Entrepreneurship has many benefits in comparison to being an employee. Still, the “American Dream” can quickly become a nightmare if you are not the right person for it. What does this mean? Well, first of all, every entrepreneur has to have some specific personal characteristics to make his business a success. On the other hand, there are those personal characteristics that are extremely bad for any kind of entrepreneurial adventure.

Here, we are going to present to you some of the worst (but still common) personal characteristics which an entrepreneur can have.

Maybe you are a great employee and you always get bonuses for your work, your boss loves you, etc., but somehow you only know what to do when you’re given instructions. This is a bad thing for a personal business because even though being a great employee, you will be a horrible entrepreneur.

If you notice how you always complain when there is a lack of direction, you should realize that you will be lost in your own business and you will probably do nothing with it.

Generally, you can’t run a business when you are waiting for directions. No one is there to give you directions but yourself. No one will be there to suggest your next steps; even if you join those communities that share their entrepreneurial experiences, their stories are not identical to yours, so you should do things your own way. Do you know what your way of doing things is?

There is no term as ‘perfect’ in business. The real enemy of a progress is perfection. Perfectionists are unable to delegate effectively, and that is why they try to do everything on their own but fail. They think that no other person is as good as themselves. Therefore, they are left bewildered when they see their own failure. They think: ”I gave my best, then why did I fail?” Until someone teaches them how to delegate some assignments, they will not move from the spot.

Also, perfectionists have difficulties in getting products and services to the market because instead of pursuing a product/service good enough to please the customer, they want everything to be perfect and thus get nothing. They also fear failure, which is a paralyzing thing. Don’t be a perfectionist if you want to succeed.

Every business requires some occasional investments and personal growth. If you are hard on letting go off of your money in exchange for something that doesn’t necessarily pay off, then you shouldn’t be starting it in the first place.

“You have to work on the business first before it works for you.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

People’s relationship with money tells us a lot about whether they will be good self-employed businesspeople or not.

On the other hand, being a squanderer will not help you. All of your moves with money have to be predefined and double-checked. If you don’t realize the difference between “spending” and “investing,” apart from killing your own business, you will end up being poor.

If you are more inclined to fantasizing about your business than actually running it, then you could be one of those many entrepreneurs who find themselves working longer hours for the same or even for less pay. Not to mention the amount of stress related to it  — there will be more stress than ever before.

Do you want to start your private business only because you have been dreaming about it and have never actually had any idea of how the business should look like or how it should be run? Do you even care about it or just like the idea of being your own boss? If this is so, then all your work will be a waste of time since you will never succeed with such an attitude. 

You may become your own boss, but basically the needs of others—your customers and your employees—are going to be more important than your own needs. Therefore, there is nothing cool in being your own boss if you’re only in it because it sounds cool.

Although starting a business can be a fun and exciting adventure, running it will only be a nightmare if you possess these characteristics. Therefore, try to change.