The life of an entrepreneur is coveted for it’s freedom and flexibility, but people often overlook all the hard work that goes into owning your own business. So what are the characteristics that make up a successful entrepreneur?! Check them out below!

1. Tenacity: While great success can come from being an entrepreneur, the antecedent is usually repeated failure. After each failure it’s important to be able to get back up and start over. There is a lot of uncertainty and long hours when starting a business so it’s important to be determined and committed.

2. Passion: With such long hours, and multiple failures, it is important to love the work. It’s a lot easier to spend time doing something you are passionate about than it is to spend hours a day doing something you don’t care for.

3. Vision: There has to be a vision. Steve Jobs had a vision of personal computers enabling people to “think different”. Jobs worked out of his parents garage for years before he became a success. Without a vision it can be hard to keep working through long days.

4. Confidence: Entrepreneurs all believe not only in what they are doing, but also in themselves. They believe in their ability to create and run a business. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, believed in his abilities so much he started an Airline with no prior experience in the industry.

5. Flexibility: The ability to adapt is important if you want your business to survive. Borders did not adapt to the ebook trend and continued to only sell paperback books. The dip in popularity of paperback books, and the inability of Borders to change with the market, eventually caused them to go out of business.

6. Creative: Henry Ford once said “If I had asked them what they wanted, they would’ve said faster horses”. As an entrepreneur, it is important to come up with new concepts that people may not even realize they need.