Entrepreneur top common skills (5) – Persistence and Resilience

I am going to finalize my selection of top common skills with what I have called persistence and resilience.

I haven’t seen a single venture in business that is exempt of obstacles. They will appear sooner or later, in an unpredicted or predicted manner, but it is certain that they will show up.

An entrepreneur is always ready to face difficulties. Somehow the entrepreneur is expecting them. He (or She) develops a sort of “battle mode” that allows a quick and determined reaction against a new obstacle standing between him and his objective. He battles and eliminates the obstacles just to keep going. This is the nature of entrepreneurship: keep going toward the objective regardless of how many trenches you have to overcome.

It has been said that men become great mariners when sailing in troubled waters, not in calm seas. Every venture has a number of storms ready to hit the entrepreneur. These storms will be typically weathered with limited resources but in most of the cases with successful results. The crew becomes stronger and continues the voyage…

Entrepreneurs really become tough people; tough fighters. As a result of all these battles they develop significant strength, self-confidence and maturity.

There is a motto that I learnt years ago which I find inspiring: “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. I have repeated it to myself so many times since I learnt it…

All that said, in some cases the best (and toughest) decision is to turn out the lights and close the doors. Unfortunately this is how many business ideas end up. For those persistent and resilient entrepreneurs that we are talking about this doesn’t mean defeat. It means a great opportunity to learn invaluable lessons. Lessons that will be applied to the next venture.

At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is a lifestyle. It is a mindset. It is about a strong desire to succeed; a compelling reason to keep going.

Next week I am going to start evaluating some of the most common mistakes. I am going to speak about those mistakes that should be avoided in order to be successful in a new venture.

Keep reading!