Learn about famous entrepreneurs who have disrupted markets and even entire industries, and how you can become the next great self-starter.

Frequently Asked Questions
  • What skills do you need to be an entrepreneur?

    Successful entrepreneurs often possess good communication skills, salesmanship, unwavering focus, the ability to learn, and strategic business thinking. Communication and salesmanship tend to go hand-in-hand, as entrepreneurs will have to sell both their ideas to investors and physical products to customers. Being able to stay on course, learn from failure, and implement a solid long-term strategy are obviously useful skills for growing a business.

  • How do I know if I am an entrepreneur?

    In addition to learned “hard” skills, those who have what it takes to be an entrepreneur tend to also possess personal “soft” skills that make them particularly suited to starting their own business. These character traits include (but aren’t limited to) being self-confident, frugal, detail-oriented, optimistic, flexible, thick-skinned, disciplined, and motivated to succeed. Entrepreneurs should also have a drive to create a business that adds value to the world, rather than only generating a profit.

  • Do entrepreneurs have a career?

    Unless you’re solely making new businesses for a living, entrepreneurship is not, in and of itself, a career. As such, entrepreneurs will need to have a career at least until their company is off the ground, unless you have sufficient savings to keep yourself afloat while waiting for your business venture to take off. Once the business is self-sustaining, if you do not return to your old profession and instead continue to manage the growth of your enterprise, then you could consider business management your new career.

  • Who are the top five most successful entrepreneurs?

     In terms of global impact, five of the most successful entrepreneurs are Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Larry Page. Carnegie and Ford are both founders of major industrial companies that are still active today (though the Carnegie Steel Company is now part of the United States Steel Corporation). Oprah is an incredibly influential media personality, while Gates and Page each started one of the biggest tech companies in the modern era.

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Page Sources
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  1. Bill of Rights Institute. "Andrew Carnegie and the Creation of U.S. Steel." https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/andrew-carnegie-and-the-creation-of-us-steel