When one hears the word entrepreneur, many faces come to mind. Elon Musk, Sara Blakely, Warren Buffet, Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, and Daymond John are just a few that might spring to mind. There are a variety of traits that characterize entrepreneurs such as having an entrepreneurial spirit, being independent, and embracing failure. An entrepreneurial spirit is a mindset that embraces innovation and continuous improvement. Being an entrepreneur also requires the desire to work hard, take risks, and pursue one’s passions.

Entrepreneurs have the ability to identify gaps in the market. That was the case with entrepreneur Vera Wang.

Wang started working for Vogue magazine at the age of 22 and became the fashion editor by 23. Later, she was the design director for Ralph Lauren, a luxury American fashion company. With extensive experience in the fashion industry, she recognized an opportunity to introduce sophisticated, dramatic, feminine, and modern bridal gown designs. She opened her own boutique which quickly became popular, attracting celebrity clients such as Kate Hudson and Victoria Beckham. Wang, who continues to design iconic wedding dresses, has a net worth of $650 million.

Entrepreneurs think creatively and bring new perspectives to the table. This can be seen with Google’s cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The two worked on a research project at Stanford University called BackRub.

They created a search tool that ranked websites based on the number of backlinks they had (i.e., links to websites from other websites). At the time, existing search engines ranked websites based on how many times a search term appeared on the page. This advanced algorithm led to Google. Within its first five years, Google had more than 18 million searches a day.

Successful entrepreneurs have a desire to pursue their passions. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, developed a love for programming at an early age. When he was 12, he created a messaging platform he called Zucknet for inter-office communication at his dad’s business. Microsoft even tried to recruit Zuckerberg as a result of his Synapse music player, but he declined so he could attend college. While in college, Zuckerberg developed several programs including CourseMatch, FaceMash, and Facebook. Facebook now has nearly 3 billion users.

Entrepreneurs have to be willing to work hard. Mark Cuban, an American entrepreneur, television personality, and the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, has an estimated worth of $4.3 billion. Cuban showed a willingness to work hard from a young age, selling garbage bags at the age of 12 so that he could afford basketball shoes.

After college, Cuban founded MicroSolutions, which he later sold for $6 million. Cuban says he worked 20-hourdays and didn’t take a vacation for seven years. Not long after, Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, an online streaming audio service that was acquired by Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock.

Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, took a big risk when he was a student at Harvard University. When the world’s first personal computer kit, the Altair, was created, Gates and his friend Paul Allen contacted the manufacturer about having written a computer language for the microcomputer. In reality, they were far from ready.

When the president of the company returned Gates’ phone call, he and Allen worked day and night to convert BASIC, a popular mainframe computer programming language, for use on the personal computer.

There are millions of entrepreneurs in the United States alone, but having an entrepreneurial spirit is not enough to guarantee success. Unfortunately, there is no perfect formula.

But having the right mindset and traits can go a long way. Do you think you have what it takes?

Questions

1. Describe what it means to have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Use one of the entrepreneurs mentioned as an example.

2. Why is it important to be able to identify gaps in the market?

3. Aside from the traits discussed here, what other personal factors do you think contribute to entrepreneurial success?