Wharton professor discusses what it takes for entrepreneurs to succeed

Being your own boss sounds dreamy, but it takes a certain moxie to launch a successful business.

Lori Rosenkopf, vice dean of entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, leans into the touchstones in her new book, “Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation.”

I asked Rosenkopf to walk me through some of the facets she finds critical to starting and building a business venture.

Below are excerpts of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Kerry Hannon: It’s not just 20-somethings launching startups these days. Lots of folks who have lost jobs or taken an early retirement are eyeing the allure of being their own boss. What does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur?

Lori Rosenkopf: An entrepreneur is anybody who is creating value by innovating. It’s a broad definition and allows all of us to see that we're already doing things that are innovative and are creating value. It might not be of financial value. It might be social value or emotional value, but all of us are doing things in new ways.

Whether it's new ideas for products, services, processes, business models, a little tweak in our home routine — these all allow us to see we have the capacity to be entrepreneurial.

Obviously the founder who disrupts an industry is quite celebrated as the stereotype of an entrepreneur. But some entrepreneurs acquire small companies and build them up. Some are "intrapreneurs," who are doing entrepreneurial things within the organization that employs them.

What’s the most important mindset quality for an entrepreneur?

Resilience. When you’re doing something new, you're going to get hard feedback, negative feedback that you need to respond to. There are going to be all sorts of challenges. So it’s the ability to take all of these and be able to adapt and find a new way to solve the problem that can make the difference in whether you succeed or not.

There are other qualities such as reason, knowing your motivation — or ‘why’—­ behind the founding of a business. Another one is your ability to build relationships with ­those who provide guidance, support, financial backing, and introductions to key ­people and markets.

You write that some people are really passionate about the idea of building a business, not necessarily the product itself or the service itself. Can you explain?

Many entrepreneurs are looking for ways to solve a big problem. But about half of the people say, "I just want to be an entrepreneur." These are the ones who, as kids, got in trouble for reselling their Halloween candy. These are the ones who were the best paper boy or girl on their route. They're the people who look to find the space in which they're going to have an opportunity to make it happen. Both of those approaches work and that's what gives all of us so much room to do something entrepreneurial.