5 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

BY STEPHEN KEY | August 12, 2013|

Image credit: Shutterstock

A decade ago, I helped found a business dedicated to helping entrepreneurs bring their business ideas to fruition. I've mentored and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs since. Many of my students have licensed their ideas to powerful companies or brought them to market themselves through venturing. I've often wondered what differentiates successful entrepreneurs from their peers. Are there

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I've often wondered what differentiates successful entrepreneurs from their peers. Are there certain qualities they share? I think so. But I also think it's important to acknowledge that timing, luck and simply being in the right place at the right time play a part in many success stories.

Decades of personal experience and mentoring have taught me that successful entrepreneurs share these five qualities:

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1. An unwavering passion.
The advice to do what you love has become a bit of a cliché. Everyone says, "Find your passion." But that's easier said than done. Being an entrepreneur demands commitment and dedication -- more than most jobs do, I'd argue. If you're ambivalent or mildly enthused about your product or service, that's not going to sustain you through the highs and lows that will inevitably occur. If you find something you love enough to want to share it with others, that love will fuel and give you purpose.

2. Open-mindedness.
The most successful entrepreneurs I know never forget how much they can learn from others. They ask for advice. They're flexible. They soak up the best practices around them like a sponge. Fear of failure can make it easy to grip onto your vision with an iron fist, but rigidity won't serve you.

3. The desire to be an expert.
Entrepreneurs like a challenge. If they didn't, they'd probably have chosen another line of work. But as exciting as it is to consider a new field, high-achieving entrepreneurs know the benefits of staying in the same industry for a while are immense. When you spend years in the same industry, you learn its history. Knowing what's been done before can help you identify how it can and should move forward. In the meantime, you'll build a network of relationships to support you in future endeavors, especially when times are lean. Those relationships are invaluable.

4. A forward-looking approach.
Successful entrepreneurs are always thinking ahead. They may stray from their roadmap, and that's okay, but they have one in mind. Having a clearly established set of goals will keep you from getting stuck. Your goals may be constantly evolving, but if you don't know where you want to go, chances are, you won't get anywhere.

5. A constant flow of ideas.
Having one project that's doing well is great. But the successful entrepreneurs I know don't rest on their laurels. Instead, they're constantly asking themselves, "What's next?" They understand that being a successful entrepreneur is a lifestyle choice, not a destination.

Embrace these qualities and you will become a better entrepreneur.

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On January 3, 2012, union and civil rights activists marched in Lagos, Nigeria, to protest the removal of petrol subsidies by the government.

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Fuel-price protests in Nigeria: One year on

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In January 2012, Nigerians protested the removal of fuel subsidies
Protests united Nigerians, often divided along ethnic and religious lines, says Omoyele Sowore
But "Occupy Nigeria" failed to become a genuine, sustained mass movement, he argues
Sowore says Nigerians still hanker for their "African Spring"

Editor's note: Nigerian Omoyele Sowore is the publisher of groundbreaking New York-based African news websiteSaharaReporters.com. Follow him at @YeleSowore and@SaharaReporters.

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(CNN) -- Twelve months ago, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan gave his people a bizarre New Year present: he announced the immediate removal of fuel subsidies. The controversial measure meant that, quite suddenly, citizens were to pay as much as three times the usual price for gasoline.

Nigerians were outraged. They filled the nation's streets in protest. The coalition was broad: young and old, female and male, poor and (some) rich. Their action, often spontaneous but orchestrated by labor leaders, amounted to a fierce rebuke to Jonathan's administration.

The government's unilateral decision was a recipe for new levels of extreme hardship for the poor, taxed already by low wages, ballooning unemployment, a high cost of living, shambling infrastructure -- and the Olympian greed of the elite class.

Omoyele Sowore

The protesters quickly adopted the banner of "Occupy Nigeria." They were animated by a global movement of activists standing up against what they saw as economic exploitation and corruption perpetrated by Western governments, often with the tacit encouragement of powerful corporations.

However, "Occupy Nigeria" was different from other "Occupy" movements. There was a good reason for this. Nigeria's activist voice had gone silent for too long. The country's streets had not felt the pounding of mass protests since the mid-90s, when a coalition of student activists, labor leaders, political activists, lawyers, doctors, academics, artisans and other civil society groups meshed into a powerful pro-democracy movement to drive the military from power.

In fact, last January's "Occupy Nigeria" protests were largely heralded and led by young people who were born in the early and mid-90s -- a generation that has come to view and use social media as its primary means of activism, social mores and political empowerment.

In January 2012, that mass movement put the bloated Nigerian government in the crosshairs. It's believed to be Nigeria's biggest ever national mass protest. Apart from its sheer size, the movement managed to endure for days and weeks. And, in some ways, it set some impressive, unthinkable marks.

For instance, some considered it unimaginable that Nigerians (often portrayed as too "happy," too timid and cowardly, too polarized along ethno-religious lines) would unite behind a common cause. Also, it was unthinkable that a mass uprising would start from the nation's capital of Abuja, considered a fortress of the ruling interests. Yet, an intrepid former legislator, Dino Melaye, sparked the protests with a petition drive that ignited a nationwide uprising.

In a country factionalized along ethnic and religious lines, the movement defied all odds.
Omoyele Sowore

In a country factionalized along ethnic and religious lines, the movement defied all odds. In Lagos, for example, a radical fiery Christian preacher, Tunde Bakare of the Save Nigeria Group, anchored the protests. In Kaduna, the protests were led by Shehu Sani, a veteran activist and Muslim of the Civil Rights Congress. His religious faith didn't faze young Christian protesters determined to fight for their rights.

In some parts of the country, the protests seemed far less organized. It was difficult to determine who was in charge in of them.

There was also another novel aspect of the movement. Nigerians across the world also joined the protests to a degree never-before seen. In rally after rally, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, they made their voices heard.

In New York City, Nigerians staged four different actions. The most dramatic was a showdown with a Nigerian minister sent by the Jonathan administration to calm the tempers of Nigerians who felt justifiably insulted by the ill-advised removal of oil subsidies. Her so-called "Town Hall" meeting at a five-star hotel in Manhattan was effectively shut down, and the minister disgraced.

Understanding Nigeria's fuel protest

Nigerian protestor: 'I'm ready to die'

Nigeria unions urge strike over fuel

Nigerians in Australia, Toronto, South Africa, London, Sweden and Accra, Ghana, were soon protesting at the country's embassies demanding change.

But the biggest surprise was the protest movement's peaceful nature, especially at a time when the nation was gripped by violent militant groups and armed criminal gangs.

Despite provocation by the security agencies and police, the protests were mostly civil and peaceful. The only deaths and injuries recorded in Ilorin, Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Kaduna were reportedly inflicted by the police and soldiers unleashed on hapless citizens.

But a year later, it's difficult to argue that the movement achieved its goal. For its size, its failure to compel any serious measures to curb the culture of impunity and corruption in Nigeria is significant.

So, what went wrong? Why did the movement crumble in its cradle?

These questions perplexed several traditional activist groups and NGOs who were busy attending meetings with the government to seek an amicable resolution to the crisis.

One major reason for the quick collapse was the movement's lack of a central command structure. To some extent, it was a leaderless, but not rudderless affair.

As the publisher of SaharaReporters, I witnessed the crystallization of a citizen journalist movement. Many citizens wrote and posted reports of the mass protests. They didn't wait around for their stories to be told in distorting sound bites by the foreign media or twisted by a mostly compromised local media. These citizen reporters sent photos, videos and texts. They tweeted, texted and analyzed every minute of the struggle from all over the country and the world, bringing the integrity of their witness to bear. SaharaReporters kept up its side of the bargain; we published the "field" reports in a timely manner.