Behavioral and

Social
Charasteristics of
the Entrepreneur
What Is an
Entrepreneur?
• The early 19th century French economist, Jean-
Baptiste Say, described an entrepreneur as one
who “shifts economic resources out of an area
of lower and into an area of higher productivity
and greater yield” thereby expanding the literal
translation from the French, “one who
undertakes,” to encompass the concept of value
creation.
WHAT IS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

• Entrepreneurship may be defined as “the

pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources
currently controlled.” An opportunity can be a
myriad of things "a proposed venture to sell a
product or service for which customers are
willing to pay more than the required
investments and operating costs.”
• By that definition, entrepreneurs —either as
individuals or in teams—discover opportunities
throughout their personal and professional lives.
They form hypotheses on ways to deliver value to
customers and perform structured tests to validate
their ideas. This often involves recruiting teammates
through networking and investing funds to determine
how they’ll deliver a product or service at an
acceptable cost.
 10 BEHAVIORAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF
ENTREPRENEURS
 • Successful entrepreneurs have a distinct
personality trait that sets them apart from other
organizational leaders: a sense of curiosity. An
entrepreneur's ability to remain curious allows
1) Curiosity them to continuously seek new opportunities.
Rather than settling for what they think they
know, entrepreneurs ask challenging questions
and explore different avenues. The drive they
have to continuously ask questions and
challenge the status quo can lead them to
valuable discoveries easily overlooked by other
business professionals.
2) Structured • Along with curiosity, entrepreneurs require an
understanding of structured experimentation.
Experimentation With each new opportunity, an entrepreneur
must run tests to determine if it’s worthwhile to
pursue.
 • The nature of business is ever-changing.
Entrepreneurship is an iterative process,
and new challenges and opportunities
present themselves at every turn. It’s
3) Adaptability nearly impossible to be prepared for every
scenario, but successful business leaders
must be adaptable. This is especially true
for entrepreneurs who need to evaluate
situations and remain flexible to ensure
their business keeps moving forward, no
matter what unexpected changes occur.
 • To be successful, an
entrepreneur has to 

4) Decisiveness make difficult decisions and

stand by them. As a leader,
they’re responsible for guiding
the trajectory of their business,
including every aspect from
funding and strategy to resource
allocation.
5) Team Building

• A great entrepreneur is aware of

their strengths and weaknesses.
Rather than letting shortcomings
hold them back, they build well-
rounded teams that complement
their abilities.
 • Entrepreneurship is often associated with risk.
While it’s true that launching a venture requires
6) Risk an entrepreneur to take risks, they also need to
take steps to minimize it. While many things
Tolerance can go wrong when launching a new venture,
many things can go right. Entrepreneurs who
actively manage the relationship between risk
and reward position their companies to “benefit
from the upside.”
 • It’s estimated that 
nearly 75 percent of new startups fail. The
reasons for failure are vast and encompass
everything from a flawed business model to a
7) Comfortable lack of focus or motivation. While many of
these risks can be avoided, some are
with Failure inevitable. Despite this, successful
entrepreneurs must prepare themselves for,
and be comfortable with, failure. Rather than
let fear hold them back, they allow the
possibility of success to propel them forward.
 • While many successful entrepreneurs are
comfortable with the possibility of failing, it doesn’t
mean they give up easily. Rather, they see failure as
an opportunity to learn and grow. Throughout the
8) Persistence entrepreneurial process, many hypotheses turn out
to be wrong, and some ventures fail altogether. Part
of what makes an entrepreneur successful is their
willingness to learn from mistakes, continue to ask
questions, and persist until they reach their goal.
 • Many ascribe to the idea that innovation goes hand-
9) Innovation in-hand with entrepreneurship. This notion is often
true. Some of the most successful startups have
taken existing products or services and drastically
improved them to meet the changing needs of the
market.
 • It’s easy to start a business, but hard to grow a
10) Long-Term sustainable and substantial one. Some of the
greatest opportunities in history were
Focus discovered well after a venture launched.”
Entrepreneurship is a long-term endeavor, and
entrepreneurs must focus on the process from
beginning to end to ensure long-term success.
Recap of four Social
Entrepreneurship
Characteristics
Social Entrepreneurs
are passion driven.

• Social entrepreneurs do what

they like, and because they are
determined to pursue their
objectives in the best way. The
normal working hours is not just
a few hours, is all day. The
passion sometimes leads them
to sacrifice hours of food, sleep
and even parties to change them
for work, because they know that
at a given time when the
business stabilized, it may have
greater rewards.
Ethics is essential for
social entrepreneurship.

• Doing the right things is the

nature of a social
entreprenurship business. The
values are transmitted into and
out of the organization, which it
generates greater confidence
with the stakeholders. The social
entrepreneur’s ideal is the
engine to search for an impact
that creates a better community.
Social Entreptreneurs
understand local needs.

• A social entrepreneur knows

what their community is looking
for, so they will search for ways
to innovate and turn back any
negative condition. Having the
ability to fulfill that need will
enable the entrepreneur to
create a model that generates a
change.
Social entrepreneurship is
about changing the world.

• While it is difficult to change the

whole world, the business of
social entrepreneurs aims to
take the first step in their
community. They know that
someday, their entrepreneurship
may create an impact that can
be multiplied by themselves or
by someone else. In the end, the
important thing is to make a
positive change in the people’s
life.
 The instance for a
successful entrepreneur
who is known worldwide

• Karl Benz - Mercedes

Benz Founder
The Pioneer of the Global
Automotive Industry
• We have first Karl Benz, a German engineer and inventor
who is credited with the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1886,
which is considered the first vehicle ever designed to be
powered by an internal combustion engine. He is credited
with being one of the pioneers of the global automotive
industry. And co-founder of one of the most important
manufacturers in the world. Benz spent most of his live
studying mechanics and even the workings of bicycles.
HOW TO DEVELOP THE
QUALITIES OF AN
ENTREPRENEUR

• Entrepreneurship is both a challenge and a

great opportunity, and it takes certain qualities
to be successful. There’s no right or wrong way
to be an entrepreneur. Characteristics and
behaviors like experimentation, persistence, and
innovation can be developed with time,
experience, and training. As long as you
possess the entrepreneurial spirit, you'll be able
to seize opportunities and overcome challenges
throughout your journey.
REFERENCES
1)Oxford Review
Entrepreneur: definition and explanation (oxford-review.com)

2)Harvard Business School Online

10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs | HBS Online

3) Mercedes Benz – Karl Benz

Mercedes-Benz: Benz Patent Motor Car.

4) 4 Essential Social Entrepreneurship Characteristics (barrazacarlos.com)

5) Behavioral Characteristics Of An Entrepreneur - 1758 Words | Bartleby