Do You Have the Entrepreneurial 'X Factor?'

There's a mysterious "X factor" shared by entrepreneurs around the world. Fledgling entrepreneurs reach for it, while the successful seem to wear it effortlessly. But what is this elusive entrepreneurial element? Is it a learned skill, or is it genetic? Can entrepreneurship be taught, or is it something that's just in your blood?

The truth is that while many skills shared by great entrepreneurs can be learned, two elements are traits that entrepreneurs are born with.

The traits entrepreneurs possess

In my experience, the entrepreneurial "X factor" comes down to a dichotomy of two innate traits. The first being creativity, which is the ability to discover and develop viable new business ideas. The second is intuition, or the gift of knowing who will benefit from a new idea and how to sell them the idea.

These two elements work in tandem: They lend the uncanny ability to see around corners and create true vision. If you don't have these two elements, you will most likely not succeed as an entrepreneur. That doesn't mean you can't run a successful business, but it will not be a truly entrepreneurial venture.

And even if you did win the genetic lottery, for this powerful duo to be used to their full potential, they must be harnessed with four other learned skills.

1. People skills. Understanding how to build and inspire a team could be an entire concentration of study within academia. The art of getting people to do what you want them to do requires a lot of practice and many failed attempts before getting it right.

2. Ability to focus resources. Often, entrepreneurial ventures suffer from organizational ADD. Symptoms include the inability to focus on critical details necessary for project completion and the pursuit of rabbit trails. A successful entrepreneur must learn the logic behind building a business and realize when they're over-innovating to the point of wasting resources.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230873