The path of entrepreneurship is filled with challenges, and to go through it, entrepreneurs need a set of qualities that help them overcome obstacles. Our mentors, who live closely with entrepreneurship and help our startups every day, wanted to highlight in this interview some essential values that they consider crucial for an entrepreneur to achieve success.
Courage as a fundamental pillar
Undoubtedly, one of the qualities in which our mentors most agreed was courage. According to Miguel Ángel Torres “an entrepreneur must be brave, because they will fall many times and need to keep trying”. Eric Sánchez, in addition to courage, also emphasizes “resilience, tenacity and strong desire”, as entrepreneurship “is not an easy path, but if you love what you do, it is very rewarding”. Diego Camacho agrees, who tells us that for him “the crown jewel of an entrepreneur’s behavior is willpower”. It is the virtue from which others can be generated. The entrepreneur must have an iron and indestructible will to bring their idea to reality. If you add passion to that, you have the perfect marriage”.
To all the above, Chio Díez adds that courage is the most important thing an entrepreneur must have. “Without courage, you can’t walk in the dark” she explains, referring to the fact that without courage, you can’t move forward in the uncertainty that characterizes entrepreneurship.
Related to courage and the desire of being an entrepreneur, is tenacity and persistence. These qualities will also enable the entrepreneur to face the challenges that come their way, in addition to, as Andrés Vidal explains, “an open mind, critical spirit and resilience”
Other values of an entrepreneur
In addition to the qualities mentioned above, there are other fundamental ingredients to add to the recipe for creating the perfect entrepreneur. The first of these is empathy or active listening, two qualities that go hand to hand. Many mentors wanted to mention these elements, including Juan Carlos Márquez, Diego Martínez or Adela de Mora. And among the many people you must listen to, there is your team, another key factor every entrepreneur must have: knowing how to surround yourself with the right people. As Miguel Ánguel Torres explains “you need to know how to surround yourself with a team that complements you because you can’t do everything alone”. Juan Carlos Marquez also mentions that it is necessary to “ surround yourself with professionals who know more than you or, in other words, to attract talent and actively listen to it”.
Another of these ingredients is continuous learning, the desire to keep training to improve. A quality not overlooked by Adela de Mora, who explains that an entrepreneur must "be a talent generator and have a constant and continuous interest in training," or Granada Barrero, who talks about "the ability to learn and a positive attitude."
In conclusion, Alejandro Villarán wanted to summarize the perfect entrepreneur with several adjectives: "growth, contribution, passion, persistence, humility, honesty, empathy, generosity, diligence, and courage." A long list that perfectly captures what our team wants to highlight about what it takes to achieve success.