If you ever Google “common traits of entrepreneurs,” you’ll find tons of articles on the topic (trust me, I did, and you will). One thing those articles usually don’t mention is that being entrepreneurial doesn’t mean you’re meant to be an entrepreneur. Some people with entrepreneurial traits just can’t hack it as entrepreneurs. In fact, many entrepreneurial types find more success and joy working for somebody else. Wondering which entrepreneurial track you should take? Let’s break it down.
Most lists that cover the common traits of successful entrepreneurs include many of the following qualities:
Sure, it helps to possess these traits if you want to be an entrepreneur but employers looking for employees with entrepreneurial spirits also seek candidates with many of these same qualities. Those candidates are the people that companies hire to build and lead their organizations.
Entrepreneurs go all in, guns a blazing and balls to the wall. NOT pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams is NOT an option. And, the potential risk of losing everything doesn’t paralyze a true entrepreneur like it paralyzes someone with an entrepreneurial spirit who is better suited to working for someone else.
Many entrepreneurs don’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae of things like processes and procedures needed for scalability. They have a vision of what they want to build and simply MUST go after it. As Tren Griffin remarks in his book A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs, “entrepreneurs don’t ‘noodle;’ they do.”
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What many entrepreneurial types—or happy, successful employees—have that successful entrepreneurs usually do not is the desire to drive scalability and aversion to personal risk. They want to build something great and put systems in place that enable a business to scale. However, they prefer that someone else put up the cash so that they do not have to risk personal financial loss if that business (or entrepreneur) flounders or fails.
The stress of going it alone and potentially losing it all is too much for entrepreneurial types to bear. However, these people with entrepreneurial spirits can still build something big and achieve great financial success and personal joy by working for companies that are owned by somebody else.
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Mary Maloney is a freelance writer and solopreneur who has written content for a variety of industries – from wellness to finance to law. After 25 years in the corporate world, Mary decided to follow her heart and launch a marketing business. Mary began working with Terri Maxwell in 2014 and has been blessed to be a recipient of Terri’s wisdom about life, career and business success. When she isn’t writing, Mary enjoys cooking with her husband and snuggling with her Pembroke Welsh Corgi Seamus.
