9 Interesting Characteristics of Successful Self-Made Businessmen

Have you ever wondered how those successful self-made businessmen made it? Have you analyzed those rags to riches success stories? Believe me, such stories not only happen in movies but can happen in our real lives too if we could acquire, develop, and practice some personality traits.

Out of the college as a youngster, I had the opportunity of associating with a handful of successful self-made businessmen. Prior to that, many times I have wondered how they could spin success out of thin air. As I probed for the secret of their success, I was able to find that it wasn’t a single cause but a combination of many personality traits. The reason why I was anxious to know their secrets of success is this: “If you are unable to find a business idea and become successful on your own, try to do whatever successful people did in their initial days of meteoric rise.”

As I delved deep into my analysis, I was convinced that all of those rags to riches success stories had a few personality traits in common. I don’t believe in astrology, and I don’t think neither their astrological signs nor their genes played any role in their success but I believe these are the 9 interesting characteristics of successful self-made businessmen that propelled them to success.

Self Confidence

Believe you can and you’re halfway there. -Theodore Roosevelt

To excel and succeed in whatever you are striving for, you should be confident in your actions. If you can closely watch self-made successful businessmen, you could notice that they have high self esteem and have a tremendous faith in their own abilities to turn dust into gold. The first and the foremost reason for their success is this self confidence. Usually their self talk is about their recent accomplishments that made them happy. Accomplishments further tend to increase their confidence levels. With each winning step, they gain confidence to stretch further the next time. At some stage, it becomes something like snowballing; money makes money. You just have to park money wisely. These people hold their heads high. They believe sky is the limit for achieving, earning, and acquiring wealth; hence they don’t even bother about inheriting wealth or inheriting family businesses. Lack of proper education or business knowledge neither could hamper their confidence nor could be a barrier for them to foray into the real world of business and becoming a success. They believe in manufacturing luck themselves! Have you tried to assess how self confident are you?

Self Motivation

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. -Thomas A. Edison

No one can better motivate you but yourself. Constant self-motivation is another common trait that you can find in successful self-made businessmen. Education can only carve you out and point you a direction to proceed but you need to motivate yourself constantly to excel in whichever field you are. While some people have it naturally, some has to develop it. Successful self-made businessmen are highly self motivated and they dream big. They try to mingle as often as they can with successful people, and as well partner with other people to supplement their weaker skills. You can find them energetic always. They are keen observers. They won’t remain idle at a place for a long time. If you can find them idle, they are either observing something seriously or are thinking deeply. Procrastination and laziness are a no-no. Failures and hurdles can’t make them depressed. They are bound to get out of them quickly. So, where are you in terms of self motivation? Did you try to find how self motivated are you?

Positive Thoughts

Whatever you think that you will be. If you think yourself weak, weak you will be; if you think yourself strong, you will be. -Swami Vivekananda

Thoughts make actions, actions bring results, and results shape your destiny. So your thoughts are the key to your destiny. Your thoughts and attitude matter in becoming successful wherever you are. Self-made successful businessmen have that positive thinking and winning attitude. Positive thinking affects every aspect of your life. Self-made successful businessmen are optimists and strongly believe they will end up executing their plans successfully. If at all any disruption interferes, that is just a passing cloud for them. They view unfortunate events as isolated incidences beyond their control and that the best is yet to come. How about you? Are you a positive thinker or a negative thinker?

Courage

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. -Peter F. Drucker

You need to muster courage to make the changes for achieving the goals you want in your life. The greatest barrier in achieving your full potential is staying within your comfort zone; however, great things happen only when you leave your comfort zone. As against the salaried class who are reluctant to leave the comfort zone, our heroes here crusade discomfort zones with their business initiatives. They are not fearful of losing a meager income while aiming a big target and trying something new, the usual problem of a common man aspiring to foray into business. I have seen even some sacrificing a decent job and a good pay while pursuing their dream business. They have a strong desire for independence. They don’t have the fear about life but they take life as it unfolds.

As far as I know, mostly successful self-made businessmen are calculative, money minded, profit motivated, and measure every act in terms of money. Hence they have the propensity to take calculated risks. So they don’t view risk as the same way that we do. Usually the problem with self-made businessmen is the seed capital at the budding stage, and only debt could be the solution for bringing in capital immediately. However, our heroes are not fearful of going bust taking huge debts, the usual fear of employee mindset people. Our heroes are very much calculative in taking debt as well as repaying them. They have a different view about money. As far as I have seen, they don’t carry wallets with them or carry money in wallets! They don’t limit themselves with the limited money that can be carried in wallets! If you look at all of the self-made successful businessmen, they have one strategy in common: They planned well and took enormous risks. So, how do you rate yourself with relation to your personal finance and investing behavior? Are you a fence sitter or are you a risk taker?

Determination

Determination is the key to success. -Anonymous

Successful self-made businessmen have hugely ambitious financial growth targets. If you break up the anatomy of determination, you can find that determination is nothing but a combination of sheer willfulness, discipline, and ambition. Even though the smartest people on planet earth may be willful and disciplined, practically they are ought to lack ambition. That means intelligence is less needed in becoming successful in the business world but what is needed is willfulness and discipline fueled by ambition. A business being run by a determined entrepreneur has the capability to beat any kind of competition in the market. So our heroes here are determined to succeed because of their ambition. Note that if you’re trying to achieve, there will definitely be road blocks. But obstacles will not stop you if you are determined and ambitious. Are you determined to succeed?

Perseverance

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. -Thomas Fowell Buxton

Perseverance is another remarkable trait that has played a major part in the success of successful self-made businessmen. Almost all of them do not have an overnight success story but hanging on persistently to their chosen path has brought them success. It isn’t that our self-made successful businessmen do not make mistakes. They believe that wisdom helps to avoid making mistakes; however, wisdom comes from making a lot of mistakes! The ability to make decisions, sometimes quickly, is a key component here. In do or die situations, self-made, successful businessmen are able to take decisions instantaneously considering all the factors. They think independently. Then they exhibit remarkable perseverance in sticking to their decisions. Whatever the obstacles and criticisms are, they stick to their decisions. Winners never quit; quitters never win!

Passion

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. -Confucius

If you analyze successful, self-made businessmen, you could notice that they are working smart but are not working hard. Most of them may not have any business management credential but they indulge in the business that they are passionate and prideful about. They don’t feel being at the driving seat as a burden or a compulsion but rather derive joy out of their actions. If you are not enjoying whatever you are doing daily, you are not going to make it up to the last mile. Do what you are passionate about and money follows! How about you? Are you passionate about what you are doing now or are you doing it out of the compulsion to earn money? Have you been able to find the business that fascinates you the most or are you yet to find what you are passionate about?

Dedication

Do one thing at a time, and while doing it put your whole soul into it to the exclusion of all else. -Swami Vivekananda

Self-made successful businessmen are dedicated in shaping up their own destiny. They are hellbent to make their business success, nothing short of that. To achieve that, they have clear, time-bound goals. Without clear goals, dedication, lack of action to reach those goals and deadlines, success can be elusive. Their thoughts would be focused on to plans to expedite the next accomplishment. Furthermore, they exhibit some superb leadership skills in motivating and steering people toward a common goal. Our subjects here don’t believe leading a 9 to 5 life working for someone else. They just don’t like working for someone else but rather would think how they can employ others. They just control things and shape up their own destiny! So, are you a believer in destiny or are you the one who is dedicated to shape up his own destiny?

Opportunism

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -Winston Churchill

One of the prime reasons for success is being at the right place at the right time with the right set of talent and skills and exploit the prevailing opportunity. Besides being at the right place at the right time, to be successful you need the capability to identify the existing opportunity. As I said earlier, our subjects have positive thinking and their optimistic trait helps them find business opportunity in every tough situation, identify every unrecognized need, and they exploit such advantages. They love challenges rather than cursing them. They have an opportunistic mindset and are always prepared to take advantage of every needful situation. Chance favors the prepared mind!

Bottom line

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness. ― Alejandro Jodorowsky

Business and entrepreneurship are not for everyone. However, neither do you need remarkable intelligence nor do you have to know everything about business to become a successful self-made businessman, but all you need to have is a combination of all the aforementioned millionaire traits. Our subjects here are neither god men nor do they have a magic wand. If they can do it, you too can do it? Why? Because the privileges and the pride that you enjoy in the society as a successful businessman are enormous that can’t be expressed in words as opposed to remaining an employee. You cannot ride on a donkey to the speed of a horse!

Similar to have been born in a cage, may be you are a child of orthodox parents who didn’t care to teach the kids about money, financial independence, and business right from the childhood or may be you are an employee now. However, it shouldn’t hinder you from foraying into the business world and flying high. All of the traits that we discussed above are interlinked. You too may have noticed some of these traits in you; however, the remaining traits too can be acquired or developed with due diligence. Your employee mindset and the fear of losing a peaceful income might be holding you back from foraying into the business that your inner mind keeps telling you to give a try. I am a firm believer that traits can be acquired with dedicated effort. I too am trying to cultivate in myself whichever traits that I think I am missing from these. Should you be able to develop all these traits in yourself too, you too should be able to become a self-made successful businessman one day. Stop living a life in a cage locked on the inside looking out. Unlock the cage and fly high.