Entrepreneur or employee?

What qualities should an entrepreneur have? What character traits are needed to create a business venture from an idea and achieve high profits?

Not everyone becomes an entrepreneur. Various studies in the field of entrepreneurship have identified the following entrepreneurial personality traits:

• perseverance, patience, perseverance
• desire to take the initiative
• competitive spirit, desire to get ahead, competitiveness
• confidence in yourself and your abilities
• a strong need to create something meaningful
• good health and excellent physical shape

Age is not a determining factor in entrepreneurship. Most startups are created between the ages of 30 and 59. I will give as an example well-known companies and the age of their creators:

Facebook (20), Microsoft (20), Apple (21), Google (25), Twitter (30), Amazon (30), Tesla (34), Oracle (35), Netflix (37), Zynga (41), Walmart (44), McDonald's (53).

Can a person's psychological profile predict whether he or she will be a successful entrepreneur?

Does an entrepreneur have to be a genius to be successful?

As in any profession, psychological inclination is an important, but not the only key to success. When deciding which path to take and how to build a career - being an employee or an entrepreneur - do some people feel more confident as employees, and some become entrepreneurs? Why? What makes an entrepreneur different:

Ability to be flexible and comfortable in constantly changing circumstances. A salaried employee usually works within a specific function with predetermined parameters. His working day is filled with more or less repetitive actions and in this sense has guaranteed certainty. An entrepreneur, in contrast, does not have clearly defined responsibilities and, as a rule, must deal with different things, must be able to quickly find solutions to various problems and overcome crisis situations.

Ability to motivate yourself. As an employee, you always have a manager who defines your goals and objectives, generates resources for their implementation, and evaluates your work. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. Many people don’t like “bosses.” But one way or another, you get used to being told what to do. An entrepreneur is his own boss. You can't just sit around and hope that maybe some potential customer will walk by your store and want to buy an item, or that someone will offer you a great product to sell, or that someone will show up at your office. and will tell you what to do. For many people who are trying to become an entrepreneur and starting a business after working full-time for a long time, this is the most difficult change in life and habits.

Ability to recognize areas that present opportunities to make money. When you work as an employee, there is always someone else who is looking for these areas and directing you there. In your business, you must constantly monitor emerging new opportunities to earn money and competitors in your market.

Ability to plan. A plan is a map of the area along which you are going to go to your goal. It is clear that when you are going to go somewhere you look at the map, check the weather forecast, make a list of things that you may need. In business, a well-thought-out plan is one of the main components of success. The ability to draw up long-term and short-term plans, the ability to make timely adjustments to them is the most important quality of an entrepreneur

You must be willing to continually put in the effort.. Your business moves and develops based on your energy and the amount of effort you put in. As a business owner, you won't have the ability to delegate your work to someone else or postpone it if you can't find the right employees or one of them gets sick. Particularly a lot of effort is required at the start-up stage, when you need to build a business from scratch.

You must be willing to work under conditions of uncertainty. No one can guarantee that your product will be in demand six months from now, or that your customers will pay their bills on time. Or that your main client, to whom the 70% brings income and who is now absolutely satisfied with your services, suddenly decides not to buy them from someone else. And finally, no one guarantees that you will make a profit this month or next and be able to make ends meet. If you previously worked as an employee and were accustomed to receiving a guaranteed monthly income, relatively regardless of the results of your work, then in your business, such income depends only on you.

You must be able to manage a company. You must know and understand how business works in your chosen industry, be able to select the right employees and motivate them to work productively, understand what motivates your clients and partners, understand how demand is formed and marketing and promotion work, have good knowledge in the field of financial and legal fields.

Finally, you must have a long term understanding the company's development prospects and its growth

Entrepreneurship requires a lot of physical and mental endurance, financial investment and time. There are situations when you should refrain from entrepreneurship. It is not recommended to start creating your own business with your last money, to the detriment of your family and in a state of life stress (loss of a loved one, serious illness, financial difficulties, loss of a job, etc.).

And finally, one more important point. If you are an employee and receive a salary, this is your net profit. When planning to create your own business, think about how much net profit you can get and compare it with your annual salary. If your business plan doesn't allow you to make much more, consider whether it's worth the hassle and risk of entrepreneurship. Maybe in this case it’s worth focusing on a career as an employee?