infer some attitudes and "design patterns" that are often found among these people. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of traits that I have noticed in these people. Of course, some entrepreneurs succeed without these traits.

 

Curiosity

They read a lot and do not hesitate to ask questions for things that may seem trivial at first. They have a thirst for knowledge. They want to understand what could have led to a given success or failure. They are also constantly looking for things that will motivate and retain their best employees.

 

The ability to collaborate

Those who know how to delegate and build strong relationships with their employees are more likely to come up with solutions or products that meet the real needs of their customers.

 

Spending as little as possible

When it comes to successful entrepreneurs, as the saying goes: "an entrepreneurial adventure should tend to create money and not to lose it". That is why they always look for ways to avoid digging into their pockets whenever possible. By choosing goods exchanges over purchases for example, they always find ingenious means to acquire the resources they need without having to reduce their funds.

 

Fulfilment

Doing something that they love and that makes them happy is essential for these entrepreneurs. They like to have total control of their income. They also derive enormous satisfaction from the fact that they create value-added products, services and/or concepts.

 

Planning maniacs

From their perspective, everything must be planned. Whether it be short-term actions or those to be implemented in the medium and long term, they take the time to write a plan with a fairly high level of detail. This allows them to have an effective guideline and to be able to adjust their strategy at any time through daily monitoring.

 

Power users (for those who have access to technology)

The best entrepreneurs do not hesitate to invest in high quality websites while taking the time to set up internal management and communication tools. They are keen to spend on boosting those core assets.

 

Giving back to the community

In addition to their commercial activities, successful entrepreneurs often act in favor of the community. They are involved in charity work or they simply initiate projects to help others.

 

Man of Action

They try to differentiate themselves from their competitors at all times by being proactive and taking the lead. They take risks that the average Joe would consider insane. Also, they do not view mistakes as a fatality. On the contrary, they use those lessons to set up new strategies and therefore to increase their chances of succeeding at their next attempts.

 

Hyper motivated

Finally, successful entrepreneurs are people with extraordinary motivation. When it looks like they are hitting rock bottom, they surprisingly bounce back and come up with new ideas that they implement with tremendous determination and unshakeable confidence.

 

A constant and objective self-evaluation

They remain honest with themselves even when it comes to self-assessment. So they make every effort to correct their imperfections. They are always willing to challenge themselves and their unproven tactics. For example, if an employee fails to complete a task, they would assume that it is mainly because they picked the wrong man for the job.

 

They manage to make the most of the competencies in their network, they keep learning relevant "best practices" and "design patterns" from their competitors and colleagues.

 

[Translated from a contribution by Jean-Patrick Ehouman]