If I tell you to picture a successful entrepreneur – what comes to mind?
Most people think of the outliers, like Zuckerberg or Musk or Jobs, that never experience laziness because they’re the most memorable.
But they’re not what makes up the bulk of successful entrepreneurs – not by a long shot!
With every business-based Hollywood film further distorting our image of entrepreneurship, many people have lost touch…
What is takes to become a successful entrepreneur has never and will never change.
The numbers don’t lie.
Here’s a double-dose of infographic with the facts on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur – you might be surprised!
The one thing that really jumped out at me was that nearly half of all successful entrepreneurs weren’t even considering that path in college – I wouldn’t have guessed that!
Let me know what jumped out at you in the comments below – or share these bad boys around if you really want to help me out 😀
Either way, thanks for reading – hope you learned something valuable!
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66 Comments
This is a great info but there are a number of typos and grammatical errors that need to be fixed.
Faith in God as a factor of success? I didn't see that one coming...good show!
Good eye! I'm just noticing a few myself - feel free to point some out for me :'(
Yea, that was a surprising one for me too. Shockingly common!
That super post and infogrpahic just had to be tweeted about! Keep up the good work
Haha, thanks for the social-love Dom! Glad to hear from you, long time no talk - hope your business is doing well :)
Consider me shocked!
Apologies if I missed this in the article, but what's your definition of "entrepreneur" for this infographic? People who started a business? Americans who started a tech company? People starting Silicon Valley based companies? I can believe the bit about not knowing they wanted to be an entrepreneur until college. Although I always had the personality for it, I didn't have any desire for it until I got my first real job.
My bad, I left that out! I took info from a few sources on this one - "A team of researchers led by Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, Raj Aggarwal of the University of Akron, Krisztina Holly of the University of Southern California, and Alex Salkever of Duke University surveyed 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics, and health care." And we also pulled data from a similar surveys. I was surprised to see that - I definitely can't imagine putting in 10 or 20 years before making the move. I can see where you didn't want to be an entrepreneur until your first job though! :)
There is some great information here, Will. I think what this infographic really showed is that there is not a one-size-fits-all formula for entrepreneurial success. Good stuff!
Nice infographics! I have been working on a few myself, what did you use to create them?
You're right there, a lot of it is split right down the middle! Hopefully that will help break down some barriers for people...
Thanks, glad you liked them! I hired a designer who does infographics, feel free to email me and I can put you in touch.
530,000 new businesses a month in the U.S.?? Wow, pretty soon no one will have a regular job! Nice Article
Awesome! You could probably end up making them yourself. I have been doing mine myself, but they take forever, I was just curious if there is a better design program than Illustrator to use.
Yep, and that number is rising every year! Too bad 3 out of 4 fail, but that doesn't mean the entrepreneur continues to fail...
I think Illustrator is what my guy uses as well. Feel free to share an example! I'm not much of a designer, but I was thinking about taking a Udemy course on it. We'll see if time permits :)
Positive comment with nothing to do with this article: Subscribing to your website was one of the best subscriptions I have ever made. I love how you sparingly sent your emails and whenever you do, the article that is linked is always very value adding. Thanks start-up bros, I really appreciate your website!
Thanks a lot for this comment, is it cool if I print it out and hang it on my wall? :-D Seriously though, thanks to you and everybody else that touches this site! Every email I send out is nerve-wracking for me, I try my best to provide value when I bother people. So that really means a lot to me!
I too would love to get better at designing and the programs! If you want check out my last project: http://www.welltraveledmile.com/comparing-airline-business-class-award-charts-which-offers-the-best-value/