We live in the age of crowdfunding, digital communication, and free resources. Despite all these, only a few entrepreneurs then get up and run without sufficient capitalization from outside sources. And for acquiring investment, one needs to impress upon experienced investors to become convinced of the business idea that it is worthwhile to invest money and time.

Investment and money remain the hard bedrock of any business that is necessary for growth. However, there exist other factors that are as crucial as capital. These factors come in the form of personality traits. Investors often believe that entrepreneurs devoid of the right personality traits can destroy a business, irrespective of a business idea’s greatness. Similarly, an entrepreneur with the right attitude and personality can boost life even into a dead idea.

For being an entrepreneur, one needs big ideas. A genuinely entrepreneurial personality is the unique combination of particular attributes and talents enabling him to chase his dreams surpassing all the odds. But does one know what those qualities are? What one requires to become truly entrepreneurial in his endeavors? Do you wonder if any “how to” manual to success can make or break a great business? Indeed, there are many, but the overwhelming wisdom says there are no “one shoe fits all” formula of success. However, there exist certain personality traits common to all successful people and not just entrepreneurs. Some people are born with those traits, while other successful people cultivate those traits. Herein, I am presenting some of the deep-down personality characteristics that investors look for before working with entrepreneurs. Either you are born with it, or you must develop those.

Highly Ambitions For Success

Investors look for those entrepreneurs that are highly ambitious and always success hungry. As investors are always searching for more and better avenues of making money, they go along well with those equally hungry for success.

People hungry for success have more chances to build milestones and goals for themselves and remain more resolute while they face hurdles. Because they are focused on their organization’s future, it enables them to make wiser business decisions. For ambitious people, the company’s long-term future takes precedence over the organization’s daily operations. If you want an investor to be interested in you and your start-up, you have to become hungry for success.

If you are not like that, then obviously, it will take time to mold your personality. I believe nobody would want to pretend what they are not. However, by working on your character with due consideration, you can start learning how to put the best foot forward. You must be able to demonstrate the personality traits that can convince investors to trust you. While conversing with a potential investor, you should not be scared to accept this.

Good Listening Skills

Investors often say things that are crucial for your business future, enabling you to make sound decisions. Hence it is always a great idea to cultivate a habit of listening. Please pay attention to what others are saying, be it your investor, customer, or employee. And, listening is not only done through ears but eyes as well. Even body language can convey a lot of things, sometimes even more than what is being spoken. Pay attention to what investors are sharing with intonation, gesture, and posture. Sometimes, the most powerful messages are conveyed through signals and tone.

It will help if you avoid all distractions by not doing multiple things at the same time. By multitasking, neither can you concentrate on the task at hand, nor can you understand the nuance of an argument. Many a time, people start looking at their phones to reply to emails or messages. It is not only impolite but also distracts you from the conversations happening around you. Ultimately it will prolong your conversations, wasting your precious time resources. Dale W Wood, the founder and CEO of Dubai-based Dale Ventures, once said, “It is oxymoronic to use the term ‘effective multitasking’. Humans are not wired to multitask. The best one can do is to implement effective timesharing and working in blocks.”

Highest Level Of Integrity

The general definition of integrity is to behave in an honorable way, irrespective of somebody watching or not. People with high integrity have some ethical and moral codes for leading their businesses in particular and lives in general. It permeates all aspects of their personality, be it joint working or business decision making. Investors too like to work with people with high integrity and ethics. For gauging the level of ethical behavior in you, investors will assess your personality and not your product or your business idea.

You may be operating in any of the industrial spectrums, your character, as understood by investors, is of paramount importance for the long-term success and development of business.

So, an investor must keep in check his tendency of finding shortcuts or other human weaknesses that impede the growth of character and ethics. Behaving in a dishonorable manner might give you a short-term boost, but it is the character that pays off in the long-run.

If you neglect the governance mechanism of your start-up, investors too will start parting. Prioritizing the building of effective and transparent governance and reporting mechanisms would ultimately solidify your relationships with the investors. Productivity, revenue, and profits are generally seen as the only vital indicators that attract investors. But without transparency of operations and integrity in your dealings, a business cannot live long.

Resilience To Failure

Being in the start-up space, an entrepreneur must jump from one failure to another without losing passion. It may sound too gloomy, but the reality is that one will lose many small battles for winning the ultimate war. Repetitive failure is not the thing an ordinary person can handle, but an entrepreneur must have uncanny resilience to failures to get up and move forward. Without giving up, you must derive meaningful lessons from your failures, such as what went wrong, what could be the way ahead, how not to repeat the earlier mistakes, and how to make a positive dent. These are the positive reflections an entrepreneur must think upon when times become too hard.

A successful entrepreneur has to cultivate this habit of being resilient and offloading the negative psychological impacts of failure. There is no shortage of examples of successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Elon Musk, who had terribly failed in their journeys repeatedly and still bounced back every time. An investor definitely likes to work with an entrepreneur who has tasted many failures but still is passionate and optimistic towards his dream.

Winding Up

If an entrepreneur is passionate about building something that would expand the target market, he must refine these traits within him. Let the best come out. Be passionate without losing the necessary humility and commonsense. I do not claim that the list is comprehensive, but I must say that these are the primary considerations based on which investors assess entrepreneurs.