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When passion is combined with an effective strategy, it can generate an unstoppable force. Business visionaries are more than just dreamers, they are practical people who solve problems, recognize obstacles, and know how to deal with failure. Anyone can dream big, but it is only the visionary who is capable of turning big ideas into reality.
We are lucky enough to have many of the most successful business visionaries of all time alive today. This would include big-hitters like Sergey Brin, Oprah Winfrey, and Richard Branson. These inspirational people are the perfect role models to learn from because they have a proven track-record of success. It’s probably not going to be possible to become a carbon copy of one of these visionaries, but it is possible to develop the characteristics that led them to greatness.
Personality characteristics are the traits that make each person unique. Your personality is influenced by your genes, but specific characteristics are picked up and altered as you move through life. For example - if you come from a home where education is valued highly, you are more likely to be a studious person.
The important thing to understand about these characteristics is that you can usually change them. It’s helpful to think of these traits as mental habits that you can unlearn with patience and persistence. This means that you can train yourself to develop the characteristics of a business visionary.
The people who are able to turn dreams into something physical vary greatly in personality and temperament. All of them have their own unique personality quirks, and they’d also probably admit to having some bad habits. There are certain characteristics that these visionaries tend to share and here are just eight of them:
8. Drive To Succeed
“If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out”
Steve Jobs
The thing that made it possible for someone like Sergey Brin to create something new and exciting in the world wasn’t his ability to come up with interesting ideas. If he hadn’t helped to create Google, it’s almost certain that something similar would have been created by somebody else.
Ideas without the passion to make them happen are like cars without gas – they don’t go anywhere. Business visionaries succeed because they have the passion to put in the necessary effort needed to create something real.
7. Clear Vision
Entrepreneurs who don’t have a clear vision can easily be knocked off track. This can mean an approach to business that is unfocused, erratic, and sloppy. If you don’t know where you want to go, how do you hope to get there? It is not possible to be a business visionary without a clear vision for the future.
Your goal needs to be more precise than the vague hope of building a successful business. You need to have targets that are measurable, achievable, and easy to explain to other people.
6. Determination To Do Whatever It Takes
“A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”
There is no big secret as to why business visionaries are able to achieve so much – their success is earned by doing what other people are not prepared to do. Maybe a few entrepreneurs can make an impact from the comfort of a hammock on a tropical island, active only for a four-hour workweek, but this is the rare exception and not the rule. If you are serious about leaving your mark on the world, you need to be willing to work much harder than the average person.
You also need to understand that being ‘good’ is probably not going to be enough to get you where you want to go – you aim should be to become the best.
5. Resilience In The Face Of Failure
All true business visionaries are going to need to deal with significant failure in their career – usually more than once. It is only when people experience things going wrong that they truly get to see if they have the right characteristics to be a business visionary.
Resilience in the face of failure means that these entrepreneurs use this experience as a chance to learn and grow. They can do this because of their insight that mistakes and wrong turns are just part of the journey.
4. Willingness To Be A Team Player
It would be a mistake to look at somebody like Richard Branson and assume that he got where is solely through his own efforts. It is far more realistic to say that he is the public face of a team of talented people who helped him build a successful business.
The benefit of working as part of a team is that it means there is going to be the right people to make up for the skills you lack – if you try to do everything yourself, the results are likely to be amateurish. The characteristics of an effective team player would include the ability to listen, the willingness to compromise, and the openness to have your ideas challenged.
3. Mentally Flexible Enough To Change Course
Effective business visionaries are focused on a clear goal, but they are not inflexible when it comes to the path to this goal. It is easy to take a wrong turn in business, but this doesn’t have to be disastrous, as long as you are always willing to change course and admit mistakes.
Even if your strategy is the right one, you are still probably going to need to make a few adjustments to it in order to get to where you want to go. Many businesses have failed because managers refused to recognize that they had gone off-track.
2. Courage To Act From Intuition
“Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
Sometime you may be faced with a situation where all your advisors are telling you one thing, but your gut is telling you something else. Even if you can’t clearly explain why your solution is the right one, you ignore your intuition at your peril.
This inner-voice benefits from all of your knowledge and experience in life up until now – it is the most trustworthy advisor you are over going to find. Just be careful that you don’t mistake your ego for your intuition.
1. Ability To Inspire Other People
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you can’t get the rest of your team to see the value in your vision, they are not going to be able to fully commit to the project. This is why it is so important to have a clear goal, and you also need to be able to communicate to other people why it is going to be worthwhile.
It is also going to help if you openly express your passion and enthusiasm because these characteristics can be highly contagious. It is worth spending some time writing down your thoughts about how your vision is going to change the world and help other people. If your vision is only about making you feel good, it’s unlikely to inspire your team.