The question remains: What makes a good entrepreneur?
Innovative imagination, intelligence, and judgment certainly come first, since there's no point learning how to communicate with the venture partners in the absence of commercial ideas that are worth communicating.
An entrepreneur must also have confidence in his ideas and the self-assurance and personal presence to lead well, to be completely convincing, even inspiring, in the role.
Good business acumen is essential, both for judging overall qualities and for pinpointing specific problems within large and complicated launch issues. A well-trained "entrepreneurial outlook," too, or "mind-set," is very important for studying markets and for "seeing" market gaps just by looking at consumer behaviour and reaction.
In order for a venture partners to feel at ease and confident enough to operate freely and in symmetry, an entrepreneur must also demonstrate a rock-solid sense of outcomes. Market offers must be consistent and steady, operational mistakes rare, and co-ordination complexities handled securely.
A good entrepreneur also possesses a certain physical conviction, or at least presence, which translates into a clear directions and commercially meaningful decisions.
A good entrepreneur must be at ease facing large and complex forces and coordinating their efforts, and he must know how to run an efficient, well-organized launch plan. It may seem a simplistic thing to say, but with a good entrepreneur, both the opportunity and the founding team implementing it should be better prepared after the planning process than they did before.
Like all good innovators, a good entrepreneur must also have a flair for performance, the ability to remain in control and yet bring a little something extra when it counts the most.
"Groups are lead to achievement by good leaders, supported all the way by great leaders but achieve their own success with the very best of leaders" PB
Bad Conductors/Entrepreneurs
... and bad entrepreneurs?
Some are unimaginative or uninteresting, even if they're technically competent. Others are just not very gifted - they have difficulty communicating commercial ideas, either physically, verbally, or both.
Some may even put on quite an extravagant physical show (complete with presentations and graphs that look great in Powerpoints), but without necessarily communicating much that's commercially relevant or useful to the members of the venture partnership.
Other entrepreneurs are unprepared or undependable, and in fact they get in the way. They're uncertain in their directions and decisions, and they make mistakes.
In their market research and modeling they may be disorganized or inefficient, which means they either allot their time poorly or use it poorly. They may mistake little problems for big ones and vice versa, or they may not even notice problems. And when they do notice them, they may not known how to fix them.
Summary - Entrepreneur and the Conductor
The general public tend to see entrepreneurs in a very glamorous light. After all, these people wield authority over lots of other people, over great commercial forces. An entrepreneur stands alone, high on a podium, and calls forth innovative futures with a decree from his mouth. The image is one of great power. In the modern mythology of entrepreneurs, in fact, one of the figures occupying a prominent place is that of the glorious tyrant of days gone by, the business giant who treated venture partners disdainfully, even cruelly. There have indeed been such figures - some of whom left behind legendary reputations and vast commercial empires - and there are those who claim that the tyranny was worth it for the fabulous commercial results; that it was all in the service of great business. But is it really necessary for entrepreneurs to be unpleasant, intimidating, or tyrannical in their behavior toward venture partners in order to achieve the highest standards?
The answer is no, and the number of wonderful entrepreneurs who are, or were, perfectly pleasant and polite proves the point. Yes, entrepreneurs need to be sure of themselves. Any leader needs to radiate confidence in order for others to follow him with confidence and enthusiasm, and the entrepreneur that venture partners tend to respect the most are those who "know what they want and know how to get it."
It's worth emphasizing that the best entrepreneurs respect the venture partners they lead, and are respected by them in return. Venture partners are certainly cynical enough when it comes to entrepreneurs of meager skills, but their cynicism is quickly replaced with enthusiasm and admiration in the presence of entrepreneurs of true stature and accomplishment.
For more on the characteristics of an entrepreneur see link below.
Peter Baskerville
Facilitator, Entrepreneurial Education
TAFE Queensland
http://knol.google.com/k/peter-baskerville/characteristics-of-an-entrepreneur/14j3i4hyjvi88/15#
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