In the ever-evolving landscape of entrepreneurship, success is a sought-after treasure. It’s a treasure that everyone is trying to achieve. A treasure is so valuable that everyone gives their entire life to earn it. Entrepreneurship is one of the ways that people try to gain success, and let me tell you, entrepreneurship is not an easy path to take. The path to entrepreneurial triumph is riddled with challenges, risks, and uncertainties. 

While traveling through this entrepreneurial path, if guidance is provided by those who have mastered entrepreneurship, then it becomes a little bit easier to face the challenges. You, as an entrepreneur, would feel confident knowing those “Top secrets” that many successful entrepreneurs used to achieve success. 

According to Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, a startup founder requires many skills, but what tops the list is resilience, which is a common trait that he has observed as a common factor among thousands of successful founders over the course of decades. 

In this article, we are going to delve into the depths of this essential skill and explore how it can be harnessed to ensure entrepreneurial triumph. 

The Skill that spells success

Entrepreneurs are the architects of innovation and the catalysts for change. They navigate uncharted waters, steering their ventures through the storms of uncertainty. In a dynamic landscape, the ability to adapt emerges as the quintessential skill that separates the triumphant from the stagnant. 

Adaptability is the art of not just surviving but also thriving in a world of constant flux. It involves the capacity to pivot, reinvent, and evolve in response to changing circumstances. 

Speaking at an event hosted by the Abu Dhabi-based Hub71 earlier this week, Sam Altman, the founder, and CEO of OpenAI, the company that created the artificial intelligence AI-powered large language model chatbot ChatGPT, said that he spent a lot of time trying to observe the abilities that make entrepreneurs stand out during his time as the President of Y Combinator. 

According to him, there are a lot of ideas and skills that are preached all over the internet that guarantee the skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, but the things that he observed that are less obvious is that to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be resilient. 

Resilience refers to both the process and the outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, and it’s about having the emotional, mental, and behavioral flexibility and ability to adjust to internal and external circumstances. 

According to Altman, most people give up during a crisis, and having the ability to bounce back during critical situations is responsible for becoming a great entrepreneur. 

According to him, the whole experience of the beginning of a startup is quite miserable, as it has moments of fun, but when anything goes wrong, you kind of can’t get anything to work, and it takes a long time to get things right, and most people give up due to this reason. 

Sam Altman started to learn to code at the age of eight and studied computer science at Standford University for two years before he decided to drop out to work on building a mobile app with a few of his classmates. Since then, he still believes that resilience helped him start as an entrepreneur. 

According to him, resilience can be thought of and cultivated among people over time. The ultimate combination of self-belief, adaptability, and resilience are the building blocks of being a great entrepreneur. 

Another major factor in the success of entrepreneurs is having good communication skills. Having superior communication skills is also a major factor in an entrepreneur’s success, particularly because having good communication skills allows you to share any groundbreaking ideas with others and thus helps you get noticed. 

Sam Altman went on and shared with everyone the reasons why it is important to be a good communicator. When he and other minds started OpenAI, most people thought that they were crazy and probably running a scam, and preaching about what AI can do. He went on to say that being a good communicator helped him make people understand the power of OpenAI and what it could unleash upon our world. 

Gathering the energy together and being able to make people believe in your idea requires a lot of good communication skills. 

Another essential skill that Sam Altman thinks founders need to have is a very long-term orientation. 

He said that most people think in a straight line and ask themselves simple questions such as “What can I get done in a few years”. He said that instead of asking, if they are willing to say, “What can I get done in a few decades, even if I have to be totally misunderstood for the next few years?”, that is a very powerful skill that everyone needs to have. 

Sam went on and said that “Time” is the one resource that he takes very seriously. The ability to get a lot of stuff done in a day is a very teachable skill that many don’t have. Time is the ultimate commodity that decides the success or failure of a project. 

What it takes to be an entrepreneur 

In the world of entrepreneurship, adaptability stands as the bedrock of success. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s assertion that adaptability is an essential skill for entrepreneurs is a guiding light for those navigating the complex terrain of business. To thrive and prosper in an ever-changing world, entrepreneurs must cultivate their adaptability, embrace change, and continue to learn and innovate. 

Along with adaptability, Sam also stressed the importance of healthy resilience as an entrepreneur and the power of good communication skills. Having good communication skills can help anyone share their ideas and be one step ahead of everyone else.To read more inspirational stories, check out Europe Entrepreneur, Business Magnate, APAC Entrepreneur.