Good entrepreneurs make money. Great entrepreneurs make serious money.
But remarkable entrepreneurs do more than make money. They are the few who possess qualities that don't appear on balance sheets but do make a significant impact on the lives of their employees, industries, and communities.
Here are nine qualities of remarkable entrepreneurs:
1. They find happiness in the success of others.
Great business teams win because their most talented members are willing to sacrifice to make others happy. Great teams are made up of employees who help each other, know their roles, set aside personal goals, and value team success over everything else.
Where does that attitude come from?
You.
Every great entrepreneur answers the question, "Can you make the choice that your happiness will come from the success of others?" with a resounding "Yes!"
2. They relentlessly seek new experiences.
Novelty seeking—getting bored easily and throwing yourself into new pursuits or activities - is often linked to gambling, drug abuse, attention deficit disorder, and leaping out of perfectly good airplanes without a parachute.
But, according to Dr. Robert Cloninger, "Novelty seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age... if you combine adventurousness and curiosity with persistence and a sense that it's not all about you, then you get the creativity that benefits society as a whole."
As Cloninger says, "To succeed, you want to be able to regulate your impulses while also having the imagination to see what the future would be like if you tried something new."
Sounds like every successful entrepreneur I know.
So go ahead - embrace your inner novelty seeker. You'll be healthier, you'll have more friends, and you'll be generally more satisfied with life.
3. They don't think work/life balance; they just think life.
Symbolic work-life boundaries are almost impossible to maintain. Why? You are your business. Your business is your life, just like your life is your business - which is also true for family, friends, and interests—so there is no separation, because all those things make you who you are.
Remarkable entrepreneurs find ways to include family instead of ways to exclude work. They find ways to include interests, hobbies, passions, and personal values in their daily business lives.
If you can't, you're not living—you're just working.
4. They're incredibly empathetic.
Unless you create something entirely new—which is very hard to do—your business is based on fulfilling an existing need or solving a problem.
It's impossible to identify a need or a problem without the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes; that's the mark of a successful entrepreneur.
But remarkable entrepreneurs go a step farther, regularly putting themselves in the shoes of their employees.
Success isn't a line trending upwards. Success is a circle. No matter how high your business—and your ego—soars, success still comes back to your employees.
5. They have something to prove - to themselves.
Many people have a burning desire to prove other people wrong. That's a great motivator.
Remarkable entrepreneurs are driven by something deeper and more personal. True drive, commitment, and dedication springs from a desire to prove something to the most important person of all.
You.
6. They ignore the 40-hour workweek hype.
Studies show that working more than 40 hours a week decreases productivity.
Whatever.
Successful business owners work smarter, sure, but they also outwork their competition. (Every successful business owner I know who reads those stories probably thinks, "Cool. Hopefully my competitors will believe that crap.")
The author Richard North Patterson tells a great story about Robert Kennedy. Kennedy was seeking to indict Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa (who some believe is chilling in Argentina with Elvis and Jim Morrison). One night Kennedy worked on the Hoffa case until about 2 a.m. One his way home he passed the Teamsters building and saw the lights were still on in Hoffa's office, so he turned around and went back to work.
There will always be people who are smarter and more talented than you. Remarkable entrepreneurs want it more. They're ruthless—especially with themselves.
Remarkable entrepreneurs simply work harder. That's the real secret of their success.
7. They see money as a responsibility, not a reward.
Many entrepreneurial cautionary tales involve buying 17 cars, loading up on pricey antiques, importing Christmas trees, and spending $40,000 a year for a personal masseuse.
Wait—maybe that's just ex-Adelphia founder John Rigas.
Remarkable entrepreneurs don't see money solely as a personal reward; they see money as a way to grow the business, reward and develop employees, give back to the community... in short, not just to make their own lives better but to improve the lives of other people too.
And most importantly they do so without fanfare, because the true reward is always in the act, not the recognition.
8. They don't think they're remarkable.
In a world of social media everyone can be their own PR agent. It's incredibly easy for anyone to blow their own horn and bask in the glow of their insight and accomplishments.
Remarkable entrepreneurs don't. They accept their success is based on ambition, persistence, and execution... but they also recognize that key mentors, remarkable employees, and a huge dose of luck also played a part.
Remarkable entrepreneurs reap the rewards of humility, asking questions, seeking advice, recognizing and praising others...
9. They know that success is fleeting, but dignity and respect last forever.
Providing employees with higher pay, better benefits, and greater opportunities is certainly important. But no level of pay and benefits can overcome damage to self-esteem and self-worth.
The most important thing remarkable entrepreneurs provide employees, customers, vendors - everyone they meet - is dignity.