Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs & Influencers

Optimism & Resolve

Chances are that when you decide to share your views or unveil your grand designs to pursue against the odds or in contrast to conventions, there are likely to be more naysayers or pessimists lining up questions and casting doubts than supporters who earnestly offer gesture towards willingness to assist. So to begin with it is better to be an eternal optimist than look for affirmations and reassurances. As a caveat, although not all optimist ends up a success, chances are that if you are an optimist, success will eventually follow.

The classic case of an optimist is Colonel Harland Sanders, who was fired from a variety of jobs throughout his career before he first started cooking chicken in the 1930s when he was 40 years old, that too during the Great Depression. However, in the 1950s the Colonel was forced to close his business and retire, being almost penniless, but not without hope, surviving on only his $105 monthly pension check. He didn’t give up, and was rejected more than 1,000 times before finally finding his first partner. His optimism and resolve allowed him to franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 62, and become an international icon after he sold his company at 75.

Calmness & Passion

As anyone with many responsibilities to fulfil and roles to play understands, things eventually will go wrong, and you will be reminded of the Murphy's law and dread over it, whilst being in the centre of the storm, with expectations and may be employees , looking upon you to pull you out of this trouble. So at this time it is important to stay calm, and although a tornado might be wrecking up your confidence inside, it is pivotal to hold the fort in front of those that matter and be calm - easier said than done though - and at least masquerade to be in control, and be so self confident or even ignorant enough that you are sure that you will get out of this, even if it takes all that you have.

Calmness and passion is epitomized by Mr Elon Musk who made $180 million when PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002. He invested $90 million into SpaceX and Tesla, but the company as yet were only losing money. In 2008 all felt lost when SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket failed for the third time, and Tesla almost went bankrupt two days before Christmas.

Mr Elon Musk didn’t mean to go down without a fight nor did he show the real trouble he was in, but now he only had about $40 million left. So he made a prudent, well thought out, yet hard decision to put in all his money into the companies to make sure it doesn’t die as he believed in himself and the company. Furthermore, now Mr Musk got divorced and had to borrow money from his friends to pay his rent. Today both his company, although still fledgling as per its potential wonders, is one of the most recognised and Mr Elon Musk’s personal wealth is estimated to be $22 billion approximately. He has already started tests for a trip to Mars.

Innovative & Prudent

Complacency and lethargy has brought great colossus to their knees. Those who refused to shift their emphasis from their core area of expertise or deviate from their beloved product or brand that has paved their way to the top could see a cascading descent to the bottom with enterprising and innovative entities taking over by beating the established behemoths at their game, just played with updated, more flexible rules enabled by technology and inspired ideas of that eureka moment ilk to push aside the status quo.

The pulsating power of innovation is illustrated by the success of the Pulsar brand of motorcycles by 

Bajaj, headed by Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, and salvaged by Abraham Joseph, now the company’s Chief Technology Officer. The mid-90s also witnessed a major shift in the preference of Indian consumers from the trusted scooters to the masculine motorcycles. By 1999, motorcycles had overtaken scooter sales for the first time in the country. Bajaj Auto was caught in a flux and the company was no longer number 1 but was now relegated to the 4^th spot behind Hero Honda, Yamaha and TVS Suzuki.

The Pulsar not only transformed the way Indians commuted, but also changed the DNA of the country’s second-largest two-wheeler maker that till then had been successful but was stuck in the glory of their past laurels like the blockbuster scooter, Chetak.

Other than priming Bajaj to be a major player again in the booming segment, and transforming Bajaj Auto into a respected maker of motorcycles, the Pulsar did plenty more for Bajaj from a branding, reinvigorating an unimaginative delivery line and advertising standpoint. Pulsar was not just a bike for Bajaj Auto. It was a do or die product. It was one single product that virtually saved the company.