Three Qualities of Entrepreneurs

By Zhang Lina

Not everyone can run a business. Some end up losing everything while others grow their pennies into millions. The distinction between those two types of business people isn’t necessarily education. Not all of them are college graduates.Their success is mostly the result of them possessing three key traits.

The first one is not leaving a task unfinished overnight. A business owner should always know every detail of the business,which includes progress, profit,and business development. This is a quality that every successful entrepreneur possesses. It’s hard to imagine a leader with a habit of procrastination could ever succeed.

I have a friend who started with renting a counter to sell buttons. He kept a record of every sale he made, even if it were for sales of several buttons or a transaction of one yuan.At the end of each day, he’d go through his books in comparison with his inventory and deposit the day’s profits into his bank account. In the beginning, I thought he was too serious about it as he’d never skipped a day to deposit money into the bank even if he’d only made ten yuan on that day or when it rained.

A few years later, he opened a flower shop and after that,a furniture mall. Now he has luxurious cars and houses, but he still keeps his daily accounts. To this day, he has kept the habit of going through his books at the end of each business day and saving away profits. I realized then that this quality of clearing away the day’s tasks was a shared merit of many successful businessmen.

The second quality is the ability to calculate. A business person should be able to calculate profits in a very short time. They should be sensitive to money and have a prey-like instinct to sense danger.This will enable them to smell loss and change their course immediately.

The third is earnestness. No matter in which industry you make a living, being professional and having a thorough understanding of it are the first few requirements you need to meet in order to succeed.

I know a pharmaceutical agent.He studied all the components of pharmaceuticals and their applications; he was never tired of reading the instructions wordby-word. After a while, he could easily give suggestions for which drug to prescribe just by hearing someone’s symptoms, as if he were an experienced doctor. He spent most of his time in his office to analyze his business, and he enjoyed it.

One time, he needed to print posters to promote his business. The first quote for the printing service was 3000 yuan.He went on to inquire after 14 more suppliers. At last, he was able to print them out for 2000 yuan. During the discussions with these 15 suppliers, he’d figured out the whole process of printing. For small businesses,saving every cent can make all the difference between loss and profit. His friends admire him for his earnestness and agree that he deserves money and success.

It doesn’t matter if you’re well educated or not. Possessing these three qualities, you’ve got rays of hope to guide you down the road.◆

(From Tough or Starve:A Biography of Laoganma’s Founder Tao Huabi, Sino-Culture Press. Translation: Zhang Lei)

不是任何人都能把生意做成。有的人賠得血本無歸，有的人卻從最小的做起，逐漸成為百萬級千萬級富翁。其中的分別不一定是文化的分野，做得好的人有很多并不是大學畢業，他們之所以成功，往往在于他們具有生意人的幾點特質：

第一，做事不過夜。對每一天的生意進度、利潤以及拓展業績，每一項都悉數把握。這一點是每一個成功的企業家都具備的。很難想象一個拖延癥嚴重的領導者會獲得成功。

筆者曾有一位朋友租了一截柜臺做紐扣等小生意。每賣出幾顆扣子，他都拿出賬簿記在上面，哪怕只有一元錢也不放過。每天下班前還要拿著賬簿細細對賬，然后把當天盈利的錢一分不差都存進附近的銀行。最初我覺得他過于認真，有時候一天的進項只有十幾元錢，他也去存銀行，風雨無阻，一天也沒拖延。

幾年后，他又開一家花店，開了一家家具城，有了豪車豪宅，他依然保持著每天記賬，下班前算賬目，然后當天盈余存銀行的良好習慣。此時我才猛然醒悟，他這種當日事當日畢的精神，的確是生意人必備的優良品質。

第二，計算的能力，即能夠在短時間內快速算出自己的利潤。生意人獨特的對金錢的敏感，讓他對臨近的危險有一種天生的敏銳度，這種計算能力讓他能夠馬上止損。

第三，鉆營的能力。俗話說，“干什么，吆喝什么”，你指著哪一行吃飯，就得把這一行研究透徹。曾有一個人做醫療代理，他很細心地研究藥物成分和用途，不厭其煩地看藥品說明書，后來只要有人說他得了什么病，此人就能很快報出藥名，堪稱一個經驗老到的醫生。他吃住都在辦公室，一天到晚就研究自己生意上的那點事，樂此不疲。有一年，他要印刷海報做宣傳，3000元價格的印刷費，他不厭其煩地找了15家印刷廠報價，最后將價格壓低到2000元印刷出來。在和這15家印刷廠談判時，他將印刷的每一個環節都研究透了。而做小生意時節約的每一分錢都是利潤。他身邊的人談到他時自嘆不如，覺得這錢就應該是讓人家賺的。

不管你有沒有文化，只要你具有生意人的這三大特征，希望的曙光就在你前面不遠處。◆