Entrepreneurs have many of the same character traits as leaders. Similarly to the early great man theories of leadership; however trait-based theories of entrepreneurship are increasingly being called into question. Entrepreneurs are often contrasted with managers and administrators who are said to be more methodical and less prone to risk-taking. Such person-centric models of entrepreneurship have shown to be of questionable validity, not least as many real-life entrepreneurs operate in teams rather than as single individuals. Still, a vast but now clearly dated literature studying the entrepreneurial personality found that certain traits seem to be associated with entrepreneurs:

1. David McClelland (1961) described the entrepreneur as primarily motivated by an overwhelming need for achievement and strong urge to build.
2. Collins and Moore (1970) studied 150 entrepreneurs and concluded that they are tough, pragmatic people driven by needs of independence and achievement. They seldom are willing to submit to authority.
3. Bird (1992) sees entrepreneurs as mercurial, that is, prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions, ingeniousness and resourcefulness. they are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental.
4. Cooper, Woo, & Dunkelberg (1988) argue that entrepreneurs exhibit extreme optimism in their decision-making processes. In a study of 2994 entrepreneurs they report that 81% indicate their personal odds of success as greater than 70% and a remarkable 33% seeing odds of success of 10 out of 10.
5. Busenitz and Barney (1997) claim entrepreneurs are prone to overconfidence and over generalisations.
6. Cole (1959) found there are four types of entrepreneur: the innovator, the calculating inventor, the over-optimistic promoter, and the organization builder. These types are not related to the personality but to the type of opportunity the entrepreneur faces

Characteristics of entrepreneurship

1. The entrepreneur has an enthusiastic vision, the driving force of an enterprise.
2. The entrepreneur's vision is usually supported by an interlocked collection of specific ideas not available to the marketplace.
3. The overall blueprint to realize the vision is clear, however details may be incomplete, flexible, and evolving.
4. The entrepreneur promotes the vision with enthusiastic passion.
5. With persistence and determination, the entrepreneur develops strategies to change the vision into reality.
6. The entrepreneur takes the initial responsibility to cause a vision to become a success.
7. Risks;Entrepreneurs take prudent risks. They assess costs, market/customer needs and persuade others to join and help.
8. An entrepreneur is usually a positive thinker and a decision maker.

Advantages of Entrepreneurship

Every successful entrepreneur brings about benefits not only for himself/ herself but for the municipality, region or country as a whole. The benefits that can be derived from entrepreneurial activities are as follows:

1. Enormous personal financial gain
2. Self-employment, offering more job satisfaction and flexibility of the work force
3. Employment for others, often in better jobs
4. Development of more industries, especially in rural areas or regions disadvantaged by economic changes, for example due to globalisation effects
5. Encouragement of the processing of local materials into finished goods for domestic consumption as well as for export
6. Income generation and increased economic growth
7. Healthy competition thus encourages higher quality products
8. More goods and services available
9. Development of new markets
10. Promotion of the use of modern technology in small-scale manufacturing to enhance higher productivity
11. Encouragement of more researches/ studies and development of modern machines and equipment for domestic consumption
12. Development of entrepreneurial qualities and attitudes among potential entrepreneurs to bring about significancant changes in the rural areas
13. Freedom from the dependency on the jobs offered by others
14. The ability to have great accomplishments
15. Reduction of the informal economy
16. Emigration of talent may be stopped by a better domestic entrepreneurship climate

Source: Wikipedia