I just read a great article entitled, “What Makes a Great Entrepreneur?” over at Venture Beat. As I usually do, I read business articles through my pastoral lenses. In other words, substitute “church planter” for “entrepreneur” and see what I mean.
Here are the highlights:
Guts. The entrepreneur world is not for the timid. You have to have the guts to pull the trigger, to quit whatever you’re doing and to jump into the abyss (and believe me, this is easier said than done). Most people just talk; few execute.
Guts is quitting Harvard, like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did. (Picture that phone call to their parents: “Hey Mom, Hey Dad, I have some good news, I’m quitting Harvard…”)
Desire. How badly do you want success? How much are you willing to sacrifice? Great entrepreneurs make their venture the number one priority in their life; in short, they become obsessed.
Passion. Great entrepreneurs really love what they’re doing and believe they have found their calling. (It’s this belief that makes the isolating factors of desire much more acceptable.) In effect, work turns into play. Rather than dreading Monday morning, they can’t wait to get to work.