Here’s my list
- Passion about a concept
- A willingness and ability to commit to building a business around that passion, including willingness to ride out the rough patches
- Ability to plan well and take decisions – strategy is about making a chose to focus on one thing from among the many choices available
- Ability to articulate your vision and plans, and convince others to join you in the journey – others could be investors, co-founders, early employees, early customers, vendors, etc.
- Ability to learn quickly – being street-smart, being nimble about adjusting the strategy and plan based on what the in-market experiences tell you
- Being flexible and willing to change from original plans – plans don’t work out as planned – they do give you a direction but you have to make changes and adjustments as you implement
- Being structured with your thoughts and plans – being process oriented, though processes may not exist or will be flexible at the early stages
- Being ‘aware’, if not an expert, about the economics of business & finances
- Being a smart and enthusiastic sales person
- Being brave and with the ability to take failures in your stride – failure is a part of many an entrepreneurial journey – failure just means that the rewards and success is delayed and somewhat further away than originally planned
- Leadership: Being able to lead a team, and having the confidence of hiring people smarter than yourself is the sign of a good entrepreneur
- Ethics, value-system, sense of fairness and responsibility are important, as with any other profession
