What separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest of the pack?  Why do some people spot the lucrative opportunities that others miss?  Here are some offhand thoughts on these questions.

• Entrepreneurs are not afraid of failure.  They are not the people that refuse to try anything “risky” or give up something after the first attempt.  They try, they fail, they try again.  Eventually they hit on something big.  A family friend, Uncle Bill, is a very successful real estate investor.  When he started investing, he bought a rundown duplex apartment.  The tenants didn’t pay the rent and eventually skipped town.  When Uncle Bill checked out the apartment, he discovered that they had trashed the place, complete with rotting groceries and ripped furniture.  Uncle Bill could have thrown in the towel at that point, as he had a full-time job with the government.  But he cleaned the place up, found more reliable tenants, and continued to invest through the years in cash-flow positive properties, eventually moving on to commercial real estate.  He made money, either through appreciation or rental income, on nearly all of his real estate deals, including the trashed duplex.  If Uncle Bill had become discouraged and quit after the first try, he might still be a civil servant, probably bored out of his mind. 

• They don’t waste precious weekend hours watching the Simpsons TV show marathon on cable.  Don’t get me wrong - some downtime over the weekend is needed after a long week at the office.  However, in my desire to become self-employed, I find that my free time is better spent working and progressing on my goals rather than lounging on the couch.  Ross Perot apparently worked as a consultant for IBM while he was getting his business, Electronic Data Systems, off the ground.  Do you think he spent hours watching “I Love Lucy?”  How much time do you waste watching the tube?

• They are not “penny wise, pound foolish.”  In other words, they don’t waste their energy and time on business ideas that cannot turn into a sustainable business or will only make pennies for them.  Several years ago, my husband and I joined a friend to sell used wares at a local flea market.  We split the cost of renting our little booth and sold stuff that we wanted to get rid of, like clothing, books, an old microwave, etc.  We never made more than $75 for several hours of usually hard labor.  When we told Uncle Bill about our efforts, he sensibly said “nobody ever got rich hawking a few dusty, used items out of the trunk of one’s car.”  He told us to make better use of our time and come up with a business idea that would make real money.  Lesson learned.

So, these are just a few thoughts on what successful entrepreneurs might be thinking.  Is there anything that you would add to this list?