 Many entrepreneurs believe that the essential factor for determining their level of success is their overall experience and skill in the niche area. However, the most successful entrepreneurs are lifelong learners who develop a set of skills that have helped them reach their goals. In this video, I will share with you 9 important skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur. 1. Resilience The reality of life is you are going to fail, not once or twice, but a lot of times. However, if you want to be successful, you have to be able to look at these failures as learning experiences so that you can correct them, execute and move on. Sir Whistlin Churchill once said, success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. An entrepreneur who desires to be successful must be able to accept failure as a part of life, which is necessary for growth and advancement. Your ability to stand up after every knockdown determines how far you will go in your entrepreneurial journey. Thus, while something drastic will be too much for most people to handle, an entrepreneur has to build the uncanny ability to get up and dust themselves off. 2. Money management No doubt, finance is a vital force behind every aspect of life. Even though you are the finest and most sought after in your field, without robust knowledge in financial management, your business will not last long. As an entrepreneur, aside from getting the necessary hard skills, team and other sought skills to build your business, you still need to seek financial literacy. Also before you venture into entrepreneurship, ask yourself, do I earn more than I spend? Am I able to make budgets and stick to them? Do I know where my money goes each month? If the answer is no to both, you will struggle to manage your business's money, because a person who is unable to handle his funds will not do any better with his company's funds. Well, you may decide to hire smart financial managers, but that is worse because your lack of knowledge will make it easier for a lousy financial manager to steal from you. Hence, getting financial skills is paramount. 3. Networking The University of Cambridge Judge Business School asserted that networking is possibly one of the essential skills for entrepreneurs. Networking involves building and maintaining contacts and relationships with other people. The personal networks, which you accumulate over time, both socially and professionally, can be an invaluable resource for you and your business. For your business to grow, you will need to know how to network with potential customers, partners, suppliers and other individuals who do the same thing you do. Networking allows you to hang out with fellow entrepreneurs and clients who are interested in using your product or service. By doing so, you will be able to understand firsthand how your product or service is doing in the market and get valuable feedback as well, which can aid you to improve. Networking also opens you up to new business opportunities and collaborations, which you wouldn't have considered on your own. 4. Negotiation Almost everyone negotiates informally daily, without even being aware of it. Formal consultation is a skill that can be learned through experience and practice. People who consult frequently tend to be more skilled at it than people who have not participated in many formal or informal negotiations. These people are more likely to know what to say, when or when not to say it, or make consentions. The key is to understand how to develop a win-win approach in negotiations with all parties, while at the same time keeping in mind that you also want to obtain the most favorable outcome possible for yourself. A successful entrepreneur is someone who has excellent communication skills for selling the products to customers and motivating the employees. Yes, most entrepreneurs who have the power to motivate their employees can see their business grow within no time. These entrepreneurs are also great at instructing others to be successful and highlighting the advantages of any situation. Negotiation skills are made up of other skills like emotional intelligence, observation, social ability, etc. 5. Curiosity Even though interest may seem like a latent ability, just like every other skill, it can be learned. The fact is that every human is curious. You have to be in the path that stares your curiosity. It is often said that curiosity kills the cat. However, ignorance is living like you are dead. Would you rather die for a cause or be alive and yet not leaving? Well, don't worry, no one is dying. By their very nature, entrepreneurs are always looking for new ways to do things. Better ways to solve problems and better ways to reach their audience. Curiosity instills the eagerness to learn and explore in the entrepreneur. Also, as you develop the skill of interest, your ability to communicate effectively will improve, allowing you to support others in achieving what they want, while you make what you want. However, curiosity is a mental muscle and just like any muscle in the body, it needs to be exercised regularly to stay healthy. A successful entrepreneur is one who can develop the skill of curiosity consistently. When curiosity lags, you become more likely to stagnate and so does your business. 6. Brand-In When you google yourself, what pops up? These results have the first impression people will have of you. If nothing pops up as an entrepreneur, then you are still far behind. Whether you know it or not, you have a personal brand. According to the balance, the competition for relevance in today's business world is more than ever a competition. Thus, the new currency is your brand. The overarching message about yourself is gleaned from your online presence, professional reputation, circle of influence and the trust you command from peers, followers, customers, employees and the general public. According to Amazon founder and world richest man, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is famously quoted as saying, your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. So if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you must be able to meet your skills and talents together to form a brand and be able to send that message to your potential client in clear terms. 7. Strategic thinking Strategic thinking is a vital business activity. Strategic thinking involves making a series of decisions about what actions a company intends to take to become more successful. It is a process of defining your company's strategy or direction and making decisions on allocations of resources of capital and people. The primary reason for strategic thinking is to know how to protect your company's future performance within a 3-5 year framework or more, supported by your well-defined business plan. One entity composes a problem to its core and reveals growth opportunities. Figuring out creative solutions and identifying the low-hanging fruits are all aspects of strategic thinking which every ambitious entrepreneur must adopt. Also, at the heart of strategic thinking is the ability to anticipate major shifts in the competitive marketplace and identify emerging opportunities. In the words of innovative corporate global executive Pearl Zhu, strategic thinking is about uncovering all the options and thinking long-term. 8. Effective recruitment A practical part of building a team is to identify and understand your weakness. While you may wish that you could clone yourself, you have to be willing to let go and rely on other qualified people. With a great team comes great success and with new strengths and skill sets, you can develop a culture that thrives while adding tremendous value to your business. Creating a culture where people who share the same passion want to be is a must-have skill for an entrepreneur who desires to be outstanding. A successful entrepreneur is one who knows that he alone cannot get everything done, who acknowledges the need to hire people who have the right skills for the job and also recognizes the importance of hiring people who have a positive attitude towards work. 9. Self-discipline American Canadian former professional boxer, actor and businessman Dwayne Johnson once remarked that all success begins with self-discipline. It starts with you. The most successful entrepreneurs in life are disciplined. Discipline is made up of the essential tools needed to cope with life's problems, challenges and temptations. Disciplined entrepreneurs always focus their energy on making the business work and eliminating the distractions or obstacles to their goals. Their overarching strategies help them to reach the goals they have while they outline the plan to achieve the outcome. Moreover, entrepreneurs become successful as they are disciplined to always take new steps every day towards the accomplishment of their goals. While you need the nerve and patience to launch and run a new business, you also need to focus on nurturing these essential skills, which are integral to the growth of your business.