Not everyone can start a business. According to reports, merely one in ten adults ever engages in entrepreneurial activities, and many of them give up after their first venture fails. This is because people in the modern world are trained to avoid failure and to be afraid of it. Therefore, after a single failure, most people decide that they are not cut out to be business owners, or that the process of starting and growing a business venture is not their cup of tea. However, this risk-averse mentality is exactly what keeps people from becoming successful entrepreneurs and business owners. The people who find success in the competitive and often ruthless business world are those who are the most persistent – the ones who keep trying despite failures and setbacks.
Edgar Gonzalez Santa Ana elaborates on the qualities that distinguish a successful entrepreneur
Mr. Gonzalez is a successful business owner and serial entrepreneur. He has been associated with as many as fourteen companies belonging to various industries over a period of more than twelve years. Many of the businesses he started are still active, and he takes a keen interest in all of them. He believes that there are certain key qualities that distinguish successful entrepreneurs from the vast majority of people who never engage in entrepreneurial activity in their lives. He is of the opinion that with time and effort, almost anyone can learn to think and act like an entrepreneur and a businessman. More than anything else, it is this mindset that engenders sustainable business success.
Some of these qualities are as follows:
- Patience: A successful entrepreneur or businessman must have the patience to set up, launch, nurture and grow a business venture. He must remain persistent and hopeful even when things look hopeless. A successful business is not built on a day, and impatience on the part of a business owner can lead to risky decisions and financial losses which destroy the venture. Edgar Gonzalez Santa Ana says that every overnight success required at least five solid years of hard work and persistence.
- Risk: Entrepreneurs must, of course, be risk takers. But according to Edgar Gonzalez Santa Ana, it is not simply the ability to take a risk that engenders business success. Rather, it is the ability to balance risk with cautiousness. The discernment and understanding to take calculated risks is the quality that would-be entrepreneurs need the most. They must be able to understand the difference between a venture that might lead to high returns and one that is doomed to failure. In that way, they will be able to develop a vast portfolio of successful business and entrepreneurial ventures.
Presently, Mr. Gonzalez is the President and CEO of Usa Photocopy Service Inc., a company situated in the city of Santa Ana in California. The company provides copy services and paperless solutions to businesses and organizations in the state of California. It is a privately held company and a single location business that was established in the year 2002.