Entrepreneurship Consultancy Growthink on 5 Reasons WhyEntrepreneurs Achieve Success

Why are some entrepreneurs able to achieve amazing feats, while most others fail to survive?

Dave Lavinsky is the co-founder and President of Growthink, an entrepreneurship consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink has helped numerous clients develop business plans. Growthink clients have raised more than $2.5 billion from investors. According to Lavinsky’s research and experience working with thousands of entrepreneurs, there are 5 differentiating factors of successful entrepreneurs:

1. Surround yourself with winners

According to Lavinsky, “If you hang out with losers, unfortunately you'll be a loser. But if you hang out with winners, you'll become a winner, because winners have a different way of thinking. And winners --particularly other successful entrepreneurs with whom you should be spending time -- have often already encountered and overcome the challenges you face in your business.”

2. Identify limiting beliefs and overcome them

Limiting beliefs are beliefs that people hold either consciously or subconsciously that serve as obstacles to achieving and attracting what they want. Lavinsky lists the following common limiting beliefs shared by entrepreneurs:

“I don't have enough time to become a successful entrepreneur”

“I can't start or grow my business since I don't have enough money”

“Failure is shameful, and if my venture fails I will be shamed”

“I can't be a successful entrepreneur because I'm lacking certain educational degrees”

“I can't change or improve; I do things my way and that's who I am”

As Lavinsky explains, these limiting beliefs prevent many entrepreneurs from achieving greatness. To become a successful entrepreneur, he says, “You must identify and overcome your limiting beliefs.”

3. Accept the idea of failure

According to Lavinsky, “While you shouldn't dwell on the possibility of failure, you must accept it. If you don't, you may be striving in your business to prevent failure, rather than striving to achieve success. The latter will always help you achieve better results.”

As Lavinsky explains, “Actual failure is never as bad as we think it will be. Research shows that when people fear the worst and it happens, it's not as bad as they thought it would be, and they recover quickly.”

Lavinsky cites several examples of entrepreneurs who failed dramatically and publicly before achieving success. “Milton Hershey, P.T. Barnum, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Donald Trump -- all of these super successful entrepreneurs failed big at one point in their careers and had to claim bankruptcy,” he says.

“I love this quote from Phil Knight, the co-founder and chairman of Nike, Inc. – ‘people only remember your last success.’ Even if you've failed before, or fail again, as long as you end up on top, that's all people will remember,” Lavinsky says.

4. Dream positive

According to Lavinsky, “What you think about in your mind often comes true, so you need to stay positive. For example, rather than thinking about what to do to prevent customers from leaving you, think about ways to better satisfy your customers and get them to tell all of their colleagues about you. At the end of the day both of these thoughts are similar, but framing it in a positive light is proven to increase your chances of success.”

5. Believe in yourself

Often, Lavinsky explains, the biggest barrier to your success is simply believing that success is possible.

“You must believe in yourself if you want to succeed. You can do it. Simply stating that you can do it in front of a mirror every morning for 30 days will improve your belief in yourself. Maybe that sounds hokey to you, but it works, and if you really want to become a super-successful entrepreneur, it's worth doing,” Lavinsky says.

What do you think about the above observations? Although they might seem very generic and obvious, these seem to be the factors that differentiate successful ventures from the rest. Do share your thoughts by commenting below.