Are you cut out to be your own boss? Is running a business really right for you? How do you know? How can your find out without taking a bit financial, emotional and physical toll on you?

Every year I meet lots of people who are dreaming, thinking about or actually starting out as their own boss. Perhaps this is where you are right now. Perhaps you’re in a job you hate and wondering if you’ve got what it takes to make it on your own. Or perhaps you’re a bit further along been self employed or run your own business for a while and you’re wondering if it’s really right for you.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet lots of entrepreneurs and various professional  advisors and experts – including through my work as a partner to the British Library’s Business & IP Centre. So several times I’ve asked this accomplished entrepreneurs and seasoned experts if they can tell if someone really has what it takes to make a go of it and to survive and make something happen. More often they say that they can tell those who are really suited to it and more likely to make it succeed.

In this video I really wanted to explore the personal, personality and mindset aspects of success – perhaps even more so than the aspects that relate to your actual product and service. The aspects that relate to your product and service are of course really key. After all if you do not have a good, viable product or service that people like and actually want to buy then it’s not going to work.  At the same time most people who have set up on their own – be it self employed or business owner – will tell you that they’ve had to change lots of things along the way and lots of things did not work. Many very successful entrepreneurs will tell you that this continues to be the case.

If that is so then it means that the product/ service and all the production, promotion and so on can and do need to be developed along the way – and what is key is the right mindset and personal qualities in you the sole trader / business owner to stay the course and make it happen.

I want to also highlight something else that I feel is important and that I say very often. I want to – for a moment – make a distinction between ‘success’ which is highly subjective and is dependent on what you and others perceive it to be and ‘sustainability / staying power’ which, for the purpose of this article, is about that import blend of factors that mean the somehow you will make your venture – and your adventure to be your own boss – actually work for you and those that you serve.

So with that in mind I think there are 3 things I want to highlight. I’m really wrapping many differing qualities together to help give a useful insight.

Three key qualities

1) Clarity:

You need to know – or discover along the journey – who you are, what you are about, what you want to create, why you want to run this venture, what you are wanting to achieve, where you want to go, how you think you might get there. Clarity is  rightfully the first fundamental Chapter of Soul Trader. Think about clarity for a moment. It includes focus, awareness, alertness, vision, foresight, reflection. Qualities that you need to have, learn or develop.

2) Commitment:

It’s all very well have clarity but unless you are really committed you will not undertake the journey or you will give up when the road gets bumpy or when the going gets tough – or even middy uncomfortable. Commitment suggests drive, determination, dexterity, energy, self-responsibility, perseverance (which I just had to draw upon to spell the word) and a courage – and hopefully heart – that either comes from within or from one’s cause, purpose and mission.

3) Creativity: 

This word is often misunderstood or only attributed to performers, artists and so on. Actually creativity is far more broad than that. Creativity spans inspiration, intuition, imagination and instinct. It also spans  – and blends – ability, flexibility, dexterity (that word again), openness, playfulness, productivity, ingenuity and a range of qualities that help us seek ways of making things happen and allowing things to happen in their own way. It is a quality – open to all who are willing to open to it – that blends our own resources with our resourcefulness. At it’s best it occurs when we can harness not only our own gifts and power but that of others.

In the case of the Soul Trader these qualities, combine and intertwine and they are all used for the common good.  What I will say is that I feel that if you have read this then you have these qualities there – perhaps unawakened, unused or underplayed. I also feel that all you need to do is allow your heart – not your head – lead the way. If your heart truly leads the way then magic will happen. It may seem strange and your head may find this hard to accept. But perhaps it’s only this realisation that will free your thinking so that being, giving, serving and blossoming follows in your life and in your life’s work.

I wish you every success along your journey.

Rasheed Ogunlaru is a leading life / business coach and author of Soul Trader – Putting the Heart Back into Your Business.