Recently, courtesy house repairwork gone amok, I had occasion to spend time with Felix Ejeckam, a friend from my grad school days. Felix was recently voted Innovator of the Year by Black Enterprise magazine for his work with Group4Labs. His field, semiconductors and such, is somewhat different from mine. Yet, as long as I’ve known him, Felix has always been fiercely entrepreneurial and anyway, if you move up enough, it’s all hi-tech. I value his insights and, during my stay, I asked him about his thoughts on what qualities separated good entrepreneurs from bad. I was a little surprised to see determination, a topic recently in vogue courtesy the Paul Graham essay, not make the list, so I thought I’d share. Here goes:

1. Unwavering self confidence in one’s own abilities. I liked how Felix phrased this – would you enter a situation where your life depended on your work? Do you have that much trust in yourself?
2. Zoom in, zoom out – the best entrepreneurs have the ability to see the forest for the trees. However, they can also quickly become close and personal with a specific problem if necessary. While running small startups, you don’t have the luxury of sticking exclusively to either big picture or small picture.
3. Neuroses free zone – there’s no question startups are physically demanding. However, mentally, they can be even more grueling. There’s no question it takes a certain level of obsession, recklessness and risktaking several levels beyond the norm to launch a career of this sort. However, self doubt, insecurities and all of that can easily be exacerbated in the day to day grind, sometimes with tragic results. Keeping mentally healthy is important. This is not to say there aren’t crazy chair throwing CEOs out there, just that you probably won’t have that luxury!