#WOCinTech Chat
If you saw the title of this post and answered with a resounding “YES!” then you’ve already successfully passed the first hurdle. Believing in oneself is probably one of the most important lessons that anyone could teach you, and if you passed that with flying colors then you are already on your way to becoming a great entrepreneur with years and years of success waiting for you.
Fortunately, if you were a bit unsure or answered with a reluctant “no” due to your past failures, then don’t be alarmed or saddened because everyone fails. Even the most successful entrepreneurs failed at some point in their life. If you’re curious to know if you have all of the necessary skills to become a successful entrepreneur, here are some of the questions you need to ask yourself.
If you’re someone that fails and takes a long time to pull yourself out of the gutter, then you might need a lesson in failure before you take on the big leagues. As mentioned briefly above, failure is important to an entrepreneur’s career. First, it teaches you that no idea, no matter how well planned or executed, is immortal. There are hundreds of factors that may have ruined your idea and it’s important that you understand not every variable is under your control. If you failed once, you gotta shake it off, try your idea again, avoid more mistakes and refine it.
Successful entrepreneurs know the value of good information. If you’re not one to do research and look for help from other people, then you’re going to have a slow and painful road to success. Businessman Steve Voudouris has plenty of tips available and they are all related to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Advice from figureheads such as him is invaluable, and if you aren’t willing to learn from the best then you won’t be nearly as successful as you want to be.
If you don’t want to put in 60-hour work weeks and skimp on luxuries while you build up your business, then you’ve picked the wrong career path. The life of an entrepreneur is behind the desk working hard or in the face of clients and customers striking a deal. There’s no rest for the wicked, and a successful entrepreneur is one of the most wicked career paths that anyone could undertake. If you’re the kind that procrastinates on a regular basis and struggles to get even their day job done, then you need to train yourself before you take on this demanding career.
Will is not the same as passion. If you have the passion for something, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have the will to execute what needs to be done in order to turn your passion into a job. You can be passionate about music, but if you don’t have the will to do what needs to be done and sacrifice luxuries for the sake of growing your brand, then you won’t make it very far as an entrepreneur. You need to genuinely care about the industry you want to take part in, and you need to have the drive to come out on top.
Black and Latinx Founders featured in 'Founding in Color'