20/04/2007 Last week I attended the China Venture 2007 annual conference in Haidian district, Beijing. One of the answers I liked the most, offered by one of the VC’s partners that attended the event, was a reply to the question “what do you think are the most important qualities of an entrepreneur?” The answer was Simple. The initials of Simple convey the following qualities: Smart, Integrity, Mature, Passion, Learning, and Execution.
I totally agree with this observation. Further more, I think it can address not only entrepreneurs, but employees and managers as well. In this article I will regard each quality in general, and in the near future I will elaborate more on each quality.
Smart – A quality I associate with problem solving and creativity. Only by having this quality, can an entrepreneur face challenges and solve them with great success.
Integrity – Already posted here in this column is an article titled “Self Benefit and Self Integrity – Conflicting or Supplementary?”. This is my personal number one quality. I wouldn’t want to have someone that lacks this quality in my team.
Mature – I have met many entrepreneurs lacking in this quality. They can create something new but have no understanding as to how they can make money from it. For me, maturity is the ability to plan for the long run. When interviewing candidates I frequently ask them where they want to be 5 years from now. A candidate’s answer to this question helps me estimate his maturity.
Passion – To my opinion, this quality is number 2. Meeting an enthusiastic employee , I get connected to him instantly. Motivation is one important key for success.
Learning – There is a saying, “if you do one mistake more than twice, you are a fool”. I actually expect to see people do mistakes every day. I would encourage them to try and fail frequently, but then expect to realize they understand their mistakes and improve through their future plans and operations.
Execution –Inexperienced entrepreneurs are always very confidential about their “ideas”, as if someone that would hear it might run to implement it himself in the market. Well, from my experience, an idea is a nice start, but the major key is determination and execution skills. You can beat the toughest competitor if you have the ‘execution’ quality.
Barak Paz-Tal,
Co-Founder, Meijob.com
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