Everyone has limitations though, which isn’t always a bad thing. Becoming successful in business isn’t easy, otherwise everyone would do it. Hiring other people who have more strengths than you do can be hugely beneficial for the business. Even still, developing these skills within yourself only serves to improve and grow your business. Let’s look at the values of entrepreneurs so you can take it on board and develop as a person and business owner.

An entrepreneur is someone who organizes a venture to benefit the decision maker as a result of how much of a product or service is produced. An entrepreneur is not necessarily always motivated by profit to measure success or achievement. Although, money does help to make their fame.

If everyone could click their fingers and become an entrepreneur, they most likely would. But, the realities of becoming one are often very far from what people believed in the first place. As an entrepreneur, you’ll deal with a tremendous amount of stress. This includes meeting deadlines and demands, as well as managing your own personal finances and a team. Many entrepreneurs take out a loan from a bank or borrow from friends and family which creates incredible pressure to earn profit to repay your debts.

There’s never really a stage that you can switch off. When things get great, you’ll be pondering over the next idea to make it even better. In most jobs, you can leave your work behind and head home to spend time with friends and enjoy your hobbies. As an entrepreneur, it’s difficult to find this time away from work because there’s always something to do. Essentially, if you stop working, your business will fail and you’ll have several people riding on you to turn it around.

It can be frustrating to be an entrepreneur and not everyone is cut out to handle that. Perhaps there’s friction between staff, or a product you’ve spent years designing has broken. How do you think you’d deal with that level of frustration? There are other things which are out of your control too, such as people cancelling meetings which were detrimental to your business.

Clearly, being an entrepreneur is tough work. Between the pressure to succeed and the necessary drive required to keep up, many who start their own business fail at it. While you cannot control everything, you can develop yourself in a manner that works best to generate profit and success. The values of entrepreneurs are a huge determinant in who rises to the top and who gets left behind. 

If you want to be successful in business, it helps to take a page from the book of those who have already walked the journey. Let's take a look at three of the most influential entrepreneurs and the strengths they exude to grow and develop their businesses.

54-year-old Bill Gates has a net worth of $53 billion due to his influence in changing the personal computer forever. He’s the second richest man on earth, despite ‘failing’ college to pursue a business opportunity instead. As we know, Microsoft become the standard in computer technology and the company now stands at $62.4 billion. Gates is generous enough to share his wealth with causes and charities, including his own organization, the Gates Foundation.

37-year-old entrepreneur Sergey Brin is the co-founder of Google who has a net worth of $15 billion. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. He advanced his education to stay at Standard University for a P.H.D in Computer Science. Here, he met Larry Page, another student studying Computer Science, who went on to also co-found Google.

Steve Jobs was once declared the greatest entrepreneur of all time. There were many personality traits that earned him this title, including his unbelievable imagination. He didn’t just replicate what other businesses were doing, but had visions that would change the way we perceive technology forever. He built his company under the assumption that Apple would change the world, and it certainly did.

Being an entrepreneur is obviously a very rewarding career. The harder you work, the more benefits you’ll see. Let’s take a look at the values of entrepreneurs and how you can apply these personal traits to your own life.

One of the key values of entrepreneurs is being able to trust yourself and others. In order to run a successful business, you must be able to develop trust. This includes amongst employees, investors, and co-founders if applicable. Once you have a trust within the business which has a healthy foundation, there are no limits to where its success can go.

If you can’t trust that people will not share secrets, you can’t completely be yourself or take risks because you’ll constantly be looking over your shoulder. It’s the same analogy as in a relationship. 

It’s difficult to dive straight into trusting others if you have complications with this quality in your personal life. We strongly recommend working on your trust issues before starting a business. If you invest early in trusting your gut, the others and the universe, you’ll attract likewise people.

A sure way to become a trustworthy person is to keep your promises to others and yourself. This is a virtue that’s essential to business, as employees need to know that they can confide in you. Everything you do affects your brand, so consistently get in the habit of asking yourself, ‘how will this decision affect my future?’

This is potentially one of the most important values of entrepreneurs. In order to increase brand awareness, profits and success, you need to be driven to want these things. We’ve all encountered moments in our life when we aren’t interested in our work, or maybe even a class at school. It was hard to succeed and be good at the tasks if we weren’t ambitious about how we were spending our time.

There are two different types of people in the world: Those who make things happen, and those who say they’re going to make something happen. Less talk and more action is how real entrepreneurs are born. You cannot teach or learn ambition, as it is born from a real interest in your work and life. There are certainly no limitations to ambitious people, as they take risks, and aren’t scared to do things out of the ordinary.

Ambitious people are goal-oriented and are constantly striving for the next accomplishment. More importantly, they don’t share these goals with other people. Psychologists have found that sharing your goals with others makes you less likely to follow through with them. This is because when you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge them, and more often, congratulate it, it gives you a sense of pride before you’ve even achieved it.

Being adaptable means that you’re not always stuck in your ways and can ride with the wave. You can adjust your plan when things don’t go accordingly. The business world is full of ambiguity so no two days will be the same. Successful entrepreneurs can think on the spot and adjust their plans at any time it’s necessary. To adapt, you must grow and change what you once believed to be right to a new theory. This is one of the most important values of entrepreneurs, because if you don’t adapt, you and the business will stagnate.

Entrepreneurs take action to solve the situation, rather than dwelling on the problem. Adaptable people don’t necessarily live spontaneously, but have a plan in place should things not go as originally hoped. You should always be open to new opportunities, as well as on the lookout to improve your business, and not just when you have to because something has happened. Don’t remain married to one way of thinking, because change isn’t always a bad thing. When you reach a time to adapt your plan, you won’t whine or complain, but simply get on with things. Don’t play the victim, blame external influences, or hold grudges, but accept, understand and move on.

When you remain focused on what’s productive and healthy for your life, external situations don’t matter. This is an important trait to have as an entrepreneur, as there will always be a reason not to pursue something. If you focus your mind, you can achieve your goals, but if you occasionally shift your focus to people, situations or activities that aren’t productive, you won’t flourish.

Multitasking might seem like a good strategy to get many things completed quickly. However, a recent study found multitasking reduces attention span and memory capacity compared to those who focus on one task at a time. If you find it difficult to focus on one task or a project and instead dedicate too much time to things which aren’t healthy or constructive, you won’t see as many benefits of running a business.

You may wish to try meditating which has been proven to enhance focus and a great deal of concentration. Just 20 minutes a day for four days can help you to focus on the good things in your life which are productive.

Many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs rely on to-do lists to help them prioritize tasks. If you find that your mind easily becomes boggled with all of the things you need to get done, we recommend creating to-do lists and ordering the tasks by deadline.

Being transparent to business and people is one of the values of entrepreneurs which helps them to find success. In today’s world of business, people don’t always know what’s expected of them, or what they need to do either. Being transparent essentially means to be more open towards others, ideas and core beliefs. As a result, everyone is on the same page and there is no confusion.

For those who struggle with being transparent in business, being by thinking how you like to be treated. More than likely, you want consistent values and discipline whilst remaining respectful and honest to others. You must set these objectives clearly with others in order for everyone for the business to thrive.

Be open with employees about the company, with regular meetings for updates. People don’t like to be in the dark, and would rather receive bad news than be living a lie. If there’s ever a problem which affects employees, communicate with them in a timely manner. This isn’t always a bad thing because it can positively impact their work performance.

Whilst working on becoming more transparent, listen to people’s opinions – whether you initially disagree with them or not. By shutting down people’s ideas and not listening to what they have to say, you are perceived as impolite.

Having a clear vision of where you see your business helps you to create a plan which will help you to get there. Everything you do and say needs to have a purpose, and without knowing what the end goal is, you cannot act productively. The vision that you create has to be clear in your head before it’s communicated to others. Where do you see the business in one year? Five years? Ten years? We all daydream and have aspirations, but a vision is more than just a dream or a strategy.

Start by setting appropriate goals for yourself and your team. Setting goals helps you to accomplish things you thought were otherwise impossible. It doesn’t just consist of an end plan, but steps to help you to get there. Consider what supports your notion to help make your vision clear and achievable. Your vision has to be realistic to what you’re currently doing.

If your company’s mission is to become a worldwide chain, but you’re a local business who doesn’t want to hire in-house staff, you may need to re-think your strategy. The same goes for if you’re an accounting firm and you want to inspire people to become fitter and healthier; it simply doesn’t correlate with your current business. Keep it defined within your company vision before solidifying it.

We hope you enjoyed reading the values of entrepreneurs. There are other elements which makes a business and person successful, but we wanted to focus on our favourite six. Great entrepreneurs make serious money, but profit isn’t everything in life. Ensure that you are happy along the way, and celebrate your every triumph – and that of others. Never settle for what you know and don’t be afraid to learn new things and try new experiences. 

What values of entrepreneurs do you admire? Share your thoughts in the comments to keep this conversation going.

Related article: The World’s Youngest Billionaires and How They Made It