Top 5 Entrepreneurial Qualities That Will Guide Us in the Post-Pandemic Paradigm Why entrepreneurs are going to be the ones who bring us to a new level of prosperity and abundance.
By Andrea Albright Edited by Chelsea Brown
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
This global pandemic has caused a worldwide disruption. No industry or sector has not been affected. We are humanity. We are a race of humans. We are no longer protected as a bubble, and we need to start thinking as a worldwide community of humanity. While this can be seen as disastrous, there are also huge advantages that have burst into existence. A few people in our society have unique abilities to guide us out of it, and those people are entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs are less than 5% of the world's population. They're rare, but they are fundamental for human society to evolve. Recovering from this crisis, leaders emerge. While most people are in a state of shock, this is the time when entrepreneurs get busy.
Entrepreneurs are going to be the ones who bring us to a new level of prosperity and abundance, because entrepreneurs have specific qualities that 95% of the rest of the world population doesn't have. Here are the top five entrepreneurial qualities that will guide us in the post-pandemic paradigm:
1. Entrepreneurs thrive on risk
The word "risk" is so scary to most people, because they think being risky is stupid. To the other people, it looks like they're crazy. But entrepreneurs thrive on risk, because they know that's where the challenge and the obstacles become significant enough to pay attention. Entrepreneurs have most likely lived their entire lives being told they are dreamers, unrealistic and take too big of risks.
Entrepreneurs also thrive on risk, because that's when their most extraordinary ideas come forward. That's where they find strength inside themselves to dig deep and find something inside they never knew existed when they were in a state of mediocrity, for the entrepreneur who has built their entire career taking risks.
Entrepreneurs are immune to risk, and they build up this muscle over time, which makes them stronger. And because they've been doing it for so long, in this new world where there's no safety and security and nothing is the same, the entrepreneur is coming alive. This is where they find the magic.
There is no entrepreneurial journey without chaos. Every entrepreneur has gone through a disaster and lived through it. You don't have that awareness if you've lived a safe and protected life built on playing it small. You don't have the experience of knowing that not only are you going to survive, but what comes through the other side of chaos and destruction and everything being annihilated is that you grow back stronger. Entrepreneurs do have that experience and awareness, which results in more wisdom, a greater sense of self and the ability to play a bigger game. They can take even more significant risks.
Related: All Successful Entrepreneurs Share These 4 Qualities
2. Entrepreneurs are solution-focused
When the world sees problems, entrepreneurs see solutions. They can create the products and launch the businesses that innovate our society. The pandemic has brought devastating consequences to the average person and challenged the very nature of their belief systems. Entrepreneurs see this as the most fantastic opportunity to innovate, disrupt and evolve their industry forward. Every breakdown is an opportunity to build something more substantial, faster, leaner, tighter, more resilient, more flexible. It's their chance to make an improvement to enhance the current model.
3. Entrepreneurs want to make an impact
Whether it's something we were born with or something we learned along the way, entrepreneurs are obsessed with making an impact. From how they plan their day to how they launch their businesses, they understand that the most outstanding value comes from the depth of connection you share with others. That is accelerated in their products, services and solutions.
To be a successful entrepreneur takes so many skills. You have to be a great listener and a great communicator. You have to be both innovative and also systematic. You have to be a people person, and you also have to love math, data and science to see the numbers.
Entrepreneurs are stretched in all these directions, yet that gives them the most significant perspective. Unlike someone who only has one skill or one development area they're a genius at, entrepreneurs have a 360-degree perspective.
Through this trauma and conflict that is happening on a global level, entrepreneurs can see all dimensions of it — all aspects of how humanity is being affected on a personal, financial and systemic level. That ability to see all of it is what will make entrepreneurs the leaders who can not only solve problems and create businesses, technology and products, but also inspire humanity, because humanity is looking for leaders to follow.
Related: 3 Leadership Lessons for Entrepreneurs Who Crave to Make an Impact
4. Entrepreneurs can be visionaries
Entrepreneurs have this rare and exceptional ability to see into the future. Why is this such a valuable asset and quality for this time? The ability to see into the future, see what has not happened yet and then build backward, will define the products, services, solutions and businesses that last beyond the test of time.
Being a visionary can create feelings of isolation; many entrepreneurs felt alone and misunderstood because their vision of "what's possible is not here yet." It's hard to be able to have a vision and also see the possibility of how your solution can solve the problems humanity is facing. The entrepreneur sees it so clearly, yet others don't see it until it's created. And so, it can be a very lonely place for many entrepreneurs. Yet, the ability to see into the future is, I believe, part of humanity's evolution and humanity's way of staying alive. If you have this gift of being a visionary, it's more important than ever to tune it in, keep it alive and stay focused, because you are our survival. Without the visionaries of the world, we won't make it out.
5. Entrepreneurs despise safety and security
Safety and security are like kryptonite to the entrepreneur. If you are safe and secure, you are sacrificing a part of your spirit, which will always be wondering "what if?" Entrepreneurs choose to dance in the land of the unknown, for it is there where we feel alive and where our creative juices flow.
It's a hatred of safety and security. Entrepreneurs despise it and can't be in this safety cocoon. The safety and security games that most people are playing are like a slow, painful death to the entrepreneur. It's like a death by 1,000 paper cuts, because you are not only denying your gifts, but you are choosing to buy into what you know is an illusion. For the entrepreneur, the most significant safety is investing in ourselves. The most outstanding safety is knowing that you can not only survive but thrive under any circumstance, under any economic condition, in any presidential or political change and even in a global pandemic.
As an entrepreneur, all of these qualities have allowed me to see opportunities where other people have been playing it safe, which is why my company is disrupting the $100 billion publishing industry. You're already a publishing company with billions in revenue; you're so big, you can't innovate. You can't change, and you don't see how the market changes. It's like the Titanic; even though you know that the iceberg is ahead of you, you're too big and can't turn the ship. Such an entrepreneur like myself can be a speedboat. And with these qualities, you can be elegant and fast, find solutions and deliver higher quality value to your market. You can evolve your industry faster than any corporation, because of all the bureaucracy and the red tape it takes to get anything done in those vast organizations.
Related: 5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Risk-Taking
These qualities have not only created entrepreneurs to be the most resilient, the most dynamic and the most empowered, but most of all, entrepreneurs are the most capable of leading us forward. They're the most capable of succeeding under the most challenging circumstances, not just for themselves, but also for their company, their customers or clients and even their industry. This is why entrepreneurs are the beacon that will move humanity forward during this post-pandemic paradigm.
