This recent article from Cobweb Information Ltd caught my eye so I thought I would reproduce it for everyone. The one that interested me most was Cameron Johnson, I wonder if there are any accountants out there advising nine year olds on how to run their business?
A US journalist-turned-author reckons there are just eight traits essential to entrepreneurship:
- Seizing opportunities that nobody else has noticed.
- The desire to run your own show.
- Innovative behaviour since childhood.
- Flexibility.
- Doggedness.
- Self-confidence.
- Pragmatism.
- The ability to 'fail upwards'.
The final one, apparently, means that you should be prepared to go under – as long as you take away the lesson of why you failed, and what you can do better next time.
That's according to Brent Bowers, who says: "Some entrepreneurs brag about their bloopers. As one of the experts I talked to told me, they consider making a mess of things practically a badge of honour so long as they take stock of what went wrong and learn from it."
Some of the examples he gives of entrepreneurs showing the eight traits include:
- James Poss, who spent his childhood pulling apart, mending and creating gadgets. He later founded the Seahorse Power Company, which makes solar-powered rubbish compactors.
- Cameron Johnson started in business at nine, selling greetings cards online, then made $1,000 auctioning his sister's toys on eBay, before earning up to $150,000 a day while still at school by selling Internet adverts.
Find out more from Brent's book If At First You Don't Succeed: The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs.
You can also check out some of Cobweb Information Ltd factsheets, which will help you to assess your own personality traits to discover if you could run your own business.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This small business news article has been written by Cobweb Information Ltd, the UK's leading publisher of information for small businesses and their advisers. To get more regular, fresh, practical information and news about starting up and running a small business, go to www.enterprisequest.com.
