What Does It Take To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?

A New Study claims to have discovered the “secret” of being a successful entrepreneur. It’s from the Kauffman Foundation a resource I trust on the matter.

In other words, the successful entrepreneurs built on what they already possessed or had acquired through life experience, work experience, and combined it with a willingness to take a calculated risk.

Here are some bullet points from the report:

Nearly all of the company founders surveyed – 98 percent – ranked prior work experience as an important success factor, and 58 percent ranked it as extremely important. Learning from both successes (88 percent) and failures (78 percent) also played a key role in respondents’ current successes. In fact, 40 percent cited lessons learned from failures as extremely important – the second-highest “extremely important” rating.

The company’s management team contributed to success for 82 percent of those surveyed, with 35 percent ranking this factor as extremely important. For 73 percent of the entrepreneurs surveyed, luck was an important factor in success; 22 percent ranked good fortune as extremely important.

The survey also found that:

1. Professional networks were important to the success of their current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks. University or alumni networks, on the other hand, were important to only 19 percent of the respondents. Among Ivy-League graduates, 29 percent placed importance on alumni networks.
2. Only 11 percent of the first-time entrepreneurs received venture capital, and 9 percent received private/angel financing. Of the overall sample, 68 percent considered availability of financing/capital as important. Of the entrepreneurs who had raised venture capital for their most recent businesses, 96 percent considered financing important.
3. Eighty-six percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as important, as compared with 70 percent of the overall sample. Only 20 percent of entrepreneurs and 18 percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as extremely important.
4. Most company founders (86 percent) ranked state or regional assistance as slightly or not at all important.
5. In identifying barriers to entrepreneurial success, the most commonly named factor – by 98 percent of respondents – was lack of willingness or ability to take risks. Other barriers cited by respondents were the time and effort required (93 percent), difficulty raising capital (91 percent), business management skills (89 percent), knowledge about how to start a business (84 percent), industry and market knowledge (83 percent), and family/financial pressures to keep a traditional, steady job (73 percent).