Many times, people talk about qualities you should develop for success. But aren’t there things to learn from qualities you already possess, and especially how they can contribute to your success when you take time to identify and enhance them. Consider the 5…
1. Resilience
When faced with difficult problems in your school work, are you one of those students who simply refuse to back down until you have solved them? Even when others tell you to just move on, do you find yourself still pondering over how to crack it in your head? If you answered Yes to both, then congratulations, you are developing a vital quality called Resilience.
This ability to recover from failure is a quality that entrepreneurs need when they face obstacles in their business, and also to bounce back from failure and stand up again when their venture fails.
2. Conscientiousness
Does your report card always read: “Tolu is meticulous with her work, and always pays careful attention to details”? If your answer to this is Yes, then this means you are a very conscientious person.
The reason this is such a great attribute for anyone to possess is that conscientiousness requires patience and commitment even when the task is hard, boring and something you would rather not do. People who are conscientious try their best to avoid mistakes, because to them “anything worth doing at all is worth doing well”, and is most certainly a mindset any entrepreneur who wants to be successful should have.
3. Self-Confidence and Optimism
When others talk about how difficult a topic is or why students almost always fail a particular subject; rather than join them to believe such, do you often find yourself thinking something along this line: “I’m sure there’s more to it than what’s being said”?
Good thinking on your part! Rather than seeing the situation through the eyes of others, you chose instead to reach your own personal conclusions!! It’s not stubbornness, it’s just that you’re confident in your ability to make decisions, and to make the right effort and sacrifices to reach your goals and succeed despite all odds.
This beautiful mixture of self-confidence and optimism are important qualities entrepreneurs should possess, because rather than be distracted and pressurised by the noise of competitors, they focus on what’s more important.
4. A Balanced Opinion of Self
Are you one of those who do not expect perfection of yourself, because you realize that perfection is unattainable? So instead of worrying and beating yourself down over every little mistake, you allow yourself learn from them knowing that you gave that task everything you had.
Knowing this and applying it to yourself helps you pursue excellence, and also allows you forgive yourself when things don’t turn out the way you want because you are clearly aware that if you fail despite your best efforts, you will learn from your mistakes and move on; and that if you succeed, you would have achieved the best result possible.
Such balanced opinion of yourself and your abilities is a healthy one anybody who desires success – whether entrepreneur or not – should have.
5. Courage and Delaying Gratification
Have you ever tried to do something that really scared you because you were unable to fully guarantee what the end result would be – like public speaking, volunteering to be group head of a class project, learning computer coding and so on? Then you are courageous! You believe that “one of the greatest sins is to be stagnant and complacent”, hence you are always pushing yourself to try new things and think differently.
But even more than this, you are also willing to remain on the path you have chosen, regardless of how difficult and challenging it may be because you know the rewards will definitely come, though it may take time. You are a special breed especially considering how most people want the rewards without doing the hard work! But to achieve anything worthwhile, you require time, patience, sacrifices and effort. And having an abundance of these will be your saving grace in life and as an entrepreneur.
Continuing to develop all of these fine qualities and similar ones will serve you well not only in your academic life, but also in your post-academic life. For as Apple Founder, Steve Jobs once said “I’m convinced that half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
