What does it take to be the truly visionary kind of entrepreneur who has an idea that really shifts paradigms and changes the world for the better? The answer is dependent upon who you ask. But here are a few things that most people will agree are fairly important ... Fearless There is always an element of risk involved when launching a new idea. Even if that idea does not require financial risk, yourrrre still putting yourself the line plus there is still an opportunity that your idea won't sell or that it'll be laughed from the room. You need a thick skin therefore you need to be able to fail. Resilient More important versus the willingness to fail even, could be the willingness to have back up again if you do. Because they keep on trying that they eventually get their win, almost every successful entrepreneur will fail multiple times before they eventually succeed but it's. Once, you only need to succeed. Inventive Of course, it's obvious that a business owner needs to be inventive. They must be able to come and spot opportunities up with new ideas that others miss. This is something that you will probably be born with (or otherwise) to some degree, but you will discover certainly actions you can take to encourage yourself to have more creative with your thinking. Old Okay, you don't have to be old to be a successful trait. I wanted to include this just to make a point-- which is that you don't need to be 'hip and young' to have a successful startup. Most successful businesses are started by people in their 40s or older. So, don't count yourself out of the race just because you're not in your twenties! Team Players Another myth could be that the entrepreneur is not a team player-- how they act solo. In reality, entrepreneurs usually surround themselves with strong teams and credit this with many of their success. Passionate Perhaps the most important trait of all is that an entrepreneur be passionate. You won't be able to win over other people and get them excited for it. How Elon Musk Made People Take Him Seriously Big, world-changing ideas do not come along often. People like the status quo in fact and when you come along and try to change that, you will always meet resistance. And people-- as a whole-- are also unfortunately lacking in ambition often. The most common reaction you'll get is disbelief if you tell someone that you're going to be a rock star or an astronaut. This is a shame though: someone has to make it after all! With all that in mind though, how can you go about convincing people to put their faith (and cash) behind your idea? If you want to do something big, how do you get others on board? The Power of Credibility Musk is taken seriously by everyone now but at the time, he was completely unknown. And he was disenfranchised with the attempts made by NASA and others at that time. He thus came up with an idea of a prize to motivate companies into creating the technology necessary to make his vision a reality. The only problem? He didn't have the money and no one believed that he could offer it! His solution ended up being to make his initial presentation alongside enthusiastic engineers and astronauts. He found those who were as obsessed with his idea as they was through doing this, he lent his entire concept credibility. When he appeared alongside such luminaries, people would have laughed him off the stage but not. How to Get Credibility for Your Big Idea The next time you have a big idea for a business, think about how you can get others to buy into it and who it would take to convince them. And this is actually the advantage of having a 'big idea'-- it will automatically be more exciting than a small idea and so you'll find there will be people out there who want to become ambassadors for it.