Top Characteristics Of Successful Entrepreneurs

I’ve mentioned the Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs in the past. You can also read them in my eBook, available here.

Larry Levy, Levy Restaurants and Larry and Carol Institute for Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management

Today I’m sharing a similar characteristics list from another great entrepreneur, Larry Levy. I had the tremendous opportunity to meet Larry in Chicago last week at the KelloggSchool of Management. 

Larry and his wife, Carol Levy, are highly successful 
entrepreneurs, both independently and together. Jointly, they are also behind the Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice at theKellogg School of Management as well as Kellogg’s Social Entrepreneurship Lab.

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Needless to say, Larry and Carol are my kind of entrepreneurs. I enjoyed the meeting immensely. Here are Larry Levy’s top five points of advice for potential entrepreneurs. Clearly he and Carol have both applied these ideas exceptionally well:

• Learn from your mistakes, and then never make them again.
• Be prepared emotionally for entrepreneurship’s ups and downs.
• Be willing to live with fear, risk and occasional failure.
• Understand, nurture and refine your vision of the enterprise.
• Line your business up with your passions.

And here’s another list of top entrepreneurial characteristics from last week’s Spotlight on Entrepreneurship Summit event, from the summit’s chairman, William (Bill) Zinke. Also shared in one of his recent columns for Huffington Post, Bill Zinke proposes the following top characteristics list:

1. A commitment to purpose with passion
2. Courage/willingness to take risks
3. Positive attitude, opportunistic
4. Strength of character/fortitude
5. Integrity/authenticity
6. Ability to engender trust/confidence/respect, to develop credibility
7. Vision/ability to see things as they might be and to anticipate change
8. Self-confident, assured
9. Dedication/commitment
10. Self-starter/proactive
11. High energy level
12. Creative/innovative spirit
13. Decisive/results-oriented
14. Leadership skills
15. Team building/teamwork abilities
16. Clarity/consistency of thought
17. Resourceful/resilient
18. Tenacity/perseverance
19. Flexible/adaptable
20. Strength in concept development/implementation
21. Broad knowledge base in critical areas/”knowing what you don’t know”
22. Ability to accept rejection and turn failures into learning opportunities
23. Open minded and willing to listen to others’ views
24. Strong negotiating skills and ability to develop win/win results
25. Ability to create strategic alliances/understanding of leverage

Thanks to both of these fine gentlemen. I welcome your comments as well on the top characteristics you are striving for or have found to be most beneficial in the development of your own entrepreneurial career.

Jody Holtzman, Senior Vice President, Thought Leadership, AARP

As for the Spotlight on Entrepreneurship Summit for Baby Boomers I’ll be presenting again next month on November 15, 2012 at the University of Denver.  I’m especially excited to share that agenda with another tremendous individual I’ve had the opportunity to meet this week in Washington, D.C. – Jody Holtzman, the Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership for AARP. Jody is a true businessman and an entrepreneur who is responsible for the Life Reimagined andWork Reimagined initiatives within AARP. I look forward to working with Jody on many programs in the seasons to come.

I invite anyone who can make it, particularly those who are prospective or current Baby Boomer entrepreneurs, to join us in Denver on November 15. If you can’t make it—watch this space for coverage I’ll provide from the event.

As to the top tips and the top characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, have Larry and Bill raised the right issues? I welcome your thoughts. You can connect with me here, at @AskAlanEHall, or at my personal website,www.AlanEHall.com.