I feel very fortunate to have attended a great conference yesterday for entrepreneurs. The youngest entrepreneur was 18 (he got started when he was 14) and the oldest was…well, considerably older. It was a day that was packed full of great information for those that are just starting the journey as well as those that are already down that road but they want to keep on learning and sharing. Although the ages varied quite a bit, the levels of experience did as well as too did the levels of success. I wondered what qualities did successful entrepreneurs have in common. The complete list is probably quite large but let’s start off with 3 very important ones.

Dreamers – Like the Motley Crue song that starts off with “I’m a dreamer…” all entrepreneurs are dreamers. It’s what we do. If you know an entrepreneur it might be frustrating at times but realize that our society would never have the progress it does without the dreamers. Most people see problems and complain about them. Entrepreneurs see problems and think how they can solve them, improve the quality of life for everyone. Eventually they start to think about how to make money from the idea but that’s never the genesis. It’s always about improving our quality of life and providing value. Some ideas might seem far-fetched and ridiculous and others hit you like hammer and you think “Why didn’t I think of that?”. I listened to Larry Twersky speak at the conference about his vision for his business. Many people thought he was crazy to think that 1-800 Dentist would ever catch on. You probably thought that since you have a dentist down the street, that service would be useless. That became a $50 million dollar business. Most people think that connecting owners, offering an automated service for timeshare exchange, and taking on such a large competitor is crazy too. Maybe we are.

Self starter – You’ve heard the expression “Ideas are a dime a dozen”. Well, I’m not sure they are still that inexpensive but the point is that without follow through on an idea, they really are worthless. How many times have you heard someone tell you that they had this or that great idea. They even had it before someone else. But they never took action. Successful entrepreneurs take action. They understand that it is okay to fail so they might as well get to success or failure as soon as possible. It’s in failure that we learn so much. The worst thing you can do is stand still. Since the world is moving so fast, standing still is falling behind. Failing and failing fast can be just the thing you need in order to succeed. Story after story I heard about entrepreneurs failing and out of failure came the idea or the learning lesson they needed to propel themselves to the next level. Clearly, successful entrepreneurs take action right away.

Relationship Builders – Yes, that’s right, relationship builders. They get out of their basement or bedroom and interact with others. They go to networking events and meet new people. They call prospective customers and ask about problems they are having. Then they ask them if they can solve their problem would they do business with them. They show gratitude when someone helps them. You’ll find out that it doesn’t cost a lot to send a thank you to someone that helped you or inspired you in some way. It doesn’t cost much to offer to help them in some way when they need something. Relationship Builders go out of their way to help people because that is how relationships are built. They ask them about their family and children. They get to know them as a person first and then maybe some day they can do business together. They ask them about their life and they show genuine interest in who they are as a person. Relationship builders know that one of the cornerstones of success is that you can’t do it on your own and so the person who builds the best team will win. And you attract the best people by being a person that those people want to be around; not by just having the best idea. I recently was fortunate enough to meet and get the time of a very successful Venture Capitalist. I made sure he knew how much I appreciated his time and his insight on my business and other areas of the industry like timeshare rentals. I made it clear to him that if he ever needed anything, he should not hesitate to ask me. I mean that.

The Dream Conference was a wonderful event to attend. I learned so much and I just loved being around other entrepreneurs. I love the level of excitement, the level of enthusiasm, and hearing the lessons learned. It’s probably unlikely that every entrepreneur will be successful with their current venture. But with some tenacity it is definitely possible. Oh wait, ‘tenacity’ might be another one to add to the list. We’ll save that for the next article.